Yuuka Kazami (風見 幽香, Kazami Yūka), or Yuka Kazami,¹⁾ is a rather mature youkai in Touhou Project who can manipulate flowers, but she prefers to show off her raw youkai strength. In the old works, she was only defined as a really strong youkai and that was just her character.

In the old works, she's the mistress of “Mugenkan” (夢幻館, lit. “Fantasy Mansion”). In the current works, she hangs around the “Garden of the Sun” (太陽の畑, Taiyō no Hata) and occasionally visits the Hakurei Shrine. Also, she didn't have a surname until Phantasmagoria of Flower View.

In the fifth stage of Lotus Land Story, she wore a light pink nightcap and negligee, and she carried a big pink pocket watch with roman numerals that suggests she was woken up at 3:00am. In the final stage of Lotus Land Story, she becomes serious, wearing her regular plaid outfit over a white shirt and carrying an umbrella. In both stages, she consistently has green eyes and long green hair which covers her right eye.

Her serious final stage outfit of Lotus Land Story carries over to Mystic Square, except she has short sleeves on her white shirt, her right eye is visible, and she has a baton in bombs. For her cameo in Kioh Gyoku, she keeps her short-sleeved plaid outfit, but her eyes are now red instead of green and she wears red loose work pants instead of plaid pants. She also has green and purple wings in bombs for some reason.

For her Phantasmagoria of Flower View appearance, Yuuka has short green hair and retains her usual plaid outfit with long sleeves, carrying a white umbrella. She kept her red eyes from her Kioh Gyoku appearance, but now wears a plaid skirt with buttons and a flower. This design hasn't changed much since then. However, it seems like she doesn't carry her umbrella indoors and her sleeve length is occasionally shortened.

In Mystic Square, she's described as 'possibly the strongest' or 'one of the strongest', but it's unclear if this carried over to the current works. Akyuu mentions that she uses overwhelming physical attacks and notes that she presents herself as a strong youkai in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense. In Strange Creators of Outer World, it's believed that she boasts considerable strength among the youkai due to experience.

For her ability, she can manipulate flowers, meaning she can make flowers bloom, revive wilted flowers, and turn sunflowers to face the sun. Of course, this doesn't compare to her physical strength. Yuuka mentions that her umbrella gathers the faint scent of flowers, while Akyuu believes it blocks rain, scatters flower petals for her attacks, and heard Rinnosuke mention it can cut ultraviolet rays.

It looks like she has some magic power since Marisa mentioned feeling a 'crazy amount of magic power' from the Lotus Land Story prologue. She also seemed interested in magic in her Mystic Square endings, making herself invisible to learn more from Marisa and Alice. Once again, it's not clear if it carried over to the current works, though it may have been reworded to 'physical and magical strength' or 'youkai power'.

The spell card system didn't exist until Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil and she's only in Phantasmagoria of Flower View, which means that she only has two spell cards of note from the dual-screen game.

“I'm the master of this mansion, Yuuka. Nice to meet you. ♥”
– Yuuka

In Lotus Land Story, she is the fifth and sixth/final stage boss since Yuuka was responsible for sending a ton of 'evil spirits' (悪霊, akuryō) to the Hakurei Shrine with a peculiar amount of magical power.

As Reimu, Yuuka wakes up to Reimu announcing that she intends to stop her. They fight and Yuuka decides to retreat. If Yuuka calls Reimu weak, they will be given a bad ending where Reimu's shrine is destroyed or gets surrounded by an overgrown garden. If Reimu chases her into the final stage, Yuuka is amused that she got this far and says that she'll fight them seriously this time.

As Marisa, Yuuka wakes up to Marisa announcing that she intends to take her magical power. They fight and Yuuka decides to retreats. If Yuuka calls Marisa weak, they'll be given a bad ending where she confronts an angry Reimu and decides to train more. If Marisa chases her into the final stage, Yuuka jokes around with her like they haven't met before and says that she'll fight them seriously this time.

In all of Reimu's good endings, she barely gets mentioned. However, she gets talked more about in Marisa's good endings. In the 'Marisa A' ending, she calls her weird and weak but there was a lot more to her, and Reimu mentions that Yuuka actually likes to fight. In the 'Marisa B' ending, she questions her true motive, but it's revealed that she secretly had too much spare time on her hands.

