Reliquary

Reliquary (匪, hako) is a term that appears in Fatal Frame V. Reliquaries are black, wooden boxes used in the rituals on Mount Hikami. Shrine maidens with a strong Glance would be put inside and sunk in watery areas on the mountain, to become Pillars and preserve the purity of the water. The Pillars on Mt. Hikami are also sometimes referred to as "hakoiri-sama" (箱入り様), which taken literally is a respectful way to refer to "people placed in boxes". "Hakoiri" has the additional meanings of a precious object or a girl who has been sheltered from the world.

The reliquaries were made by Flamekeepers in the Hall of Fire and consecrated with the Forbidden Flame. Black water would be put inside the box along with the shrine maiden. A shrine maiden who chose to enter the box freely was said to make the strongest Pillar, but an unwilling maiden might also have her limbs crushed and be forced into a box; the pain was thought to increase her power.

The larger reliquaries are called "caskets" (柩籠, hitsugi kago, "coffin box" in Japanese). They were made to accommodate a shrine maiden's Ghost Marriage partner as well as herself. With special decorations on them, they were used in the sinking of maidens with especially strong power to serve as pillars. Women put inside these boxes with their partners were turned into Immortal Flowers, able to serve their duty as pillars for longer.

Reliquaries would be carried up the mountain by the Shadow-touched. Sometimes caskets would even be brought from other ritual sites around the region, such as Mount Kagiroi, to further strengthen the mountain's barrier.

Misc. Info

• In world religion, a reliquary is a box, usually richly decorated, created to house (and sometimes display) sacred relics of saints or other important religious figures. Human remains, especially bones, are a common form of relic.