Kogasa Tatara

Kogasa Tatara (多々良　小傘 Tatara Kogasa) is a karakasa obake whose sole purpose is to surprise people. However, she hasn't been very successful so far. She encounters the heroine on their way to catch up with the flying object on a mission to scare her, but it doesn't work. She was once a normal umbrella in the outside world; forgotten by her owner, and no one else claimed her because the colour was unpopular at the time. As time went on, the wind swept her away to Gensokyo and she became a youkai. According to her profile in Undefined Fantastic Object, she is currently reading up on classic ghost stories in order to improve her scaring technique.

Kogasa first appeared as the second stage boss and midboss of Undefined Fantastic Object with the boss theme "Beware the Umbrella Left There Forever", and was later a target on Stage 3 of Double Spoiler. After, she became the stage 3 midboss of Ten Desires and was one of the many background characters shown in Hopeless Masquerade. Additionally, she made cameo appearances in the manga Oriental Sacred Place and Wild and Horned Hermit, along with having her own article in Symposium of Post-mysticism.

Personality As stated in ZUN's Undefined Fantastic Object music comments, Kogasa is a cheery happy youkai, but gets easily depressed when things don't go her way (which is very often), typically when she fails to surprise someone despite her best efforts. She stated she wishes for vengeance on humans for being discarded in Undefined Fantastic Object. However, she's actually quite friendly to humans and her vengeance doesn't go beyond surprising and spooking humans. She gets genuinely pleased when she successfully surprises someone (or thinks she successfully surprised someone). She despises not being taken seriously. She often attacks the protagonist in Undefined Fantastic Object in a fit of despair when she thinks they're making fun of her. She's displeased with children liking her eccentric design. Kogasa suffers from self-esteem problems, as she is easily pushed into lamenting about wondering what her purpose is, or that she might be better off if she just went back to being an umbrella. Perhaps due to this, Kogasa is seeking a true purpose of existence for youkai, tsukumogami, and herself. She attempted this by starting a career in babysitting (which did not seem to go very well), surprising people (which also isn't going very well, though she's found some success in the Myouren Temple graveyard), and was even considering going back to being an umbrella just so she can be useful in that regard. She's stated that she's trying to imagine what humans want, and then plans on becoming that something they can use.[1] Deep down, it appears this pitiable illegally dumped object and troubled forgotten item just wants to be desired. Her depression may also be another attempt at getting attention. She can get so depressed upon failing to surprise someone that it can become "a bother"[1]. Unlike other youkai, Kogasa doesn't eat humans. Instead, she eats their spirit. In her own words, if she doesn't surprise someone, she'll go hungry. In the past, humans apparently feared youkai enough that she'd get a huge portion of their spirit on a successful surprise, as according to Kogasa in Undefined Fantastic Object, even a slight surprise would make a human have difficulty walking straight. This is apparently no longer the case in the present day.

Abilities Surprising humans This ability to surprise humans does not appear to be an actual ability beyond what anyone could do, but it's her prime occupation. Kogasa's observed attempts to surprise anyone hasn't really consisted of much more than her screaming "Boo!" or simply attacking someone if pressed. It is the same ability that Chen has without shikigami (ability to the extent of surprising people), so just like with Chen, it might not be an ability of any substance. Also, there doesn't seem to be any humans that have recently come to be surprised, and whatever she does, it is like it is still trial and error. So far, in the things she said in the game, it has come off as more cute than surprising. Hatate Himekaidou notes that she hides in the darkness to attempt to surprise people, but her hiding places are obvious. Hieda no Akyuu describes her attempts as child's play, to the point where the greater "threat" from her is how bothersome it can be to deal with her after she gets depressed by her failure to surprise someone. It's sometimes better to just pretend to be surprised in order to please her. Considering this, maybe Kogasa is unable to discern between genuine and fake shock, despite how she feeds by surprising people. It is unknown if a person pretending to be surprised provides her with any sustenance, although it does make her happy. However, Kogasa seems to have some interesting interactions with the fourth wall, such as: her stated failure to defeat Yoshika Miyako in Ten Desires due to a "time out"; her appearance on the Undefined Fantastic Object CD saying "Surprise~" (おどろけー odoroke~) despite being stated by ZUN to not be involved with the story; her appearance as the Undefined Fantastic Object extra-stage mid-boss despite not having any relation to the story, which comes complete with a "Surprise!" sound effect to hammer the point home (the only extra-stage mid-boss in the series with no real involvement in the story); and dropping the first big power-up in Ten Desires upon her defeat. Similarly, she appears on Undefined Fantastic Object's Steam page as one of the preview images, presumably to surprise any would-be buyers of the game. It is unknown if this is an in-story canon ability or just an out-of-story running gag.

Blacksmithing Surprisingly, Kogasa has demonstrated a mastership for Blacksmithing. She proclaims that no human smith could measure up to her skills, a feat proved true when she perfectly recreated Reimu's throwing needles despite Reimu not remembering where they came from. Kogasa proudly claims that she could make all kinds of wares, from bells to mirrors and more. [3]

According to Kogasa's conversation with Sanae in Undefined Fantastic Object, as far as Kogasa could tell, she was an umbrella that was thrown out by her original owner because her design was a little off. Eventually, she was blown away with the wind. Unwanted and undesired, the divine spirit residing within the umbrella became angered after being abandoned. Hoping to get back at the human that threw her out, Kogasa became a youkai. She then (badly) modified her own appearance to look more ferocious and youkai-like, and her quest for revenge on humanity (by surprising them!) had begun. It is unknown when Kogasa was first abandoned as an umbrella to become a tsukumogami. However, she's expressed to Reimu how she misses the old days when youkai ruled the night, and when even slightly surprising a person made them unable to walk straight. Reimu finds her "old-time" stories uninteresting, and Marisa Kirisame comments that Kogasa is "really behind the times." This would imply that Kogasa has been around for a long time. Kogasa has been referred to as both an Umbrella, and a Ghost Umbrella. According to Akyuu, the umbrella and the girl are actually the same being and thus inseparable.[1].

