Koichi Hirose

"Read your mind? I've already closed my satori eye. Reading people's minds only makes you depressed, there's nothing good about it."

- Koishi Komeiji to Reimu Hakurei

Koishi Komeiji (古明地 こいし) is a satori, and Satori Komeiji's younger sister. She initially appeared as the Extra stage boss of Subterranean Animism, later as a playable character in Hopeless Masquerade, Urban Legend in Limbo, and Antimony of Common Flowers.

Personality
Koishi is generally playful and free-spirited, not unlike a child. While her ability to manipulate the unconscious makes her presence unsettling to many people, she seems unconcerned with appearing scary, and does whatever feels right in the moment. She does not seem to go out of her way to harm others out of malice or spite, although she has occasionally caused issues for other characters due to a lack of self-awareness, such as in her accidentally stealing Hata no Kokoro's mask in Hopeless Masquerade, or Sumireko Usami's smartphone in Urban Legend in Limbo.

In Urban Legend in Limbo, she takes on the urban legend of Mary-san, a legend similar to the western Bloody Mary myth. Rather than wanting to be truly menacing, however, Koishi appeared to "join in on the fun" with the other characters also performing urban legends, eventually having to receive advice from Marisa Kirisame on how to make her urban legend scarier. She seemed genuinely happy that she was able to use her urban legend effectively, even if it was only on a single person.

Having purged herself of "worldly attachments," she's viewed as having achieved something akin to enlightenment by the Buddhists of the Myouren Temple, although they question whether or not the price she paid was in her best interests.

Abilities
As her actions are controlled entirely by her unconscious, Koishi's presence cannot be noticed by other beings unless she allows it, even while standing in plain view because she's closed her mind, or her Third Eye. Likewise, her older sister's ability to read minds has no effect on her, as she does not technically have a mind to read, which is why she said "my sister can't win against me." Even someone who manages to communicate with Koishi will forget about her after she leaves, unless they already knew of her as Satori's sister.
 * Taking actions unconsciously

Some children are immune to this effect due to their still-developing minds, leading Koishi to become their "imaginary friend", though they will forget about her when they grow up. Other than making others unable to perceive her existence, it also makes the act of doing so difficult to perceive. Practically, without being noticed by tengu or the other youkai, she climbed Youkai Mountain. However, as Satori's presence has been made generally known among the youkai of Gensokyo, Koishi has begun to be recognized by other residents as of late.

The youkai satori, on whom she and her older sister are based, by the actions of the humans' unconscious, they saw painful experiences. Due to this it is also not known if this ability was spoken of cynically in the past. However, since she closed her third eye which can read minds, she became unable to read others' minds. As she said herself, "reading people's minds is depressing, there's nothing good about it."

Koishi's presence cannot be "felt" by anyone unless she has entered their direct field of vision and is forgotten by most people as soon as she leaves it. She can manipulate the unconsciousness of every living thing around her, allowing her to make them see everything she desires and make them confront their own weaknesses hidden inside their hearts, as seen in lot of her Spell Cards.
 * Manipulation of the Unconscious

Occupation
Koishi currently resides at the Palace of the Earth Spirits, but she is also a laywoman in regards to the Myouren Temple as a recent convert to Buddhism, at Byakuren Hijiri's request.

Possessions
Koishi wanted to receive the blessing of Kanako Yasaka so she could give her own pets power as Satori's pets were, so Koishi does apparently have pets. During and after the events of Hopeless Masquerade, Koishi now possesses the original Mask of Hope that once belonged to Hata no Kokoro before she lost it. Koishi found it while wandering around Gensokyo, and because of this, she temporarily obtained the emotion of hope.

Backstory
To escape the fear and hatred which other beings feel towards the satori species, she attempted to destroy her mind-reading ability by closing her Third Eye. However, this had the side effect of sealing away her own conscious mind, causing her to lose all thoughts and motives; she could no longer be hated, but neither could she be loved, or even remembered by people who saw her.

Name
Koishi Komeiji (古明地 こいし) is her full name. Her surname Komeiji (古明地) is an actual Japanese surname, seen mainly in the Yamanashi prefecture. There are two common ways to interpret her given name Koishi, based on which kanji are used. The kanji in "恋思", though not a Japanese word as a compound, mean "will/thought of love." The second writing, "小石", means "little rock." This could be connected to her ability, indicating her lack of presence, as she is often compared to a little rock sitting on the side of the road in official texts.

The ending of Koishi's storyline in Hopeless Masquerade suggests the origin for the name of Koishi. "Once hope is lost no one will be able to see her (Koishi) again, just like a small rock (小石, pronounced koishi as well) on the roadside."

Design
In Subterranean Animism, Koishi has wavy, green or greyish, short hair and dark green eyes, wears a black hat with a yellow ribbon around it. A closed, blue-purplish "third eye" is positioned over her heart, with cords wrapped around her torso and attached to each of her ankles. She wears a yellow shirt with diamond-like blue buttons and dark green collar. The skirt is also green with a faint flowery pattern, but is lighter. Her socks are black. As of Hopeless Masquerade, she has bright green hair and dark green eyes. Her "third eye" is also towards a purple colour.

