/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>20332838
cont.
Western fans often make the mistake of calling Eiki "the Yama" or "Yama" as if she's the only yama when, in fact, she isn't. No one calls her "Yama" or "the Yama" in the Japanese fandom and ZUN himself never refers to Eiki this way, they always use her name or "[a] yama". As mentioned before, Eiki is not Enma and lots of fans, Western and Japanese, mistakenly refer to her as so. First we must understand the Ten Kings of Hell to progress this discussion. Each of the Ten Kings of Hell has true form as an epithet of a bodhisattva (bosatsu), wisdom king (myo-o), or buddha (nyorai/butsu). The kings and their true forms are as follows:
Shinko-o: Fudo Myo-o
Shoko-o: Shaka Nyorai
Sotei-o: Monju Bosatsu
Gokan-o: Fugen Bosatsu
Enma-o: Jizo Bosatsu
Henjyo-o: Miroku Bosatsu
Taizan-o: Yakushi Nyorai
Byodo-o: Kannon Bosatsu
Toshi-o: Seishi Bosatsu
Gototenrin-o: Amida Nyorai
Enma, being the 5th king of hell, is supposed to secretly be Jizo Bosatsu, but in Touhou Eiki is revealed to have been a simple Jizo statue, not Jizo himself, reborn as a yama. This is said to be true for MOST yama according to PMiSS (by the way, besides the Ten Kings, there are hundreds or even thousands of other yama who work in the myriads of hells that exist). PMiSS uses "most" because it's obvious that the Ten Kings of Hell are not Jizo statues, but bodhisattvas, wisdom kings, and buddhas in their own right. Eiki's own article in PMiSS which comes right after the article on yama does not name her as one of the Ten Kings of Hell at all. Thus, contrary to popular belief, Eiki is not Enma at all, but just Gensokyo's yama who was born from a regular Jizo statue. Moving on, Eiki, as a yama, is part of an organization called the Ministry of Right and Wrong (是非曲直庁). This organization formed in hell as a way to properly account for and judge every human soul who didn't immediately enter heaven upon their body dying. According to PMiSS, the organization is headed by ten yama (obviously, the Ten Kings of Hell). Below these ten yama are the numerous other lesser yama who control shinigami to reap human souls and kishin (鬼神) who control oni to torture human souls. Eiki is part of that lower class of yama. With the introduction of Hecatia, it's revealed that there are even higher powers than even the Ten Kings of Hell in the organization. Hecatia is a goddess of hell and is one of the ringleaders of the organization. This makes her above Eiki in terms of influence and power, which should answer your original question. The other leaders at the top of the organization seem to be elite kishin with power that rivals Hecatia's power. She opposes their direction for the organization but, ultimately, chose not to fight with them. She's distant from the organization now it seems but she still holds her status. She herself says that no one in hell dare challenges her because she's simply the strongest. The inhabitants of hell, as Hecatia describes them, are anarchical and power hungry. Power is status in hell and she describes hell's society as a power-based meritocracy. She also talks about powerful evil beings in hell who have the intent to destroy Gensokyo and the universe, but she worries little about them because she knows they would never pursue such goals for fear that they would be confronted by her. Basically, Hecatia is super OP and is basically the strongest character that ZUN has introduced in Touhou and she will probably remain so unless he literally puts in God or something ridiculous like that. By the way, kishin (鬼神) are a type of wrathful Japanese Buddhist god. The ones at the top of the organization are most likely these gods but the ones who order the oni to torture souls below the Ten Kings are probably just super strong oni as kishin is made up of the characters for oni (鬼) and god (神).