Flags of Touhou: Rin Kaenbyou

This is my design of a flag for Rin "Orin" Kaenbyou, the stage 5 boss of Touhou 11: Subterranean Animism. Orin is a Kasha, a cat-like demon who steals the corpses of people who have recently died, bringing them to Hell. In Touhou however, she uses the corpses to power the Hell of Blazing Fires, similar to a furnace, located in the Underground. "Kaenbyou" (火焔猫) literally translates to "blazing cat," while "Rin" (燐) is written with the character for phosphorus.

1. Red represents fire, black represents ash. White in Asian cultures is the color most associated with funerals, from which Orin steals all of her corpses. Kasha in reality were known to steal the corpses of people who had done sinful acts in life. Notably, she doesn't actually kill humans to obtain their corpses, neither does she steal corpses that are already buried. Green represents life, as the corpses she steals do power a furnace that provides heat for the Underground.

2. The wheel on the left represents the wheelbarrow that Orin uses to cart away her corpses. It also references the Kasha (火車), who were said to travel in flaming chariots. The word Kasha is also written with the characters for "fire" and "wheel."

3. This flag also contains the easily recognizable fleur-de-lis, a heraldric symbol that is most commonly associated with the French monarchy. I use them however merely for their symbolization of the lily, the flower most associated with funerals. There are four of them, one for every time the player has to fight Orin (she is the midboss of stages 4, 5, and 6, as well as the stage 5 boss.)

4. If Touhou had major recurring themes, one of them would be the mixing of oriental and western cultures. Coincidentally, this flag might be an example of that, as it contains an occidental symbol (the fleur-de-lis) as well as an oriental one (the eight spoked wheel, a symbol of Buddhism.)

Character profile on Touhou Wiki:
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