Satori and Koishi's design may have been inspired by the 1939 painting by Frida Kahlo titled "The Two Fridas". The subject is essentially two identical women (sisters/clones/twins...) with visible hearts and external arteries that seem to connect and wrap around their shoulders and arms, where one of them has a cut artery and a pair of scissors in hands (resembling Koishi, who has closed her third eye).

Games
During the main events of the main scenario, it's said that Koishi was present the whole time the heroine was in the Underworld, but they never noticed her. After the events of the main story in Subterranean Animism, Koishi heard that her sister and pets fought a human from above ground, and also heard about Utsuho Reiuji's new power. Desiring that kind of power for her own pets, she decided to go to Gensokyo to pray for divine blessings. Thanks to her unconscious ability, she managed to reach the Moriya Shrine atop of Youkai Mountain around the same time the Heroine decides to pay a visit to the Gods in the Mountain in the game's Extra Stage. Koishi provokes a fight, and is defeated. After this encounter, however, Koishi somewhat regretted having closed her third eye and became curious enough to want to start actually meeting people.
 * Subterranean Animism


 * Hopeless Masquerade

Koishi tumbles across Hata no Kokoro's lost Mask of Hope and picks it up. This bit of hope added to her otherwise emotionless state allows her to gather popularity when she would otherwise be invisible. She ends up so attached to the mask (unconsciously) that she refuses to return it to Kokoro and ends up keeping it after the conclusion of the story.


 * Urban Legend in Limbo

Unlike other characters from the cast, Koishi holds little interest for Occult Balls. She instead tries to scare people with her own urban legend, based on Miss Mary. However, it doesn't work very well, which is not really surprising as the story is based on phone calls, and Gensokyo inhabitants are unfamiliar with such an event, due to the rarity of phones to be found. Koishi eventually ends up near the Hakurei Shrine, exactly when Sumireko Usami arrives in Gensokyo. As the latter comes from the Outside World, she has a cellphone and knows the legend, and Koishi manages to scare her off Gensokyo this time.

In Antinomy of Common Flowers, Koishi suddenly finds herself possessing Marisa Kirisame. Although neither seems to know how it happened, the duo decides to stick together and have fun with Perfect Possession. They wind up meeting the culprits of the incident, Joon and Shion Yorigami. The disastrous sisters use their magic to exchange teammates and Koishi is stolen away and forced to fight against Marisa.
 * Antinomy of Common Flowers

Koishi has a tendency to forcibly possess other characters and having no consciousness, she herself is easy to forcibly possess.

Literature
While talking about the underground youkai, Byakuren Hijiri becomes interested in Koishi, as she thinks her state of mind – one of emptiness – is quite close to enlightenment. At the monk's request, Koishi converted to the Buddhist faith.
 * Symposium of Post-mysticism

Relationships
Koishi's most important relationship is her older sister, Satori Komeiji. Despite Koishi closing her mind and seemingly whimsical wandering, as well as the fact that even Satori has trouble "seeing" her, Satori does worry about her.
 * Satori Komeiji

Minor Characters
In Koishi's profile, it is said that she met a human at the Moriya Shrine at the top of the Youkai Mountain who made her regret closing her third eye and want to learn more about this human. Though it may seem like this was talking about Sanae Kochiya, once put in to context by the extra stage of Subterranean Animism, it is clear that the human it was talking about is either Reimu or Marisa.
 * Reimu Hakurei & Marisa Kirisame

Koishi is also acquainted with Satori's pets, which include Rin Kaenbyou and Utsuho Reiuji.
 * Rin Kaenbyou & Utsuho Reiuji

Byakuren has an optimistic view of Koishi's condition, believing that she is close to enlightenment, and invited her to attend Myouren Temple from time to time. Koishi accepted.
 * Byakuren Hijiri

Considered a nemesis by Kokoro due to Koishi stealing the Mask of Hope.
 * Hata no Kokoro

Additional Information

 * Koishi's musical theme, Hartmann's Youkai Girl, may refer to Eduard von Hartmann (whose most famous work is entitled The Philosophy of the Unconscious) or Heinz Hartmann (as many of Koishi's spell cards seem to make references to ego psychology.) The track itself is also arranged so that it has symmetrical parts, making it sound remarkably similar to itself even when played reversed, possibly as a reference to the practice of backmasking.
 * If her color scheme is inverted, she will somewhat resemble her sister Satori, and vice versa.
 * One of her alternate costumes in Hopeless Masquerade borrows her sister's color scheme.

Official Sources

 * 2008/08/16 - Subterranean Animism - Settings.txt (official profile)
 * 2009/07/28 - The Grimoire of Marisa - Koishi Komeiji's Spell Cards
 * 2010/03/14 - Double Spoiler - Stage 9 Spell Cards
 * 2010/08/26 - Oriental Sacred Place - Chapter 10 (cameo)
 * 2010/09/25 - Wild and Horned Hermit - Chapter 2 (cameo)
 * 2012/04/27 - Symposium of Post-mysticism - Koishi Komeiji
 * 2013/05/21 - Hopeless Masquerade - Introduction on website
 * 2013/05/26 - Hopeless Masquerade - Playable character