Hanuda Village (羽生蛇村 Hanyūda·mura) was a small remote village located in the mountains in Misumi County in XX Prefecture, Japan. It serves as the main setting in Siren and Siren Blood Curse.
There is not much of a history about Hanuda. The village was located in the middle of the mountains in Misumi County, XX Prefecture. It was known to be a hiding place of a religious cult known as the Mana religion that was persecuted in the past. In 1976, a Magnitude 6 Earthquake suddenly struck Hanuda village around noon. After the Earthquake a terrible landslide came to the village, destroying everything on it‘s path, killing at least 33 people in the process. One of the survivors was a young boy, Tamon Takeuchi. A man named Akira Shimura was also alive, while his entire family perished. Plus most of the villagers made it out alive. After the ”smoke“ cleared, the government evacuated survivors. From this point Hanuda‘s history remains some what of a mystery, although survivors were able to re-construct their homes.
By the 2003, however, village was still under reconstruction, some people still lived there. Some areas were renamed while the others seemed to sustain a heavy damage from the earthquake, flood and landslide. For example - Old Miyata Clinic, Harayadori settlement, Arato district, Gojaku Peak mine and the entire Tabori vanished completely from the face of the earth. On the other hand the new Miyata Clinic was in a good shape, Hanuda Elementary School and Irazu Valley also survived all catastrophes. Overall, as the time passed, Hanuda village became a place of urban legends and myths, such as “1938 massacre“.
Because of the failed ritual to resurrect Datasushi in 1976 and 2003, Hanuda was sent into “Other World” two times, where the time itself merged both 1976 Hanuda and 2003 Hanuda into one, while the inhabitants from both of this periods were, at first, unaware what’s going on. In the real world Hanuda was once again destroyed by landslide, leaving only one survivor - Harumi Yomoda. She was later evacuated by JSDF.
It is unknown what happened to the village after 2003, but it is likely that Hanuda now will be abandoned forever.
Broken Bridge in the Mana River (Arato; 2003 / 8 / 3)
Archive Item 79; Map of Arato
Abandoned House in Harayadori
Residents of Hanuda[]
The following characters who were the residents of Hanuda Village are listed here:
Upper Arato (上粗戸) = Only seen at the beginning of the game; it has a prefab cabin that serves as a police cabinet and a bus stop. It's also here where the Mana stone is and where the ritual is conducted initially.
Harayadori (波羅宿) = Small village located along the Mana river where most of the Hanuda inhabitants live.
Arato (粗戸) = Part of the village where most of the business and meeting points are located. Later becomes the Shibito Nest.
Karuwari (刈割) = Rice fields, it also contains a church and a small cemetery.
Tabori (田堀) = Upper part of Karuwari, there's only an abandoned house in there.
Gōjaku peak (合石岳) = A tin mine since the 1920's, closed in 1960.
Miyata Clinic = Opened in 1926, served as a military hospital during the war and lated in 1976 dissapeared during an earthquake.
Janokubi (蛇の首谷) = A forested area with a wooden bridge and a hut that serves as a generator for the mining facilities. Here's also where Mina Onda was buried by Shiro Miyata and possibly where some students dissapeared in 1976.
Hirunotsuka (蛭ノ塚) = There's a shrine where the villagers pray for the unborn god Hiruko (蛭子神 Hiruko·kami); possibly dedicated to the stillborn memorial service (Mizuko kuyō 水子供養). Here is also where Tomoko Maeda hides before going with her parents.
Hanuda Elementary School
Janokubi
Gojaku Peak
Tabori
Upper Arato
Miyata Clinic
Karuwari
Arato
Hirunotsuka
Harayadori
Hanuda's layers
[]
Chronology[]
Previous to 1970's[]
684 = Great famine
1600's = Religious prosecution conducted by the shogunate in Hanuda.
1926 = Miyata hospital opens
* 1920's Tin mining begins in the Gōjaku peak
1938 = 33 people murdered.
1941 = Miyata hospital becomes a military hospital and is rebuilt.
1950 = Grade 6 earthquake in Misumi
1960 = Tin mine closed due to tin shortage
1970's[]
1975 / 7 / 7 = Former military air defense facilities in Harayadori sink into the ground.
1976 / 7 / 5 = Firefighting team formed.
1976 / 6 / 25 = Some schoolchildren dissapear during a trip to the Gōjaku peak.
1976 / 7 / 30 = During July multiple lights appear on the sky (The Pillar of light phenomenon (光柱現象).
1976 / 8 / 2 = The dam breaks and a flood occurs.
1976 / 8 / 4 = The remains of a man and a woman are discovered from the flood.
1976 / 9 / ? = The repair works of the dam begins.
