The "Avatar of Mountains and Lakes".
Final boss of Touhou's Mountain of Faith, and later made playable in Sunken Fossil World. In canon appearance, she has short purple hair, wears a mirror on her chest, has a circular shimenawa floating behind her back. Her weapon is the onbashira.
She is the goddess of the Moriya Shrine after defeating Moriya Suwako a long time ago, her symbol is a snake as signified by the shimenawa, which she adopted to symbolize her victory over the frog-themed goddess Suwako. Some artists take the snake symbolism much further, such as depicting Kanako with slit pupils (as in the aged down snake-eyed Kanako), a long and/or forked tongue, and even as a lamia. Her true power is dominion over wind and rain. Due to her estimated age and imposing appearance, she is jokingly a member of the Old Maids Alliance.
The following tags implicate this tag: yasaka_kanako_(snake) (learn more).