Full disclaimer: I am not a wheelchair user or physically disabled in any way, just an Autistic person passionate about disability activism and a Touhou fan. This piece is being written from that perspective. If any wheelchair users want to share their thoughts on Okina or better seasoned Touhou fans have corrections on translations or lore surrounding her, please do leave them in the comments!

(Also this is being cross posted from my Tumblr!)

Okina Matara is one of... probably hundreds of Touhou Project characters by this point (there are SO many of them). She is one of the Great Sages of Gensokyo, creating and maintaining the youkai-thriving land.

She is also a god of many things, but notably for this discussion, the god of disabilities. Being Disability Pride Month, I wanted to throw in my couple of cents about Okina and disability.

Okina as a Character

Okina's debut was as the 6th stage boss, Extra stage boss, and main villain for Touhou Tenkuushou ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons. Long story short, in search of new servants, she placed doors on the back of several Gensokyo residents, which unleashed their full power. This leads to some chaos for the land, putting the seasons out of wack. It turns out Okina really did this to announce herself to Gensokyo once more and remind everyone of the power she wields.

Okina also plays a role in Touhou Gouyoku Ibun ~ Sunken Fossil World, being the underlying cause of the Black Water Incident in order to bring awareness of Yuuma Totetsu and the Gouyoku Alliance to Gensokyo, the incident's blame easily being placed on them. She also makes minor appearances in a few of the manga, which will be mentioned as needed.

Okina is called a "Secret God," as no one knows the true extent of her power and possibly also because she doesn't have as much presence as the other Gods of Gensokyo. She is one of three Great Sages of Gensokyo, which maintain it's separation from the Outside World and the general order of the land. As such, she holds immense power, claiming she can create youkai, change seasons, and destroy Gensokyo and recreate it with ease. She is filled with pride and arrogance, as you would imagine any nigh-all-powerful being would be.

You might have noticed a lack of mention of disability here. This is something that doesn't really impact her in the stories of this franchise at all, its moreso discussed separate of in-universe media.

Okina's Initial Creation

ZUN, the creator of Touhou Project, is to our knowledge an abled man, so this is a character written without personal experience. She was, at the very least though, written with good intent, as a representation of the strength of disabled people. However, he pulled back on these aspects for her debut out of fear of backlash.

I wanted to show that actually, those people [the disabled] are the stronger ones. To me, the original theme was something like that. But it's hard to make a story that feels good with just that... It's gotten easy to be accidentally insensitive, so you might think that it's be better to go for an easier-to-understand image, but then you could wind up making fun of the disabled... (Quote source)

Despite the popularity of the image of her using a wheelchair, and despite that being ZUNs original intent, he opted out of doing so. Based on the wording, this might not have only been a decision out of fear but potentially also lack of skill in drawing a wheelchair, but this is speculation.

At first the final boss was going to ride in a wheelchair, but that was really difficult. What's left of that is her sitting in a chair. (Quote source)

God of Disability

Okina is stated to be a patron god of several things, a couple others being the stars and silkworm breeding. Technically, she is not a god of disabled people, but those who are discriminated against as a whole. This is another example of ZUNs hesitance, though rather than pulling back, he generalized and encompassed disabled and other minority groups in her godhood.

As a theme, it was difficult to address directly. If I'd used my original title with the kanji for "impairment" [障?], I get the feeling there'd be a mixed reaction. So instead, it became about all kinds of the discriminated, not just the disabled, gathering in the land that would become Gensokyo. And Okina showing up as one of the people who made Gensokyo a place for that kind of person. That's what I wanted to do. (Quote source)

Gensokyo is a place that exists primarily as a safe haven for youkai, who have been largely forgotten by the Outside World. In a sense, Gensokyo is for those who don't belong in "typical society," which would apply to several minority groups that face discrimination. However this dichotomy between the Outside World and Gensokyo is often framed as Reality vs Fantasy, and saying Gensokyo, a place of fantasy, is for discriminated people, either implies escapism or that they don't exist or belong in reality.

Okina's framing as a god of disability (or discriminated people) gets as much development in media as the rest of the things she's god of, which is to say not really at all, to my knowledge. Most of the emphasis of this character is on her power as a god rather than what she's god of, but she is not alone in this depiction when it comes to gods.

