Prince Shotoku, also known as prince Umayado. During the Asuka period of Japanese history, he was a member of the imperial family and a ruler who was said to have handled all manner of political affairs under the reign of the empress Suiko. As a figure from ancient history, he dates back to that period in Japan where mythology and history were seen as inextricably intertwined and inseparable. In the Outside world of the Scientific Century, he remained a well known historical figure and even before the events of the story I am about to relate, any student who had attended Keine's history classes at the temple school without nodding off would have heard of his exploits.
Being as prince Shotoku was a figure from this mythohistorical era, however, in the world from which myself and my partner had come, his exploits, if not his entire personage were generally assumed to be tremendously embellished, if not entirely false. While prince Shotoku was still featured in the texts from which we were taught when I was in school he was mainly included not for his achievements, but as a historical figure who was later deified and worshiped as a way to strengthen imperial claims on a divine right to rule. Most historical scholars of the Outside world assume that everything written about him in the Nihon Shoki was probably written posthumously and likely created from whole cloth.
The same is not true in Gensokyo, although there is some debate about exactly how many of the countless deeds attributed to the prince actually occurred. I am no expert in history, however, so if you find yourself wanting to know more about the historical prince Shotoku, I encourage you to seek out miss Kamishirasawa at the Hieda Public Temple School. I'm sure she'd be more than happy to talk to you and the gates of the temple school are open to all those who venerate knowledge, whether or not they are children.
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Here in Gensokyo, a land filled with ghosts and youkai, it often seems to an Outsider like myself that there is no such thing as history. Certainly there are stories of the past, but history, of the sort that one can find in textbooks in the Outside world, is a dead thing. Static and unchanging. Here in Gensokyo, that simply isn't true. The figurehead of the village, for whom the school I work at is named, is a reincarnation of Hieda no Are, the original compiler of the Kojiki, themselves a figure from mythohistorical times. In the Netherworld, my partner and I saw the Saigyou Ayakashi -a tree deeply connected to the famous historical poet, Saigyou. Within the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, we befriended a still-living daughter of the Fujiwara clan who occasionally partakes in deathmatches against the legendary figure of Kaguyahime. Both of them are watched over by the legendary Hare of Inaba herself, who also bestows good fortune (and the occasional prank) on beings who become lost within the forest. Upon the slopes of Youkai Mountain, north of the village, sits a shrine dedicated in the name of an indigenous nature deity that predates the unification of Japan, and the head nun of the temple just outside the village gates is the sister of a famous monk from the Heian period.
In Gensokyo, history not only surrounds us, it is alive and well. You can sit down with it and enjoy a meal or have a chat. Given all of that, you will perhaps not find it too surprising to hear that this casefile concerns another figure right out of history that we found to be dwelling here. A year after the end of the commotion surrounding Hisoutensoku and the Incident-that-wasn't, in a hidden tomb deep beneath the earth, an ancient figure was about to be resurrected. This is the story of how that Incident began and how it was resolved. This is the story of the resurrection of Toyosatomimi no Miko, a hermit and living saint who, just like the prince Shotoku of legend, possessed the ability to listen to ten people at once.
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Of course this is also, as usual, the story of my partner, the great detective Renko Usami and her megalomaniacal deductions. It is the story also of three of the legendary prince's subordinates - Mononobe no Futo, a reincarnated hermit, Soga no Tojiko, a lingering ghost and Seiga Kaku, a wicked hermit responsible for teaching the secrets of Taoism to the prince.
Together, these figures claimed to be an esteemed and ancient ruler reborn along with his entourage of retainers and experts. But what is the truth of their nature, which lies on the border between history and mythology? And what were the secrets they carried, waiting to be uncovered by my partner?
Let me answer those questions by telling this tale. This is the story of the numerous divine spirits that suddenly appeared all across Gensokyo and of the adventures of myself and my partner as we chased this strange phenomena to its conclusion. As the writer of this record I would like to give you this warning, however: sometimes even a great detective is blind to the truth that exists right before her eyes. Some voices can never be heard with one's ears, and speak only to the heart.