“Even if you are a god, power is everything!”
– Yuuka

In Mystic Square, the story is that Gensokyo has been recently invaded by a flow of demons from Makai, but Yuuka decides to get involved with the story since she “always wanted to go to Makai.”

Yuuka starts off by saying Sara smells weak and instantly killable, then provokes Louise by acting like she's an alien. Alice complains that she has caused a commotion, though Yuuka says she just wants to play. She finds Mai and Yuki next. Afterwards, Yuuka finds Shinki who asks why she's here, but Yuuka provokes Shinki by belittling Makai's strength, but Yumeko jumps in for her.

At the final stage, Shinki is surprised that she beat Yumeko. Shinki properly introduces herself as the God of Makai, then they start fighting about who's stronger. The player can get a bad ending where Shinki outright insults her and Yuuka assumes the player was tired, or a good ending where Shinki admits Yuuka is stronger and Yuuka plays with a wand, making herself invisible to stalk Marisa to find out more about magic.

For the extra stage, Yuuka runs into Alice who was looking for her. Alice claims that she learned many spells since then and wishes to defeat her with the 'ultimate magic'. If the player is successful, they get Yuuka's extra ending where Yuuka starts stalking Alice while invisible with the intend to steal her magic, but she finds out that Alice doesn't use the 'ultimate magic' that much.

“What beautiful weather. Perfect for napping.”
– Yuuka

In Seihou Project, she is a hidden playable character and opponent in Kioh Gyoku. However, there is barely any story or notable interactions to speak of. For Yuuka's win quotes, she has five lines in total. The only notable lines talk about how youkai always appear after a round of ghost stories or how youkai rule the night, and saying chemistry without magic is foolish.

When Yuuka is beaten, they don't say much since most of them ask who she is. VIVIT mistakes her for Reimu from when she wandered into Gensokyo in Shuusou Gyoku. Milia calls her foreign, Gates was interested in her fighting style and wanted her data since he mistook her for a robot, Erich questions if she is related to the war, Morgan is shocked that she wasn't in her data, and Muse felt a different divinity in her.

In Phantasmagoria of Flower View, Yuuka is the penultimate boss in Cirno, Mystia, and Lyrica's story mode and the third-to-last boss in Medicine and Komachi's story mode. It should be noted that she is a playable character who has her own story mode, but you need to view nine endings (Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, Youmu, Reisen, Cirno, Lyrica, Mystia, Tewi) to unlock her story mode under normal circumstances.

“I'm talking about an event that happened decades ago, you know? Way before you were even born.”
– Yuuka Kazami

For most of Yuuka's Scenario, she's mostly interested in teasing random people by attacking them. However, she does show irritation that Komachi hasn't removed the ghosts possessing her sunflowers during this incident. It's hinted in her conversations with Reimu that she already knows what occurs every sixty years, so she isn't phased about it. Of course, this suggests that Yuuka is over sixty years old.

• Episode 1/2 (Cirno): Yuuka talks about flowers growing on the lake, then tells Cirno that she'll be able to see flowers too in a moment. Of course, she was just trying to tease Cirno in all of this.
• Episode 1/2 (Mystia): Yuuka comments on the cherry blossoms, then interrupts Mystia's song about a cherry blossom tree being cut down to correct her that the singer was disowned.
• Episode 2/3 (Lyrica): Yuuka goes above the clouds and Lyrica asks where the flower youkai is going. Of course, Yuuka lies and says she wants flowers to bloom all over the world.
• Episode 3/4/5 (Marisa): Marisa briefly chats with Yuuka and blames her for the ongoing incident.
• Episode 3/4/5 (Sakuya): Yuuka asks why humans uses flowers as a decoration for funerals as well as happy events, then Sakuya stops and questions why she's having idle banter with a youkai.
• Episode 4/5 (Reisen): Reisen blames Yuuka for the incident for her flower-like atmosphere.
• Episode 3/4/5 (Tewi): Yuuka complains that the bamboo is damaging her umbrella. Tewi questions why she has one at all, but Yuuka says that she uses it to gather the fair scent of flowers.
• Episode 4/5 (Youmu): Youmu complains about everyone passing through Hakugyokurou. Yuuka talks about how flowers are transient as death, but can also symbolize death at the same time.
• Episode 6 (Reimu): Reimu finds Yuuka and blames her for the incident, but Yuuka scolded her for forgetting an event that happens every 60 years. It's hinted that Yuuka did something in the past.
• Episode 7 (Aya): Yuuka catches Aya observing her, but she tells her to write about someone else. For a moment, she lies and said that she was responsible, then tells her to bug Reimu when she wins.
• Episode 8 (Komachi): Yuuka scolds Komachi and calls her the “bottleneck shinigami” for slacking off, then demands her to take the ghosts possessing her sunflowers over to where the belong.
• Episode Final (Eiki): Eiki judges Yuuka for attacking many things without reason. Yuuka says she was just teasing them, then Eiki threatens her and they start fighting about what's really black-and-white.