Okina's Wheelchair

Despite ZUN opting out of giving her a wheelchair initially, she does have one! In a couple of the mangas, Visionary Fairies in Shrine (the depiction you've probably seen around the most) and Lotus Eaters, both give her a wheelchair. I haven't read these personally but from what I've heard her wheelchair is treated as no big deal.

Both of these are official Touhou media written by ZUN, so they are undeniably canon depictions of Okina using a wheelchair.

It's important to note she is not always depicted seated, most notably standing in her Extra Stage boss sprite and portrait.

This dichotomy of showing her both in a chair and standing is not contradictory. Ambulatory wheelchair users, those who use a chair but can still stand, walk, and/or use other standing mobility aids, are common. In fact, it's something needed more in disability representation, as ambulatory users are often called out for faking disability.

Okina as Disability Rep

Common tropes for disabled characters such as wheelchair users in media is for them to be pitiful, weak, tragic characters who are magically healed. Okina is very much not that! She's literally one of if not the most powerful character in the series, and she takes much pride in herself. Despite this being a world of magic, there is no use of it to cure any disability to my knowledge. ZUN mentioned in those quotes above wanting to show the strength disabled people have, and Okina is a great character to have represent that aspect.

As just mentioned, she can also make for ambulatory user representation, which is not at all common in media. Wheelchair users are more often than not depicted as losing the ability to walk entirely, never separate from their chair, when wheelchair use is not exclusive to that.

She does somewhat fall into the Disabled Villain trope however, where a villain is given some disabled trait (cataract/blind eye, mobility aid, etc.) to make them scarier or more intimidating. For what it's worth, there's a lot of villainous characters in this series, most if not all are able bodied, many intimidating in their own rights. Seeing as she's mainly shown sitting in a throne rather than a wheelchair, this also might come off as more like monarchical intimidation? Unless the idea of someone sitting on a throne being intimidating shares roots with an intimidating wheelchair user. Regardless, the only character with a mobility aid in the series being an antagonistic force might not be a great look to some.

The biggest downside to her rep is it's only found in literature and fandom spaces. She has yet to appear in a game with her wheelchair, even though Sunken Fossil World came out after the manga depictions of her. Seeing as the games are the franchises most popular media, only fans devoted enough to the series will really see that representation.

Wait, Is Okina Disabled?

So far, Okina as a disabled character and god for disabled people has been a bit of a rough case, being done so hesitantly but with the best of intentions, though in my opinion could be worse. However, we were given what I can only call a curve ball in 2020.

By the way, Okina is shown to be standing up in the Extra Stage, so it isn't that she actually has any leg impairments. She isn't saying that she has a disability, but that she is a disability, and that such a disability is a necessary thing for this world. (Quote source)

The mention of her not having "leg impairments" and implications this means she isn't disabled is a sign of ZUNs lack of research and insight on this topic. "Leg impairments" are but one of many things that can lead to someone using a wheelchair, and as mentioned earlier, not everyone using a wheelchair uses it full-time. This is imperfect reasoning for why she isn't disabled.

Personally, I'm not sure what to make of her being a disability instead of being disabled, and disability being a necessity. I don't feel I have the authority to draw such a conclusion either, so I will leave that to other disabled people to interpret.

This doesn't seem to be common knowledge of the fandom yet, which is understandable with its relative recency and source being a book. It is important to point out for this though, as ZUN is explicitly saying she isn't disabled, but a disability (whatever that may mean, for better or worse).

Okina and Fandom

Google "Touhou Okina" and one of the top suggested results I can guarantee is "wheelchair." It brings up several articles and posts discussing what I've previously quoted here about ZUNs original intentions, some memes about Okina using a wheelchair (both neat and mocking), and of course fanart.

Drawing Okina with her wheelchair from the manga and in general isn't uncommon. Funny enough, scrolling through her tag here on Tumblr I found a fanart post where OP only recently realized Okina being disabled* wasn't just a meme. (*Like I said the quote from the previous section is not seemingly common knowledge)

We went over in the previous section how Okina technically isn't disabled, but I am personally more than willing to overlook it and view her as disabled anyways. Maybe she doesn't have impaired legs, but she's prone to fainting or unsteady balance.

Conclusion

Okina is an interesting as hell character with some strong if misguided representation. Like I said at the beginning, I am not physically disabled or a wheelchair user, but I feel ZUNs hesitation to call her a God of Disabilities and making her actually disabled do not reflect to well on him, even if he has the best of intentions. Luckily a nice chunk of the fandom has taken the representation given by her very well, claiming her as disabled when her creator won't.