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Who is Koishi Komeiji?🎔

Koishi Komeiji (古明地こいし）is a fictional character from the series Touhou Project. She first appeared in the 2008 game Subterranean Animism, and since then she has appeared in several other releases, including manga and printed work.

What is she like?🎔

Koishi has a very complex personality as she was intended to be a character without character, a character of contradictions. She spends the majority of her time wandering around aimlessly, as she has no strong goals, dreams, or aspirations—she simply does whatever strikes her in the moment. One thing that seems to provoke her curiosity is other people, of whom she tends to be rather polite and friendly towards. Her dialogue is full of questions pertaining to others and their motives, reasons for their appearances and behavior—likely due to her knowledge of psychology. She can be impulsive and playful, sometimes making offhand comments without thinking things through. She is implied to have an interest in taking care of animals, philosophy, and genetics. Koishi herself admits that she is bad at cleaning, and a few other characters in the series see her as inattentive and a little air-headed.
Although she has a deep desire to learn more about others, Koishi frequently avoids interaction, observing others from a distance. She carries a deep conflict centered around her fear of being hated and disliked, one that leads her to avoid thinking about how she is perceived entirely. Her tendency to deny that which makes her uncomfortable extends even to her own feelings, such as the loneliness she feels from her isolative lifestyle. Yet as she has traveled more and encountered new people, as well as being watched over by her older sister, she has begun to change ever so slightly.

What is her backstory?🎔

Koishi is not a human, but a youkai born with the natural ability to read into the minds and hearts of other beings. Such an ability attracts hatred from all, with the only exception being that of animals who can appreciate such a power. Lacking the mental strength and courage needed to cope with being despised by others, Koishi rejected her existence, attempting to close her mind-reading third eye—yet this had an unintentional side effect. By closing her third eye, she closed her heart by proxy, and lost access to her own hopes, dreams, and emotions—as did everybody else, even those most close to her. She gave up on preoccupying herself with others and shut down: the series creator at one point describing her as a “broken girl.”

As time went on, several fateful encounters would cause a noticeable change within her. In an effort to provide her with some meaning to her life, her older sister would give her some pets to look after and raise herself. Even later on, Koishi would begin to travel and meet new people, briefly becoming popular and admired by others—likely the first time in her entire life. When Koishi meets the protagonist of the game she originates from, she realizes that she regrets her decision to close her third eye as she desperately wants to learn more about the person standing before her. All of these events have lead to her overcoming her trauma, little by little, opening her heart to others again.

What is her ability?🎔

When Koishi closed her third eye and lost the ability to read minds, she happened to gain a new one—one to manipulate the subconscious. Yet she utilizes this ability in a way that you might not expect; Koishi sees her ability as a way to act unconsciously, moving free of all thought. While under these states of unconsciousness others cannot perceive or notice her at all, and it is implied that she lacks memory of what occurs during.
Additionally, Koishi is capable of creating symbolic representations of what lurks in the unconscious mind of her opponent, bringing the images to life. Many of her attacks involve facets of her own mind, consciousness, and thoughts becoming manifest in the field of battle. She also has the ability to tap into her own instincts, resulting in her having automatic reflexes that far surpass human limitations. Interestingly enough, she can even influence the mind of her opponent through a synchronous relationship to her own—in some cases, if Koishi were to forget about something, so would her opponent.

What does she look like?🎔

Koishi’s general appearance varies little depending on the artist depicting her. In her original appearance, she wears a long-sleeved light orange blouse with black ruffles. The buttons on her shirt are small, light blue, and rhombus-shaped. Both of her eyes, shirt collar, and skirt are a dark green, patterned with roses and line embroidery. She wears a simple, black rimmed hat with a ribbon matching the color of her shirt. Her hair is a very fluffy, pale mint green that reaches just a bit below her shoulders. The most iconic feature of her design is her closed third eye, a dark blue orb that hovers directly over her heart, suspended by two vein-like cords that wrap sporadically around her body—one even forming a heart-shaped loop. She tends to be fairly short, around the same height as her older sister.
The main facet of her design likely to change is actually her color palette. Many artists in the series like to use the triadic color scheme of a bold purple, green, and orange for her hues, whereas others prefer a cooler palette, shifting her hair and eyes to cyan.