In Yuuka's ending, Yuuka visits the Hakurei Shrine where Reimu complains about the cherry blossoms falling down while trying to sweep, then accuses Yuuka who shoots down her guess. Yuuka goes on about how the cherry blossoms must drop their petals or else the flowers won't return to normal, but Reimu ignores her and says she'll check it out again tomorrow. Then, it's revealed that bamboo flowers bloom every sixty years.

“Look, the sunflowers are paying attention to you.”
– Yuuka Kazami

• Cirno, Episode 8: Yuuka finds Cirno admiring the sunflowers and calls her cute at first, but then she tries scaring Cirno and threatens to turn her into a sunflower.
• Mystia, Episode 8: Mystia sings about sunflowers and Yuuka finishes her tune, but puts her own twist on the song and insist that Mystia will be the one fried with spices.
• Lyrica, Episode 8: Yuuka seems bothered by Lyrica's noisy presence and uses the sunflowers to back her up, noting that they're currently haunted, before giving a show of her own.
• Medicine, Episode 7: Medicine insults the sunflowers, but Yuuka keeps her composure while pointing out that Medicine emanates the smell of poison. Medicine expects a fight and Yuuka obliges.
• Komachi, Episode 6: Yuuka finds Komachi slacking off and tells her to do her job by taking away the spirits haunting the sunflowers. Komachi shows no haste which reminds Yuuka of Reimu.

In addition, she has two other versus dialogue coded into the game:

• “Flowers only bloom with the colors held in soil, and as petals, they return to the soil. It's the same with the flowers of living things. Then, once they've bloomed, they return the colors to their surroundings.”
• “There are very few people who can make their own flowers bloom. If you want to know why, it's because most people don't let go of their selfish intention to make their flower finish blooming. The soil's power is what causes the flowers to bloom. So, don't forget to give back to the soil as it blooms.”

In Hopeless Masquerade, Yuuka makes a minor cameo as a background character when the protagonist(s) fight on the “Hall of Dreams Great Mausoleum” stage. Here, she is seen quietly smiling and waving.

“That is the wisdom of youkai who have lived long.”
– Hieda no Akyuu

In Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, Akyuu puts Yuuka down as a very dangerous youkai with an extremely high threat level who is horrible with humans, and she is mainly seen in the Garden of the Sun. She writes that Yuuka is often seen close to flowers and will eliminate any being who disturbs her with tremendous power.

Her ability is to manipulate flowers, like making them bloom or shifting sunflowers around, but it's more of a secondary ability since she has unusually high youkai power and physical abilities. She doesn't show anything resembling fear when she fights anybody, and loves to agitate people while doing so.

It's said that older youkai become less active and fewer take the initiative to attack humans, and it's said that she hasn't moved from the Garden of the Sun. Unrelated to ability, her umbrella can scatter flower petals to perform graceful attacks, cut ultraviolet rays according to Rinnosuke, and block rain and danmaku too. Again, she doesn't rely on her youkai abilities and frequently utilizes overwhelming physical attacks.

The class of youkai that Yuuka falls under aren't interested with the average human, only showing interest in equally strong youkai or humans with special abilities. In a battle of powers between two youkai, the rules must be decided on before a formal battle and must end with one side admitting defeat, even if one side feels like they could have kept on fighting. This is the wisdom of youkai who have lived long.

For eyewitness reports, the flower shop said she was really polite, but Akyuu notes that stronger youkai are very polite and shouldn't be crossed. An anonymous report mentions frequently seeing her at the Hakurei Shrine where the shrine maiden is infamous for not doing her job. Another report mentions seeing her at the Garden of the Sun, then running away after being intimidated by her smile.

