Tohoko

Goddess of orchards, queen of red deliciousness, empress of apples... Tohoko is none of these things. In fact, she is a lowly kami, a spirit of nature that has an affinity toward fruit, apples in specific. She oversees their growth, makes sure they keep ripening even after being plucked, and wards off disease and pests from her precious harvest... or at least she tries to! In truth, she's not a very strong kami, mostly due to the fact that not very many people believe in her. Aaaand she's about three and a half inches tall. Although that might be more of a reason why not many people believe in her...


Although not specifically mentioned in the Bible, the Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden is often thought to have been an apple, and as such, it has come to represent knowledge humanity is not meant to possess, as well as the temptation and inevitable downfall of mankind. In Latin, the words for 'apple' and 'evil' are nearly identical. And none of this has anything to do with Tohoko.

Seriously, she's just a nature spirit, albeit a short one (but don't say that to her face). She's only been around several hundred years, so she's still young as far as kami are concerned, but she's been watching the evolution of apples all the while, admiring the many new forms created by the interesting lumbering oafs who eat her precious children... not that she's bitter.

Her real enemies are aphids, ants, and winter, she hates them, hates them, hates them. Bees are cool though. Her favorite month is October, and she does next to no work during the first couple weeks, spending most of the time wasted from apple cider.

If one wanted to summon Tohoko, the best bet would be with an offering of apple pie or apple cake or maybe even apple muffins if they smell delicious enough, placed in front of a shallow saucer with five apple seeds arranged in a star. Then just pour some hard cider into the dish (the higher the alcohol content, the more likely she'll appear, and the drunker she'll be when she arrives). She actually enjoys being called upon, unlike a lot of other kami, and after she sobers up and gets the cider cleaned off of her, she'll be very likely to listen and even help with problems whilst munching on whatever the offering was.