The Book of Genesis
Obtained from the Yukkuri Matome Wiki (Japanese)
One
In the beginning there was a Touhou thread in the Games forum of 2channel with the invitation, "Shall we have some tea snacks together?" The poster made a drawing of Reimu. It was the 316,495th post in the thread; the day was May 20, 2004. But its true purpose was not yet revealed.
- Touhou: A series of shoot-em-up games.
- 2channel: A large BBS in Japan where text art is used frequently.
Two
In the 45,690th post of the Touhou discussion thread in the Touhou forum of Livedoor, Reimu's drawing reappeared. And it was reposted several times. But it was not until the 47,110th post that she was given a name.
110 Nameless Date: 2007/06/10(Sun) 20:28:45 ID:qMpSgERs0
Shut up, Reimu-manjuu.
111 Nameless Date: 2007/06/10(Sun) 20:29:41 ID:m5FGFg5s0
It's scary! Too scary!
112 Nameless Date: 2007/06/10(Sun) 20:30:38 ID:0VHWPp9.0
And this text art, if it grows hands and feet it'll be Kirby.
And the true purpose began to be understood.
- Manjuu: A round bun with adzuki bean inside.
- Livedoor: A 2channel clone with more specialized boards.
Three
When the Touhou discussion thread reached its 48,000th post a flood of manjuu-like things began to appear. By the 48,500th post it was clear that the messenger had taken firm root among the Touhou fans, and that soon it would engender greatness. And summer passed into fall...
Four
On 2007/10/13, a message appears in the Game Saloon forum.
We cannot be entirely certain if this was the first such message. But the Gospel was thus delivered. And the images became a meme, and spread throughout 2channel, and began to infiltrate storefronts and everyone took it easy.
Five
Now Makako was a blogger of some repute. And Makako saw that he should take it easy. And thus Makako wrote a Book.
Next book easy!
Go back home easy!