Sukune Katano

"Y'noticed a somethin' good, nyo! This is one o' my best creations, gyuu~♪"

- Sukune in Earthen Miraculous Sword

Sukune Katano (片埜 宿禰 Katano Sukune) is a haniwa youkai that is famed as a talented craftsman. Secretly, she is insecure about her talent, because she feels that her creations are empty on the inside.

Personality
Sukune has an energetic, positive personality, yet she is also a bit eccentric. She talks in a weird speech that she has invented herself for the sake of being creative, adding lots of verbal tics to her speech, such as "gyuu" and "nyo". Despite being a talented craftsman, she is secretly displeased with her creations. Because of it, she is easily manipulated by Adagumo no Yaorochi to transfer the essence of the Tasouken into a clay model. According to Yaorochi herself, Sukune is so gullible that she could be considered a fool. She is also innocently insensitive when she talks to people.

She despises people not appreciating art or not being taken seriously. She often attacks the protagonist in Earthen Miraculous Sword in a fit of despair when they comment that they don't care about art or find her creations lame. She's displeased with everyone finding her studio to have an eccentric design (it's a haniwa).

Despite Sukune is a light drinker and rarely drinks alcohol, she really loves to open sake bottles. If you drink together with her, she'll say that she won't drink, but she'll end up "opening" a whole ton of sake bottles, and be warned that you'll be left "emptying" most of them by yourself. Plus, she habitually carries around a staff that includes a bottle opener. She also likes to put bottle openers in her creations, even to clay pots or weapons. Yaorochi realizes too late when in the end of Earthen Miraculous Sword, Sukune puts a bottle opener in the Tasouken.

Abilities
Sukune can form dirt into any shape without using any tools. However, because she is so skilled at crafting shapes, she ends up creating any shape she imagined in a flash, so the affection and emotional attachment for the object, as well as the craftsmanship weren't there. Sukune believes her creations to be empty on the outside, not even realizing that they were such perfect vessels for housing divine spirits, such as the Tasouken. In Reactivate Majestical Imperial, she is shown creating haniwas from blocks of ice for her attacks.
 * Model things into shapes

Background Information
Sukune has always been a talented craftsman, but secretly she has always believed that her creations are empty on the outside, without even realizing that they were such perfect vessels for housing divine spirits. One day, Saragimaru requested Sukune to make a clay sword similar to the Tasouken, but afraid of Yaorochi's rejection, she never went to pick it up. Yaorochi found the clay sword anyway and was entranced by it. It was then that Yaorochi feigned to be a holy servant. She lied and said that she was able to make any object house a spirit.

At the prospect of her creations becoming "complete", the haniwa inmediately agreed without asking the orochi about her motives. And so, Yaorochi of course chose the sword to borrow. She couldn't actually make anything house a spirit just to tranfer the energy of the original Tasouken into the clay sword. In order to transfer the soul without losing it's power, she required a "vessel". And so as a place to perform the ritual Yaorochi had Sukune prepare a huge clay "vessel". While Yaorochi prepared the ritual, she asked Sukune to wait outside, not wanting the haniwa to notice the lie. Outside, the sky was enveloped by gathering clouds, so the heroines went to fight against them in order to stop the cloudy weather.

Name
Her given name Sukune literally means "dwelling in an ancestral shrine". It may be a reference to Nomi no Sukune, who is regarded as the creator of sumo. Her family name Katano is literally "one side of the field", and may be a reference to a shrine of the same name.

Design
Sukune is shown to be short in height. She has short red hair and red eyes. She dresses in a blue kimono and a brown hakama with an apron. She often wears clay ornaments, such as a clay helmet (as seen in all her appearances) and even clay wings.

Sukune's Appearances
Sukune was tricked by Yaorochi into transferring the essence of the Tasouken into a clay sword, but said process made the weather in Mugenri very cloudy. The heroines defeated her in order to stop it, but Sukune tried to stop them from doing so, because she didn't want for her creations to be empty again.
 * Earthen Miraculous Sword

After dealing with a few youkai, Yabusame enters to the Ritual Chamber, when she is greeted by Sukune. The haniwa tells her that she was cooking some rice and offers some to Yabusame. Delighted, Yabusame asks for the haniwa's name, who introduces herself as a talented craftsman and begins boasting about her creations. When Yabusame points out that Sukune's clay helmet must be heavy, Sukune tries to change topic and tells Yabusame to go away and she'll show her creations another day. Offended at how Yabusame does not understand the true meaning of art, Sukune fights against Yabusame and she is defeated herself. When Yabusame goes deeper into the Ritual Chamber, Sukune tries unsuccessfully to stop her.

After Yaorochi and the sword were defeated, Sukune reveals to her that the back of the sword acts as a bottle opener, much to the orochi's chagrin. Yaorochi starts angsting about what happened to her sword, but Sukune misunderstoods it and believes that Yaorochi is just tired. She then treats Yaorochi and Yabusame for some sake, not before preventing them that she is a light drinker herself.


 * Reactivate Majestical Imperial

There is a long winter out of season and there is a sudden flow of spirits. This bothers Yaorochi and Sukune, who want to find out who's responsible for it and will be the first team to know why. After dealing with a few youkai in search for answers, they arrive to the Frost Cavern, where they bump into Kuroji and Adagumo no Saragimaru. The latter recognizes Yaorochi, so she conceals her face. Offended after Sukune casually mentions her money problems, Kuroji attacks them and forces Saragimaru as well. After defeating them, they continue their way, where they find Taira no Fumikado, who was trying to collect spirits for her resurrection ceremony. After defeating her, they find out that all the spirits are attracted to a certain location. Finally, they end up in the Withered Grove, where they find the chimera soul Shion, who is the avatar of the soul-eater flower Harujion and was absorbing spirits causing a long winter. Shion decides to absorb the souls they had been collecting through their adventure and they defeat her.

In the end, Yaorochi and Sukune arrive at the Senri Shrine, bringing Shion with them. Shion indicated that she was attracted by the essence of the shrine.

While the two are flying through the Frosted Cavern, they bump into Yabusame and Tsubakura. Yaorochi and Sukune tell them to go back home, as they will resolve the incident and they consider the humans too stupid and inept to do anything. The humans suggest that the four of them could go to resolve the incident together, but the orochi and the haniwa refuse and call them idiots again. Yabusame is offended and she and Tsubakura fight against them. In the end, Yabusame and Tsubakura defeat them and continue on their way.

Relationships
Yaorochi manipulated Sukune into transferring the essence of the Tasouken into a clay sword (requested by Saragimaru to make Yaorochi happy) by posing as a holy servant. Even while in the end it was revealed that said clay sword was actually a bottle opener, the two became good friends after that.
 * Adagumo no Yaorochi

Additional Information

 * She is Jynx's favorite character.
 * Her character may be an homage to Alice Margatroid, the magician puppeteer from Touhou. Both create dolls and their biggest wish is to create an automate doll.
 * Also, Sukune's shottype is probably based on Marisa-A's shottype in Subterranean Animism in which a nofocused shot is stronger than a focused shot, but a focused shot got more range.
 * According to Jynx, Sukune has a dark side beneath her cute design.
 * She has a bizarre way of talking, adding lots of verbal tics to her speech, such as "gyuu" and "nyo".