vanyk
Shrine Maiden
Today we will talk about a topic which is not actively discussed in the West, but it shows how many things work in Touhou. We will talk about one rule: the prohibition of using Touhou as a way of a store promotion (or promotion of any other place unrelated to Touhou). We will see how one incident in 2018 led to serious changes to restrictions imposed by this rule and we see what happened later.
At first we should see how things worked before. Before 2018 there were several stores whose owners were Touhou fans didn't really hide that fact. For example, Chasho Yamazato (茶処山里) had Touhou goods at least since 2011 which were donated by visitors (Touhou fans), but they were not vocal about that. Another example is Suimusou opened in 2012, whose owner was an active Touhou fan and participated in Touhou-only Doujin events and even sold their own sake. The bar itself was less open about this (kinda), but there were rumours that the bar had a secret menu for Touhou fans.
Both stores from the side of this rule were in grey zone. While the stores contained elements that attracted Touhou fans, they did not advertise themselves as locations for Touhou fans specifically.
But there were some other important events.
In 2011, Kubo Liquor Store (久保酒店) got a license from Team Shanghai Alice to produce Ibuki Suika's Sake (伊吹萃香の酒). Since then they produced even more different Touhou Sake. In 2016, Hakurei Sake Brewery (ハクレイ酒造) made a collaboration with Reitaisai to sell sake. But these stores had these drinks just as part of their products, they didn't call themselves as a place for Touhou fans, but still such things were in grey zone.
Reitaisai already had a lot of commercial freedom and Reitaisai used it for a long time to do commercial collabs (in more details we will talk about it another time) mostly with shops, and it is not that strange that they collaborated with a sake store. Eventually, Reitaisai created the group whose name was Hakurei Shrine Worship Association (HSWA). They got a license from ZUN to organize commercial collabs. At first, they used this licence to organize collabs with shops they had worked with before. From the rule side such activities were technically in very dark grey zone, but as Reitaisai worked with these shops for a long time and the collabs were temporary, such collabs de-facto were in grey zone (we will see a little bit later how this mechanism works). But later...
In early 2018, Japanese Touhou fan Yatabe decided to open a bar called U.N.Owen (U.N.逢縁), and it was scheduled to start business on February 2. The store started a trial operation on February 2, and the number of fans visiting exceeded the owner's expectations, but it was closed due to insufficient food inventory and other reasons. The store officially opened on February 9. The bar used a lot of Touhou stuff, called themselves a "Touhou Bar" (東方バー) and used Touhou for promotion. That is why some people questioned whether the Touhou theme bar would violate the rules. On February 11, Yatabe announced that he would temporarily close the store and denied his bar's relationship with Touhou. On February 17, Yatabe stated on Twitter that ZUN prohibits the use of Touhou as store promotion, and stated that they would remove Touhou elements and operate as an ordinary bar. Yatabe directly violated the rules, that is why everything happened, and a lot of fans discussed that topic. But Yatabe didn't give up. After that the store opened again and... they remained Touhou goods (like Chasho Yamazato), continued to do Touhou food by request (technically not prohibited) and used images by visitor for promotion (technically not prohibited too). So they decided to stay in the gray zone and continue their activities, just without naming things their names.
Even though U.N.Owen Bar was not very successful, it showed the borders of allowed activities. Other stores noticed that and they became more open about their Touhou-related stuff and activities. For example, Grep Shop that before the incident were sometimes mentioning that they had Touhou stuff, after it they we saying about Touhou stuff openly (and use Touhou for advertising their online shop).
Around that time another event appeared: Boundary Satellite Cafe (秘封珈琲店). It also was announced in January 2018. Technically it is an event with elements of sales, cosplay and interaction... in cafe with special menu. But this is a regular temporary event, so it was somewhat between U.N.Owen Bar and collabs with stores by HSWA, and it was also in gray zone.
In 2019, Reitaisai faced the problem: Tokyo Olympics 2020, which meant what it would be nearly impossible to held the event in Tokyo. The owner (who is a Touhou fan) of Suzuki Liquor Store (鈴木酒店) in Shizouka decided to collaborate with Reitaisai and help them, so he discussed this problem... with the city council, and it was successful. As the result of the collaboration a lot of Touhou Collaboration Sake was produced. And as Reitaisai was postponed they decided to sell it in the store and during COVID they sold it online. Since then they were selling the sake. Interesting fact: ZUN had this sake too.
But now let's look at this situation from Reitaisai/HSWA side. There are several stores with Touhou stuff, there is an "absolutely not Touhou" bar, also there are regular cafe events by Hifuu fans and some stores collaborated with Reitaisai. So, after these HSWA could think that there is nothing wrong to organize a collaboration with a cafe themselves, isn't there? So, meet Touhou Project × Cure Maid Cafe (東方Project×キュアメイドカフェ). It is another commercial (temporary) collaboration organized by HSWA several times in 2020-2024. And from the rule side this event is not that bad comparing to previous ones (and HSWA has licence to do such things...).
