Day of Tranquility

Date of Event: First occurrence unknown; second occurrence September 17, possibly 1981 (see note)
Location: Rogetsu Isle
Game: Fatal Frame IV

---

The Day of Tranquility (無苦の日, called the Day Without Suffering in fan translations) was a disaster that occurred on two separate occasions on Rogetsu Isle. The first was during Soetsu Yomotsuki's era, and the second during Soya Yomotsuki's.

First Day of Tranquility and Aftermath

Soetsu Yomotsuki, at the time the head of the Yomotsuki family and master mask artisan, made a new mask for the Vessel to wear in the Rite of Descent. The ritual failed, and the Vessel fell into a deep sleep. When she awoke, she blossomed, and the Resonance spread the blossoming throughout the island, causing anyone afflicted to become as the living dead. Only a few people managed to survive by hiding in the Primeval Passage. The disaster only ended when a second Rite of Descent was performed to seal the Vessel, and the Guardians played the Moonsong to calm the spirits.

Afterwards, the islanders burned all Soetsu's masks, and the Rite of Descent was forbidden. It was replaced with a kagura, which enabled the islanders to observe the lunar eclipse and appease the dead while avoiding the risk of another Day of Tranquility. Welcoming outsiders to Rogetsu Isle was seen as an opportunity to help the island recover and improve its reputation after the disaster. In the mid-20th century, the kagura was opened to tourists.

Second Day of Tranquility

Generations later, in the 1970s, Shigeto Haibara sought out the help of Soya Yomotsuki in reviving the ceremony. Using the Camera Obscura to reveal the past, they were able to restore old documents and obtain images of Soetsu's Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. Believing that something was missing from Soetsu's mask and that it was not truly "complete," Soya set about making the "true" Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.

Soya gave the completed Mask of the Lunar Eclipse to Shigeto, saying he would pray that the ritual was a success. Shigeto used the mask in the Rite of Descent, performed secretly underground as the kagura was going on above. However, this rite also failed, and Sakuya Haibara, the Vessel in the ritual, fell into a coma-like state between life and death. Soya realized that this was a repetition of the disaster caused by his ancestor, and waited for the end to come. An artist hospitalized at Rogetsu Hall, Yuko Magaki, claimed to have had visions of a woman in red with a blurred face bringing disaster to the island, and created many paintings showing this event.

Two years after the failed Rite of Descent, Sakuya awoke and left the basement shrine where she had been confined for two years, and the Day of Tranquility came again. Starting with Rogetsu Hall, she began making her way across the island, and again the blossoming spread through resonance. Some islanders tried to flee to the Primeval Passage, but Sakuya followed them there, too.

While Soya awaited her in the Meditation Cave, he pondered the reason for the ritual's failure, and came to the conclusion that the mask was not to blame, but rather that some other element had been missing: a sound to calm the soul.

Later, a ship named Oboro-maru put in at Rogetsu Isle port, and found many islanders dead, with their hands covering their faces, and many more missing. After a two week investigation, the cause of death could still not be determined,. The last survivor, Ayako, was only able to call for her mother, and died without revealing anything. The island was abandoned.

Misc. Info

• Like the Kiraigou (Rite of Descent), which plays on the Japanese Buddhist concept of the Raigo, the Day Without Suffering draws from Buddhist ideas about Duḥkha or suffering, all the pain and discomfort that are inextricable from the experience of living. A "Day of Tranquility" or "Day Without Suffering" might sound like an unexpectedly pleasant name for such a disaster, but in the context of blossoming it represents the peace of oblivion, salvation through destruction. Many characters express contradictory feelings of dread and exhilaration or yearning when discussing topics like the Day of Tranquility, blossoming and the Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.