Shigeto Haibara

Shigeto Haibara
"Everything I've done, my work, my sacrifices, the culmination of all of my research... It's all for her."
Japanese	灰原 重人 はいばら しげと
Alias	Shigehito Haibara
Age	53
Family	Wife (unnamed) Sakuya Haibara (daughter) Yo Haibara (son)
Occupation	Doctor Director of Haibara Infirmary
Date of Death	Day of Tranquility (presumed)
Encounter	Moonglow Cavern (Phase X)
Games	Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
Notes	Director Haibara's Notes
Japanese Voice Actor	Ryoichi Fukuzawa

Shigeto was the director of Haibara Infirmary on Rogetsu Isle. As the head of the Haibara Family, he was a very important person on the island, and provided both political and cultural leadership. In the past, the Haibara family had served as high priests, overseeing the island's rituals, and although many of the traditions had faded by Shigeto's time, he continued to manage the Rogetsu Kagura festival held once every ten years.

Past

Shigeto spent much of his life attempting to find a cure for Moonlight Syndrome using various techniques, inspired by both modern medicine and religious folklore. Both his wife and daughter suffered from the disease, and his wife killed herself. Shigeto dedicated himself to finding a cure, as did his son Yo, who opened a clinic on the mainland with his father's support. Both Yo and Shigeto carried their research to extremes, performing fatal experiments on living patients.

Fatal Frame IV

Shigeto believed that the only way to save his daughter was to perform the ancient Rite of Descent, the original form of the Kagura. Working together with Soya Yomotsuki, a master mask artisan of the Yomotsuki Family, he began to research the ritual. Since the Rite of Descent had caused the Day of Tranquility, which nearly devastated the island, it had become taboo, and much of the lore surrounding it had been lost, but using the Camera Obscura created by Dr. Kunihiko Asou, Shigeto was able to reveal fragments of the past. The photographs he took with the camera showed the melody needed to access the Temple of Tsukiyomi from the Rogetsu Antechamber, and the taboo Mask of the Lunar Eclipse created by Soetsu Yomotsuki.

As the lunar eclipse grew closer, Yo returned from the mainland and joined Shigeto and Soya's efforts, trying to recreate the Moonsounds from ancient documents and personally selecting the five girls who would perform as Organs in the Rite of Descent. Sakuya was to perform as the Vessel. However, the ritual ultimately failed. The mask shattered, Sakuya fell into a coma, and the five Organs lost their memories. Shigeto had Sakuya moved to the Court of the Unhallowed, and observed the girls in the Moonglow Cavern, until they were rescued two weeks later by detective Choshiro Kirishima.

It is unclear what Shigeto did in the two years following the Rite of Descent. He denied all involvement in the kidnappings, and when another man confessed to the crime in a suicide note, the police ceased their investigations. The hospital remained open, and islanders serving the Haibara family tended Sakuya as she hovered between life and death. Shigeto's fate on the Day of Tranquility is not mentioned, and as he wears a mask in his hostile form, he is one of the few ghosts in the game who does not blossom, so it is unconfirmed how and when he died.

As a ghost, he appears in two forms: a vanishing ghost in standard work attire and an attacking ghost in ritual attire, including a mask. The latter occurs only in Choshiro's final chapter, in the basement of the hospital, alongside Masanobu Fuchiki and Michihiko Ikushima. During fights he does not attack aggressively, preferring to hover in the background while his underlings advance. His special attack is a ranged volley which involves him swinging his fan in an upward motion, shooting three pairs of white discs from the tips of his fan.

Misc. Info

• There seems to be spelling confusion on Shigeto's name. The game lists his name as "Shigeto," while the official site and game guide spell his name as "Shigehito."

See Also

• For other members of the Haibara Family, see Haibara Family.
• For other Ceremony Masters in the Fatal Frame Series, see Ceremony Master.
• For other uses of masks in the Fatal Frame Series, see Mask(disambig).
• For images related to Shigeto, see Images of Shigeto Haibara.