Around that time another U.N.Owen bar was opened in Osaka, and "of course" it wasn't Touhou related. Comparing to previous ones it is not that noteworthy, but it is interesting that U.N.Owen bar increased its scale.
And here fans decided to make a serious step forward.
On the 14th of October 2021, a new bar was opened whose name was BAR Flandre and it called itself as "Gensokyo BAR for Touhou fans" (東方ファンの為の幻想郷BAR). They had Touhou stuff, used Touhou for promotion and had Touhou drinks. And they had no problems with such activities and this bar is still active.
So we can see how the prohibition of using Touhou as a way of a store promotion (or promotion of any other place unrelated to Touhou) changed to it is okay to use Touhou as a way of a store promotion (or promotion of any other place unrelated to Touhou) in 4 years. The people, who were interested in this, had so many activities in the (dark) grey zone that Touhou fans, semi-officials and TSA got used to them. The things, for which U.N.Owen bar was criticized in 2018, were normal in 2021. And ZUN's opinion changed too, in 2018 he was against such idea, now he has no problems with such things.
After that there were several collabs between Reitaisai and stores happened, collab with another cafe happened, and an onigiri store, whose owner is a Touhou fan, opened in 2024.
And now we will at this from another perspective. There is another kind of offline events: Touhou exhibitions. There were such events by fans since 2010s. Similar events were organised by commercial stores. Such exhibitions are a normal sight within Touhou events, with both fans and companies regularly organizing them. But in 2022 some companies and Hakurei Shrine Worship Association decided to organize well-known The Great Touhou Project Exhibition several times. Technically, this is what happened before but in much larger scale.
So we have Touhou stores which are not afraid to call themselves as Touhou places, we have full-scale commercial Touhou exhibitions. After these, many real life places stopped being so unthinkable, and one of such place was... Touhou theme park.
When Yomiuriland collaborated with HSWA to make a temporary Touhou theme park, it was not as shocking for Japanese Touhou fans (Japanese fans saw many thing I mentioned before) as it was for Western ones. HSWA used the same mechanism Touhou fans used for Touhou cafes: slowly but steadily increase the scale and seriousness of such things. If the previous thing is okay then the next thing isn't unthinkable and it is mostly okay.
U.N.Owen Bar was a very serious step in this long series of events. After this a lot of things stopped being unthinkable. Many changes happened using the same mechanism, so it is important to understand how it works. On one hand fans can use this mechanism to reduce the limitations they have, on another hand companies can do that too. So even though it may be good for fans it can also increase the commercialization of Touhou as a series.
At first we should see how things worked before. Before 2018 there were several stores whose owners were Touhou fans didn't really hide that fact. For example, Chasho Yamazato (茶処山里) had Touhou goods at least since 2011 which were donated by visitors (Touhou fans), but they were not vocal about that. Another example is Suimusou opened in 2012, whose owner was an active Touhou fan and participated in Touhou-only Doujin events and even sold their own sake. The bar itself was less open about this (kinda), but there were rumours that the bar had a secret menu for Touhou fans.
Both stores from the side of this rule were in grey zone. While the stores contained elements that attracted Touhou fans, they did not advertise themselves as locations for Touhou fans specifically.
But there were some other important events.
In 2011, Kubo Liquor Store (久保酒店) got a license from Team Shanghai Alice to produce Ibuki Suika's Sake (伊吹萃香の酒). Since then they produced even more different Touhou Sake. In 2016, Hakurei Sake Brewery (ハクレイ酒造) made a collaboration with Reitaisai to sell sake. But these stores had these drinks just as part of their products, they didn't call themselves as a place for Touhou fans, but still such things were in grey zone.
Reitaisai already had a lot of commercial freedom and Reitaisai used it for a long time to do commercial collabs (in more details we will talk about it another time) mostly with shops, and it is not that strange that they collaborated with a sake store. Eventually, Reitaisai created the group whose name was Hakurei Shrine Worship Association (HSWA). They got a license from ZUN to organize commercial collabs. At first, they used this licence to organize collabs with shops they had worked with before. From the rule side such activities were technically in very dark grey zone, but as Reitaisai worked with these shops for a long time and the collabs were temporary, such collabs de-facto were in grey zone (we will see a little bit later how this mechanism works). But later...
