Character

Benben Tsukumo

九十九 弁々

Benben first appeared as the Stage 4 boss and midboss of Double Dealing Character, as has also appeared as the fifth day boss of Impossible Spell Card. As a biwa tsukumogami, she carries a biwa, and uses it in her attacks and for her spell cards. Both Benben and Yatsuhashi Tsukumo were once merely an instrument used by others in the Outside World, but eventually they came to Gensokyo. When the Miracle Mallet was used, its magical power flooded into them, and they both became tsukumogami at around the same time. However, they quickly learned where their power was coming from (the Shining Needle Castle) and decided to overthrow society as tools, like Seija Kijin did as well. The motif of hers might be derived from "Bokuboku Biwa" (琵琶牧々), a tsukumogami transforming into biwa houshi. It should be pointed that Bokuboku and Kotofurunushi, would-be Benben's and Yatsuhashi's motives, are drawn next to each other in the facing pages of an ukiyoe aritst Sekien Toriyama's last work, and that Bokuboku is there on the left side. This means the tsukumogami of koto appears earlier and that of biwa later on the book in the traditional Japanese style, the order when the player choose Type A of any character in Double Dealing Character.