For countermeasures, there are none and it's impossible for ordinary humans to attempt to exterminate her. Luckily, she's not interested in boring battles, so you should be fine if you don't attack her, set up a trap, or set her garden on fire. If you see her fighting, don't get involved, but she can be polite if you don't disturb the fight. It's also a good idea to watch from a distance since non-human battles can be breathtaking.

In Silent Sinner in Blue, she only has a cameo in Chapter 9 where Remilia invited many people into her mansion to celebrate the rocket's completion. There isn't much to extrapolate from this since Yuuka just drinks in the middle of the crowd and doesn't really interact with anybody.

In Oriental Sacred Place, Yuuka appears in a flashback shot in Chapter 18 where the Three Fairies of Light recall that all of the youkai who get along with Reimu used to be enemies with her at one point and how she never actually exterminates any youkai, which is why they get the idea to test Reimu on that.

In Visionary Fairies in Shrine, Yuuka makes a few in-person appearances at the Hakurei Shrine in Chapter 7 for the Tanabata festival, Chapter 9.5 for a Deep Winter Fire festival, and Chapter 10 at a cherry blossom viewing. Once again, she doesn't really interact with anybody.

In Wild and Horned Hermit, Yuuka makes two appearances in Chapter 16 where she attends the cherry blossom viewing (drinking event) at the Hakurei Shrine. She later appears in Chapter 23 where she gets her fortune told by Reimu, who still had an itch for fortunetelling at the end of the chapter.

For all cameos, she does not have any dialogue in Wild and Horned Hermit, but she has a lot of interactions with Reimu and somewhat enjoys her presence.

In Forbidden Scrollery, she appears in Chapter 10 attending the Noh play that Hata no Kokoro performs at the Hakurei Shrine, next to Reimu and Seiga near the stage. Once again, she doesn't have any dialogue. However, it's easy to presume that Yuuka is chatting with Reimu who blindly embraces the performance's attention until the next chapter.

“Oh yeah, wasn't there someone named Kazami… something?”
– Reimu Hakurei

In Volume 3, Reimu mentions Yuuka in an Award-Giving Review section for characters in Phantasmagoria of Flower View, but she pretends to not know her. The “Gensokyo Human-Youkai Directory”⁸⁾ page on Yuuka basically brings up that she knew of the 60-year incident, boasts considerable strength, and mentions Lotus Land Story.

The author's comments show that ZUN wanted to bring in a PC-98 character and that her current appearance is based on her Kioh Gyoku cameo. He also explains that Yuuka is fought twice in Lotus Land Story as she goes into serious mode. ZUN teases the idea of bringing in more PC-98 characters, but says that they've all retired.

• She is among the first characters to be called a 'youkai' in Touhou Project, with the first being Orange, but whether any enemies before Lotus Land Story could be considered a 'youkai' is debatable.
• In her profile in Kioh Gyoku, she was called “Youkai Moe” (妖怪萌え). However, most of her profile just recapped her appearances in Touhou Project at the time and the rest of it is just silly.
• The current works avoid suggesting that Yuuka is “possibly the strongest” character again, though the works do consistently mention that she is a strong youkai.
  • It is theorized that this is due to ZUN shifting from writing “absolute” powers, which is why the older “early trilogy” era characters are given flaws or rewritten when they're revisited in newer works.
• She is one of the few Touhou Project characters who do not have a hat or head accessory.
• Under normal circumstances, Yuuka Kazami is the curator's favorite character. However, they dislike all the weird attention or fan content she attracts, which is why they prefer to hide behind Rumia.

• Ultimate Sadistic Creature - A bad fan interpretation from 2008.

• Kazami Yuka on Pixiv Encyclopedia [JA]
• Kazami Yuka on Niconico Encyclopedia [JA]
• Kazami Yuka on Touhou Wiki [JA]
• Kazami Yuka on Touhou Motoneta Wiki [JA]
• Kazami Yuka on THBWiki [ZH]
• Kazami Yuka on Moegirl Encyclopedia [ZH]
• Kazami Yuka on Namu Wiki [KO]
• Yuuka Kazami on Touhou Wiki [EN]

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