In early 2018, Japanese Touhou fan Yatabe decided to open a bar called U.N.Owen (U.N.逢縁), and it was scheduled to start business on February 2. The store started a trial operation on February 2, and the number of fans visiting exceeded the owner's expectations, but it was closed due to insufficient food inventory and other reasons. The store officially opened on February 9. The bar used a lot of Touhou stuff, called themselves a "Touhou Bar" (東方バー) and used Touhou for promotion. That is why some people questioned whether the Touhou theme bar would violate the rules. On February 11, Yatabe announced that he would temporarily close the store and denied his bar's relationship with Touhou. On February 17, Yatabe stated on Twitter that ZUN prohibits the use of Touhou as store promotion, and stated that they would remove Touhou elements and operate as an ordinary bar. Yatabe directly violated the rules, that is why everything happened, and a lot of fans discussed that topic. But Yatabe didn't give up. After that the store opened again and... they remained Touhou goods (like Chasho Yamazato), continued to do Touhou food by request (technically not prohibited) and used images by visitor for promotion (technically not prohibited too). So they decided to stay in the gray zone and continue their activities, just without naming things their names.
Even though U.N.Owen Bar was not very successful, it showed the borders of allowed activities. Other stores noticed that and they became more open about their Touhou-related stuff and activities. For example, Grep Shop that before the incident were sometimes mentioning that they had Touhou stuff, after it they we saying about Touhou stuff openly (and use Touhou for advertising their online shop).
Around that time another event appeared: Boundary Satellite Cafe (秘封珈琲店). It also was announced in January 2018. Technically it is an event with elements of sales, cosplay and interaction... in cafe with special menu. But this is a regular temporary event, so it was somewhat between U.N.Owen Bar and collabs with stores by HSWA, and it was also in gray zone.
In 2019, Reitaisai faced the problem: Tokyo Olympics 2020, which meant what it would be nearly impossible to held the event in Tokyo. The owner (who is a Touhou fan) of Suzuki Liquor Store (鈴木酒店) in Shizouka decided to collaborate with Reitaisai and help them, so he discussed this problem... with the city council, and it was successful. As the result of the collaboration a lot of Touhou Collaboration Sake was produced. And as Reitaisai was postponed they decided to sell it in the store and during COVID they sold it online. Since then they were selling the sake. Interesting fact: ZUN had this sake too.
But now let's look at this situation from Reitaisai/HSWA side. There are several stores with Touhou stuff, there is an "absolutely not Touhou" bar, also there are regular cafe events by Hifuu fans and some stores collaborated with Reitaisai. So, after these HSWA could think that there is nothing wrong to organize a collaboration with a cafe themselves, isn't there? So, meet Touhou Project × Cure Maid Cafe (東方Project×キュアメイドカフェ). It is another commercial (temporary) collaboration organized by HSWA several times in 2020-2024. And from the rule side this event is not that bad comparing to previous ones (and HSWA has licence to do such things...).
Around that time another U.N.Owen bar was opened in Osaka, and "of course" it wasn't Touhou related. Comparing to previous ones it is not that noteworthy, but it is interesting that U.N.Owen bar increased its scale.
And here fans decided to make a serious step forward.
On the 14th of October 2021, a new bar was opened whose name was BAR Flandre and it called itself as "Gensokyo BAR for Touhou fans" (東方ファンの為の幻想郷BAR). They had Touhou stuff, used Touhou for promotion and had Touhou drinks. And they had no problems with such activities and this bar is still active.
So we can see how the prohibition of using Touhou as a way of a store promotion (or promotion of any other place unrelated to Touhou) changed to it is okay to use Touhou as a way of a store promotion (or promotion of any other place unrelated to Touhou) in 4 years. The people, who were interested in this, had so many activities in the (dark) grey zone that Touhou fans, semi-officials and TSA got used to them. The things, for which U.N.Owen bar was criticized in 2018, were normal in 2021. And ZUN's opinion changed too, in 2018 he was against such idea, now he has no problems with such things.
After that there were several collabs between Reitaisai and stores happened, collab with another cafe happened, and an onigiri store, whose owner is a Touhou fan, opened in 2024.
And now we will at this from another perspective. There is another kind of offline events: Touhou exhibitions. There were such events by fans since 2010s. Similar events were organised by commercial stores. Such exhibitions are a normal sight within Touhou events, with both fans and companies regularly organizing them. But in 2022 some companies and Hakurei Shrine Worship Association decided to organize well-known The Great Touhou Project Exhibition several times. Technically, this is what happened before but in much larger scale.
So we have Touhou stores which are not afraid to call themselves as Touhou places, we have full-scale commercial Touhou exhibitions. After these, many real life places stopped being so unthinkable, and one of such place was... Touhou theme park.
When Yomiuriland collaborated with HSWA to make a temporary Touhou theme park, it was not as shocking for Japanese Touhou fans (Japanese fans saw many thing I mentioned before) as it was for Western ones. HSWA used the same mechanism Touhou fans used for Touhou cafes: slowly but steadily increase the scale and seriousness of such things. If the previous thing is okay then the next thing isn't unthinkable and it is mostly okay.
U.N.Owen Bar was a very serious step in this long series of events. After this a lot of things stopped being unthinkable. Many changes happened using the same mechanism, so it is important to understand how it works. On one hand fans can use this mechanism to reduce the limitations they have, on another hand companies can do that too. So even though it may be good for fans it can also increase the commercialization of Touhou as a series.
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