Himuro Mansion

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Himuro Mansion (also known as Himikyru Mansion) is a setting for the survival horror video game Fatal Frame. There is a great deal of confusion regarding whether or not the mansion truly exists in real life. The commonly held belief is that it is an old manor located outside Tokyo, Japan where a number of grisly murders took place. When Fatal Frame was released in North America, Tecmo advertised it with the tagline "Based on a true story," but the original Japanese release bore no such information.

The following is a description of the mansion in question as written by Makoto Shibata, Chief Producer of the Fatal Frame series. [1]:

"In an area outside Tokyo, there lies a mansion in which it is said seven people were murdered in a grisly manner. On the same property, there lie three detached residences that surround the mansion, all of which are rumored to have ties to the mansion’s troubled past. It’s said there is an underground network of tunnels that lay beneath the premises, but nobody knows who made these tunnels or what purpose they served. Many inexplicable phenomenon have been reported occurring on the property. Bloody handprints have been found splattered all over the walls. Spirits have been spotted on the premises… even in broad daylight. A narrow stairway leads to an attic where a spirit-sealed talisman is rumored to be locked away. Men have sought this talisman, only to be found later with their bodies broken and rope marks around their wrists. There’s a crumbling old statue of a woman in a kimono, but its head is missing. If you take a photo of a certain window, a young girl can be seen in the developed picture. These incidents have provoked fear in the people of Tokyo, and many believe that those who live near this area will become cursed. The deaths of those seven people are unexplained to this day."

Whether this "legend" was ever actually told, or the creators of Fatal Frame invented it entirely as a marketing point for the game's plot, still remains unclear.

1 Legends according to Fatal Frame
2 Reasons why the Himuro Mansion may not exist
3 The Manor of Sleep
4 External links

[edit] Legends according to Fatal Frame

Some say, That the Himuro Mansion is outside a small village called Choko Village. The mansion was home to an ancient shrine where a pair of rituals were held approximately every thirty years in December. One ritual was called the blinding demon ritual, and the other the strangling ritual. Virginal shrine maidens were raised to willingly become sacrifices. These sacrifices were required to keep a portal to the netherworld located underneath the shrine sealed. To figure out who the sacrifices would be, the shrine keepers gathered all of the potential maidens for a game of tag, or Demon Tag. One child is chosen as the Oni(Demon) of the game, representing a demon from the portal. The Oni would have to try and tag the others in order to determine who the sacrifices would be. It is unknown if the girls were aware of this when the game took place.

The first girl tagged would be the sacrifice of the blinding demon ritual. It was said that the girl was 'blind' to the Oni, and thus couldn't see them. The last girl tagged was said to be stronger in aura or energy. She could see the demons, and get away from them quickly as well, in theory making her the strongest of the potential maidens. This girl would take part in the strangling ritual, which would keep the demons in the portal.

[edit] Reasons why the Himuro Mansion may not exist

Although the supposed legend is certainly macabre, the explanations put forth by Tecmo and within the Fatal Frame games themselves do little to substantiate the notion that the Himuro Mansion was ever real. As a result, there are numerous reasons to believe that the mansion and all legends associated with it are works of fiction. For instance:

Above all, it is extremely unlikely that no police or newspaper records would exist of the "gristly" mass murder of seven individuals, especially as the supposed site is in the vicinity of Tokyo.

The story of Himuro Mansion supposedly comes from the rural mountain areas of Japan, and is a ghost story. While a lot of ghost stories are based on fact, it is also worth noting that many are just stories which are distorted or fabricated with the intention of scaring people.

The Himuro Mansion is reportedly on private property, and people currently live there. This would make sense as to why the actual mansion's name has not been made public; that is, if it exists at all. This may also be a cover-story to explain why the mansion is difficult to find, and why it is not possible to visit the mansion.

The description of the location of the mansion as being 'In an area outside of Tokyo' is extremely vague, as the city of Tokyo covers a very large area.

The Himuro mansion's construction in "Fatal Frame" is very similar to a lot of old residences in Japan, therefore even though one might come across a place that looks like Himuro Mansion from the game, it does not necessarily mean that the mansion is the Himuro Mansion.

[edit] The Manor of Sleep

This is the setting of Fatal Frame 3. However, it either has certain ties towards Himuro Mansion or it is just the dream interference of Miku, Rei, and Kei since the color changes in these two settings. In the manor, the color blue can always be seen while in Himuro Mansion, the blue colors disappear. The manor itself has a link towards certain symptoms and diseases. Known victims are Rei Kurosawa, Miku Hinasaki, Kei Amakura, Yoshino Takigawa (the sole survivor), and Mio Amakura (protagonist of Fatal Frame 2). Victims have claimed to see a blue woman in lattice with tattoos by the name of Reika Kuze. But the incident in the manor of sleep gets a much more gruesome detail than Himuro Mansion. The ceremonies performed give a bit of similarity to All of God's Village. And also, the victims always have visions of their dead or alive relatives (but mostly dead).

Rei Kurosawa - sees her dead fiancee Yuu.
Miku Hinasaki - sees her dead brother Mafuyu.
Kei Amakura - sees his niece Mio. But there is a speculation that he can already see Mayu (deceased sister of Mio) through the crimson butterflies since Mayu took the form of these butterflies when she died.
Yoshino Takigawa - sees her dead relatives & dead fiancee from the plane crash. She seems to have the same tragic event as Rei because of the dead fiancee. She becomes an enemy later on with three shadows who have deformed faces. Yoshino now has the same pattern of the tatto as Reika. She also has yellow eyes.

(Please extend more information on the Manor of Sleep)