Japanese Urban Legends

Himuro Mansion

The Himuro Mansion, also known as the Himukyru Mansion, is a Japanese urban legend about the dark history of a mansion, and the horrible murders of a family that lived there. It is said the be one of the most haunted locations in all of Japan, and a video game was even made based off of the mansion's backstory called Fatal Frame.

The thing that makes this mansion so illusive, however, is that nobody isn't that sure where it is located. The urban legend says that the mansion is hidden just beyond the city of Tokyo, in the rocky regions within the area. Many say that if you accidentally venture close to the mansion, you witness a horrible sight, and possibly even be cursed by walking inside of the household.

But the most popular thing about this mansion is the rumored dark history behind it.

The mysterious mansion is said to have been home to one of the most gruesome murders in modern Japanese history. There are rumors that the previous owners of the mansion, the Himuro family, have participated in a strange and twisted Shinto ritual. The ritual, known as "The Strangling Ritual", was performed in order to seal off bad karma within the Earth every half-century or so.

The most popular version of the tale states that towards the end of each year, a portal would begin to open up on the mansion's grounds, releasing bad karma and negative aura. In order to prevent this, a maiden was chosen at birth by the master of the household and isolated from the outside world in order to prevent her from developing any ties to the outside world. If she did have any ties to the outside world, this would jeopardize the effect of the ritual and taint her spirit.

On the day of the Strangling Ritual, the maiden was to be bound by ropes on her ankles, wrists, and neck. The ropes were attached to teams of oxen or horses to rip her limbs and head from her body, tearing her completely apart. The ropes used to bind her would then be soaked in her blood and laid over the gateway of the portal. They believed that this would seal off the portal for another half-century, and then the ritual had to be repeated.

The family was deeply trusted with performing this ritual by others, although it was brutal and inhumane. With this pressure held up against their family's dignity, they gave in and agreed to continue doing it. So, as the years passed, the Himuro family dove into insanity as they killed more and more of their own maidens.

If they failed the ritual, they didn't know what they'd do.

But one day, the maiden that was being raised for the ritual had fallen in love with a man who tried to save her from the ritual. This bond tainted her blood and spirit, thus ruining the ritual altogether. When the family did the Strangling Ritual this time, nothing happened to the portal. As they desperately flung the blood-soaked ropes over the portal, it remained open. The family looked at each other with terror in their eyes, since they knew that they failed their duty of keeping the karma at bay.

Upon learning of the maiden's love and the failed ritual, the master of the household took up his sword and brutally murdered all of his family members out of pure madness. Looking back at all of the bloodied bodies scattered around the house, he became full of fear of what would soon happen because his family failed. After some moments of hesitation, he killed himself as well.

Local legend has it that these souls of the murdered family wander the mansion, attempting to repeat the failed ritual using whoever enters the abandoned building. Blood splashes on the walls are reportedly seen as if they were flicked from the blade of a sword that had recently sliced through flesh. Many have also reported seeing spirits and apparitions dressed completely in white, rinsing clothes and preparing the grounds for the ritual.  

Many people deeply believe that the Himuro Mansion is somewhere out there, and some even search deep in the mountains in hopes to find it. But, to be honest, there are many facts out there that make this urban legend extremely sketchy. For example, there are no records from any police stations or newspapers of this mass murder taking place at all. So either this happened thousands of years ago in the middle of nowhere, or it didn't happen at all because there are no records at all related to a family murdered in a mansion.

Another weird thing is that Tecmo advertised Fatal Frame in North America with the tagline: "Based on a true story," yet the tagline was never on the original Japanese release. Because of this, some have theorized that the entire legend was fabricated by the game developers.

Either way, this legend definitely has some odd atmosphere to it. It gives a creepy, cult-like kind of vibe now that I think of it. Hopefully there are no families out there that have demonic portals open up in their yards, or else we're going to have a lot more haunted houses soon.