Shigeto Haibara

This page contains spoilers for Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.

Template:FF4MajorGhostShigeto 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 Getsuyuu 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 Kiraigou, the original form of the Kagura. Working together with Soya Yomotsuki, a master mask-maker of the Yomotsuki Family, he began to research the ritual. Since the Kiraigou caused the Day Without Suffering, which left the island in ruins, 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 Underground Lunar Hall from the Antechamber, and the taboo Mask of the Lunar Eclipse created by Soetsu Yomotsuki.

As the time of the lunar eclipse grew closer, Yo returned from the mainland and joined Shigeto and Soya's efforts, trying to recreate the lunar melody from ancient documents and personally selecting the five girls who would perform as Kanade in the Kiraigou, while Sakuya was to perform as the Utsuwa. However, the ritual ultimately failed. The mask shattered, Sakuya fell into a coma, and the five Kanade lost their memories. Shigeto had Sakuya moved to the Shrine of Mourning, and observed the girls in the Moonbeam Well, until they were rescued two weeks later by detective Choshiro Kirishima.

It is unclear what Shigeto did in the two years following the Kiraigou. 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 Without Suffering is not mentioned, but it can be assumed he Bloomed and died along with the rest of the islanders.

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.

Misc. Info

• Shigeto has one special attack which involves him swinging his fan in an upward motion, shooting three pairs of two small white circular discs from the tips of his fan.
• 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.