Name Her full name is Kogasa Tatara (多々良　小傘). The characters for Kogasa (小傘) mean "little umbrella". Tatara (踏鞴) is the traditional Japanese method of smelting iron. Many workers lost an eye checking the colour of the fire to measure its temperature and/or a leg pushing the tatara furnaces. They wore geta to avoid the heat of floor which brought about the tale of the Ippon Datara, a one-eyed, one-legged youkai that somewhat resembles a karakasa obake.[4] Hieda no Akyuu states that Kogasa modified the appearance of her umbrella to resemble this youkai, and believes she derives her name from it.[1]

Design Kogasa has turquoise hair, one turquoise eye and one red eye. The design purpose of her eyes is likely to be retaining the appearance of Karakasa obake, which is an one-eyed youkai, by blending her right eye into her hair that has the same color, and to high-light the left-red eye as an one-eyed one. For the same reason, she is depicted as standing on one leg in her official art. She wears a blue-green vest with white sleeves and a light blue skirt. She holds a purple umbrella with an eye and a tongue protruding from it.

In Ten Desires, she takes to the cemetery adjacent to the Myouren Temple and the surrounding sky, but runs afoul of newcomer Yoshika Miyako. However, after asking the heroine to help her banish Yoshika, she also receives a beating.

Touhou Gouyoku Ibun Kogasa appears as an enemy in the Rainbow Cavern of Earth Spirits when the heroine is her way to the underground. If the player uses Reimu Hakurei, Kogasa will pop out of the ground, surprise the shrine maiden, and attacks her; but loses anyway. If the player uses Minamitsu Murasa, the phantom will encounter Kogasa while she is going underground with the Palanquin Ship and, after Kogasa asks if she can go too, Minamistu attacks her. After losing, Minamitsu explains that she is going to stop the black water, which makes Kogasa lose interest. If the player uses Flandre Scarlet, the vampire will suddenly attack her and after defeating the tsukumogami will leave using a backdoor, which made Kogasa confused and think that Flandre was one of Byakuren's assassins.

Literature Wild and Horned Hermit Kogasa was one of the victims of a mysterious attack. In a later chapter, she approaches Reimu during Kotoyouka with the implicit intent of terrorizing her due to the latter's weakened weapons. It is later revealed that her real reason for doing so is to offer to replace Reimu's needles with her excellent blacksmithing skills, which she eventually does. Reimu, unable to pay the bill, opts to use her new needles on Kogasa instead.

Myouren Temple Kogasa has a neutral relationship with Myouren Temple and is not registered as a member of this faction. Her purpose for staying there is to scare the humans that frequently visit its cemetery.[1]

Minor Relationships Yoshika Miyako Yoshika Miyako's presence in the cemetery becomes an unknown threat for Kogasa. Hakurei Shrine & Moriya Shrine[1] These locations are listed as places that Kogasa frequents in Symposium of Post-mysticism, but no reason is given. In Undefined Fantastic Object, Kogasa tells Sanae that she is considering going to Sanae's shrine to wreck the place as revenge for Sanae being mean to her, which may indicate a possible reason.

Stage 2 boss The Cheery Forgotten Umbrella Kogasa Tatara Race: karakasa obake Ability: Surprising humans An umbrella that was left unused and became a youkai. She was originally an umbrella someone forgot, but since the colour is unpopular, nobody ever picked her up, and she was carried off by the wind and became a youkai. She rarely really hurts anyone, she just likes watching people be surprised. However, not many people have been surprised by her, so she's reading classic ghost stories to improve her technique.

Extra stage midboss The Cheery, Forgotten Umbrella Kogasa Tatara She figured you'd be best off trying to surprise people at night, so that's why she showed up. She didn't know if anyone would really be surprised or not. She is the only passerby youkai in this game. She's currently thinking of plotting to go startle Byakuren, who just opened a temple in Gensokyo.

Stage 3 midboss Greatly Troubled Lost Article Kogasa Tatara Race: karakasa obake Ability: Surprising humans A youkai umbrella that wanders around the sky above the temple. She found her place in the cemetery, and found herself living in the cemetery most of the time. This is because while humans that are rarely surprised in the middle of the road, they are easily scared when they are in the cemetery. And she finally did it. Amazing. But an incident has crept up to disrupt her truly happy time. A youkai who was never seen before has been appearing from the inside of the cemetery, and has been moving around like it was its home ever since. She tried to get in contact with that youkai, but she couldn't communicate with the youkai at all. Feeling threatened, she wanted to shoo away the youkai forcefully. But that ended up as futility. No matter how she attacked, she couldn't get a response out of it, so she escaped. While she was considering whether she should ask for help of the members of the temple, she saw those humans that she saw before. They were those, whom she encountered and fought several times before. And so she thought, "They must have come to defeat that youkai!" and decided to ask boldly. And she ended up like this.