Barely a year after Perfect Cherry Blossom, and just before the release of Imperishable Night in 2004, the first iteration of the Annuel Hakurei Shrine Grand Festival, or Reitaisai*, opened to the public.

*Hakurei Shrine Annual Grand Festival
Since its inception in 2004, this is an annual Touhou Project-only doujin convention that commences every spring. It’s often abbreviated to Reitaisai. In 2018 alone, Reitaisai had a total of 52,000 attendees, making it one of the largest events focused on a specific genre of work. There’s also an autumn version, and Reitaisai has spread to Taiwan as well.

hiroyuki:

　Reitaisai started a long time ago, huh.

Did the organizers of the first Reitaisai come to you and ask for permission to set up this only event?

※Only Event
Since its inception in 2004, this is an annual Touhou Project-only doujin convention that commences every spring. It’s often abbreviated to Reitaisai. In 2018 alone, Reitaisai had a total of 52,000 attendees, making it one of the largest events focused on a specific genre of work. There’s also an autumn version, and Reitaisai has spread to Taiwan as well.

ZUN:

　They did, but I didn’t realize it would actually be a convention all about Touhou. I didn’t even know about Comiket that well, so it’s not like I would know anything but Comiket anyway! Haha.

hiroyuki:

　You really didn’t know other events existed?

ZUN:

　Not at all. When I thought of doujin, I thought of the stuff I made and then sold in some place. That’s all I ever thought about.

　So, when they came to me and asked me about this event, I just said, “Sure, why not?”

　But I was a bit worried if people would even come. And the name the organizers came up for the convention was kinda terrible, heh. So, I just gave them the name “Hakurei Shrine Grand Annual Festival”.

hiroyuki:

　Damn, what was the name they were thinking of before?

ZUN:

　Phantasmagoria Creative Record, haha.

　No one could tell what game the event was supposed to be about, and the name itself sounds like another game title, heh. I knew we couldn’t have that, so I said to them that I would think up a name. That said, I wondered why I was the one who had to think up the name, haha.

hiroyuki:

　But if you’re the one who came up with the name for this convention for derivative works, isn’t this more like a ZUN Event?　

ZUN:

　I’m not part of the operation, and it’s a place for doujin circles who like Touhou anyway.

　But since Reitaisai is a Touhou-only event, I’m always around. Besides, I have some parental responsibility since I came up with the name. So while Reitaisai is not an official event, it isn’t like the other conventions out there.

hiroyuki:

　What were your first thoughts on seeing your own work be used by others to create derivative works?

ZUN:

　While there are many different skill levels within derivative works and it’s hard to generalize, I have to say that seeing other people draw my characters made me really happy. They’re so proficient at drawing my characters, haha.

After the first Reitaisai event, you released Imperishable Night on August 2004. As you said earlier, did you feel like you’d managed to finish what you’d set out to do?

ZUN:

　I did what I wanted to do. But Touhou got bigger and bigger and that was not something I ever considered.

　If the series was still gaining new fans and I unceremoniously stopped it, it would just feel like a waste. I decided to keep on making stuff because this was such an interesting thing to see. That’s what I felt when I released Imperishable Night.

This was when you started working on serialized works and print literature for Touhou. When Touhou Bunkachou ~ Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red ~* came out in August 2005, were you still working?

ZUN:

　I was still working, heh.

hiroyuki:

　You were making games, composing music, writing manuscripts, and even working at the same time. That’s the kind of schedule that would kill anyone, you know?　

ZUN:

　I was busy then, and I remain busy now.

After Imperishable Night, you came up with Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith, a shoot em’ up that’s a bit more straightforward, in August 2007. There was a three year gap between Imperishable Night and Mountain of Faith*. What were you thinking about during this period?

ZUN:

　It was at a time in my life where I was feeling overwhelmed: instead of making another shoot em’ up, should I stop Touhou and make something new? Or should I focus my energies on working for Taito?

　But on the other hand, I was seeing new people come in even though I hadn’t made a game in years. There was no way I was letting Touhou end when it was getting so popular, so I started thinking it might be fun making another game in that vein. I ended up resuming work on Touhou Project and Mountain of Faith was the result of that.

Was your chance meeting with editor Okonogi Tetsurou* a catalyst for your commercial writing of articles and books about Touhou?

*Okonogi Tetsurou
In the past, Okonogi worked at Ichijinsha as an editor who worked on anything Touhou in print. He also worked as an assistant to the radio show, Nikenme Radio. He still currently works as an editor on the official magazine, Touhou Gairai Ihen ~ Strange Creators of Outer World.

ZUN:

　I met Okonogi for the first time at the first ever Reitaisai.

The print media for Touhou is not just a simple fanbook, but full of your own thoughts and opinions. How did that come about? An honest question.

ZUN:

　At first, Okonogi and the other editors talked about getting an anthology out, but that just meant they were going to take whatever looks really good from the doujin crowd and publish them in a book. I didn’t want to do that. I’d rather let those creators publish their derivative works in their own way.

　Then, they said, “What about an artbook of setting and design materials?” But I didn’t have a new game setting in mind and it’s annoying to collect materials anyway. No way. So, I had to start on this weird print project, haha.

hiroyuki:

　But wouldn’t it be harder to make something original than to find your old game design materials?

ZUN:

　Sure, but I found it more interesting. Even though it’s always like I’m grasping for time, I still think it’s more worthwhile than doing some anthology, haha.

 

To be continued in Part 8…

 

Interviewer: Saitou Daichi

Writer: Seinosuke Itou

Photographer: Fukuoka Ryouji (GEKKO)

Translator: Kastel

Editor: Nimrod