The Himuro Mansion (or Himikyru Mansion) is a japanese urban legend about
the dark history of a haunted house and the horrible murders of an entire family
who lived there. They say that the video game Fatal Frame was based on a true
story. Eager to solve the mystery, many people have scoured maps, trying to
find the real location of Himuro Mansion.

According to the legend, the Himuro Mansion is a large, traditional Japanese
house that is located in a rocky area somewhere on the outskirts of Tokyo. The
mansion became famous for being the site of the worst mass murder in the
history of Japan.

The Himuro family were said to have practiced ancient and forgotten Shinto
rituals that had long ago been outlawed in Japan. One of these occult rituals was
called “The Strangling Ritual” and involved the sacrificial murder of a young girl.
The purpose of this gruesome ritual was to protect the Himuro family from bad
karma which they believed would emerge from a portal in the mansion¶s
courtyard.

The Strangling Ritual had to be performed every fifty years to prevent the bad
karma from destroying the family. They would select a baby girl from within the
family and raise her in secret. They called her “The Rope Shrine Maiden”. The
girl had to be kept away from the rest of the world, in complete isolation, or
else the ritual would not work.

When the time came for the ritual to be performed, they dragged her out to a
shrine in the courtyard and tied ropes around her neck, her arms and her legs.
Next, a team of oxen would pull the ropes in different directions, tearing the
young girl¶s body apart. The blood-stained ropes were then placed over a
portal in the mansion¶s courtyard, sealing the gateway. If the ritual was a
success, it would keep the bad karma away for another half century until the
ritual had to be repeated.

For generations, this tradition was passed down through the Himuro family.
However, during the preparations for the last recorded ritual, something went
wrong. The Rope Shrine Maiden fell in love with a young boy she saw from the
window of the mansion. This was a disaster because she was supposed to
remain pure and free from worldly influences. Her blood and spirit were tainted
and when she was sacrificed, the ritual failed miserably because she was no
longer pure.

Upon learning of the maiden¶s love, the head of the Himuro family became
distraught. He was responsible for the ensuring that the ritual was a success.
Fearing that disaster would now befall the family, he went on an insane rampage
throughout the mansion. He brutally murdered the entire Himuro family, hacking
them to death with his traditional Japanese sword, the katana.
The head of the family believed that, by killing them, he was saving them from
certain doom. When every person in the mansion lay dead, he fell upon his own
katana, committing suicide.

The local people in the neighboring village kept quiet about the story of Himuro
Mansion for decades. Ever since then, people have reported a variety of weird
happenings or inexplicable phenomenon taking place on the property.

Bloody handprints and large red stains have been found splattered all over the
walls inside. Ghostly apparitions have been seen both at night and in broad
daylight. As legend would have it, these are the ghosts of the murdered family
members. It is said that they will attempt to repeat the failed ritual using whoever
is daring or foolhardy enough to enter the abandoned building.

People who enter the house are occasionally found dead, with rope marks on
their arms and legs indicating that they had been bound and pulled. Others have
been found torn to pieces in the underground network of tunnels that lie beneath
the mansion. Nobody knows who made these tunnels or what purpose they
served but stories suggest that they were involved in the Strangling Ritual.

There¶s also a certain window in the house that has become infamous. They say
that if you take a photo of this window, the ghostly image of a young girl in a
kimono will appear in the developed photograph.

These incidents have provoked fear in the people of Tokyo, and many believe
that those who venture near this area will become cursed. The deaths of seven
people on the property are unexplained to this day.

The urban legend of The Himuro Mansion became popular in the west when the
Japanese video game, Fatal Frame, was released in English. Ghost stories about
the haunted house blew into a worldwide craze. If the legends are true, the
Himuro Mansion is definitely one of the most haunted houses in Japan.