Koishi Fun Facts🎔

Time Period

The world of Touhou is approximately late 1880’s Japan, meaning technology is not quite advanced. This means Koishi is one of the only characters in the series to know of modern concepts such as DNA, DID, and the Rorschach Inkblot test.

Spellcards

The series creator, ZUN, admitted that designing some of Koishi’s spellcards during game development was rather difficult for him because he had limited knowledge of psychology.

Future Plans?

In another interview, ZUN stated that he had plans for Koishi that have not fully developed yet.

Ability

Koishi’s ability to remain unnoticed by others is not without exception—one character in the series, Reisen Udongein Inaba, is somewhat immune. Likewise, Koishi is also immune to some of her abilities as well.

Fanon -> Canon

One popular change fans would make to Koishi’s design was to depict her third eye as being sewn closed, as if with needle and thread. This remained unofficial for many years until the release of the manga Cheating Detective Satori, where Koishi was finally drawn with her third eye sewn shut in canon media.

Spirit Animal

The game Hopeless Masquerade features a character who can transform others into cartoon-like animal versions of themselves, based on appearance and personality—Koishi gets turned into a little cat.

300m into the Subconscious!

Koishi has the cute tendency to pose with her left leg and both arms raised--a pose that greatly resembles the Glico Caramel Man's pose from the Japanese candy brand. Many have noticed this and there's even a fan-made song about it!

Obviously!

In game, Koishi can be described as a “Beautiful Youkai” during her story mode. She is canonically beautiful!

Recommended Reading🎔

Want a more thorough, in-depth look into Koishi and her character? Here’s what I would suggest reading next:
Popular Misconceptions about Koishi:A long and detailed essay I wrote debunking the popular fan-consensus of Koishi. If you’ve heard nonsense about Koishi “not having” a consciousness, thought, emotion, or more, then check this out first!
Challenge: Can you find this secret about Koishi?A fun challenge open for anybody to participate, even those unfamiliar with Koishi and Touhou at large.
How does Koishi’s ability (and memory) work?A look into Koishi’s ability and all of it’s manifestations, as well as a theory of how it impacts her memory.

Brief Overview🎔

Here’s an overview of what I put on this website:
About: The section you're at right now! This contains basic information about Koishi, this webpage, and any webrings I eventually join. It will also include links to a few other websites I enjoy.
Blog: This section hosts all of my theories, opinions, and essays about Koishi and content centered around her.
Clears: A page dedicated to my 100 No Miss No Bomb Perfect Clears of Koishi's Extra Stage. If you don't know what any of those words mean, it's explained there!
Art: This page contains off-site links to all of the art I've created of Koishi, re-directing you to pixiv.net.
Translations: This section also contains off-site links to english translations I have made of Koishi's themes. These translations are accompanied by art I've drawn of her, and will re-direct you to my tumblr blog.

About...me!🎔

Social Media: ”terebinthus” on tumblr and pixiv
Contact: terebinthus@proton.me
Favorite Touhou Games: 11, 12, 12.5
Favorite Touhous: Flandre, Yukari, Byakuren, Miko, Murasa, Satori, Okina, Merry & Renko.
Other Interests: Drawing, Writing, Reading (Nonfiction, Psychology, Religion, History), Japanese, Web Design, Esotericism, Anime and Video Games, etc, etc.

Why make this webpage?🎔

I first got into web design in order to make a page on the now abandoned website waifu.ist. This was a website that hosted hundreds of pages made by so many people, expressing their love and devotion towards a specific fictional character. I knew absolutely nothing about how to make a website, so I checked out a 700 page book from the library...several months and mental breakdowns later, I finished the first version in 2025!

I’ve migrated over to neocities now, but I still intend to use this webpage for the same purpose: to host all of my thoughts and feelings about Koishi, as well as personal projects I complete about her, like art, song translations, and more. I know this seems grandiose, but I honestly believe that there is nobody who loves and understands her as much as I do, and I don’t want to keep my feelings about her private forever. My goal is to keep content on this website very accessible so that anybody, even those completely unfamiliar with Koishi and the series she is from, can enjoy it.
I am still very new to web design so feel free to message me with advice and suggestions! I have tried to make this website responsive to all major desktop resolutions, and plan on doing the same for mobile and tablet resolutions very soon!

Personal Favorites🎔

Here are my favorite songs about Koishi and artists who draw her!