1978 / 8 / ? = Some places are renamed.
* Upper Arato (上粗戸) renamed to Arato (粗戸)
* Lower Arato (下粗戸) renamed to Harayadori (波羅宿)
2000's[]
2002 / 3 / 3 = A lightning strikes a car in road 333 and the 2 passengers (Harumi's parents) die.
2003 / 8 / 2 = The dam breaks again and the village is sent into another world.
2003 / 8 / 5 = A survivor is rescued.
(Item 27) Akira's Diary; regarding the lights appearing on the sky.
Item 38 - Lights in the sky
Item 38 (Part 2)
Item 50 - Chronology of the Miyata Clinic
Item 59
Item 19; Many places change their names
Item 98; (2002 / 3 / 3) car struck by lighting
Item 100; (2003 / 8 / 6); Survivor found
Item 57; The Uryen
Item 81 - About Hanuda's prehistory
Item 81 (Part 2)
Item 1; Irazu Valley (Nihon Shoki · 684)
Item 1 (Part 2)
Item 26; History of the Kajiro family
The Hanuda Mysteries[]
Infanticide[]
Both Shiro Miyata and Kei Makino were born in 1976 before the earthquake; maybe their parents died and they were given into adoption to different families.
It looks as if the inhabitants of Hanuda practised infanticide; as seen in the baby hand found in a well, and the shrine of Hirunotsuka, possibly built in order to pray for those infants that were left to die. Also the are many deaths linked to infants; such as the death of the son of Reiko Takato, the students that dissapeared in summer of 1976 during a school trip to the Gōjaku peak (Eiji Nagoshi might have been involved) or the fact that for the Datatsushi summoning ritual a teenager must be sacrificed.
Baby hand coming out from a basket in a well. Tamon Takeuchi (Day 1 · 2:00)
Item 46; Tamon's notes about the worship of Hiruko in Hanuda.
Item 83 (1976 / 7 / 27); Kajiro maid's diary.
Item 37 regarding Hirunotsuka (Part 1)
Item 37 regarding Hirunotsuka (Part 2)
Item 37 regarding Hirunotsuka (Part 3)
Item 91; Missing Girl
Item 8; Visit to the Gojaku peak
Item 89; Twins
Archive 53 - Accident
Archive 53 (Part 2)
Archive 53 (Part 3)
Secret religion and secret messages[]
There are many items with secret messages or regarding the religion native to Hanuda.
In [Item 12] there's a secret code. During the Edo period the village suffered a religious prosecution and maybe that's linked to a secret means of communication.
Item 96; Religious prosecution in Hanuda
Item 58
Item 24 · (Cryptic) Church members
Item 72; Harumi's graffiti
d
Item 73; Harumi's drawings
Item 12; Secret Code, each symbol represent a letter from the roman alphabet.
Item 80; About the religion in Hanuda
Item 80 (Part 2)
Number 3[]
The number 33 seems to appear many times: in 1976, 33 persons dissapeared during the flood; and in 1938, 33 persons were massacred. Maybe the total population of Hanuda rounds that number.
Tetsuo Ishida won the 33rd "Hanuda Sake Testing Contest"; after that it's implied that he roamed around Hanuda hunting down and converting all the villagers into Shibitos.
The recipe for the Hanuda noodles also specify: "Boil noodles for 3 minutes in a large pot of boiling water"; that sounds like what happened to Hanuda, engulfed by a large flood during 3 days. Also the only character who is seen eating the Hanuda Noodles is Tetsuo Ishida during the first day.
In [Item 27] the group picture of Akira Shimura (1958), they are in front of the mine shaft number 3 and an "inexplicable light source" seem to appear in the upper left half of the picture. That mine shaft is also where Akira Shimura finds a light stone on day 2.
Strangely, both Naoko Mihama and Tamon Takeuchi come to Hanuda to investigate; Naoko comes to Hanuda in order to investigate about the Tsushinoko (Item 15); while Tamon comes to study it's customs and find about his past.
Maybe the Tsushinoko are embrionary forms or larvas of Datatsushi.
Item 15; Tsushinoko found
Item 64; What's a Tsushinoko
Item 94 - Gods from the sky
Item 94 (Part 2)
Item 95; A depiction of paradise with a strange piramid surrounded by strange flying things in the background.
Item 10; The Mana Stone
Item 92 (Part 2)
Item 92; Sky-fish found
The immature form of Datatsushi in 684
Other Trivia[]
The way the red water works is similar to the 2-4-5 Trioxin from the movie [Return of the Living Dead, 1984]; those affected by it cannot die and the corpses that come into contact with it come to live even if they were dead for a long time; as seen when the dam broke, irrigating the soil and waking the dead such as Mina Onda or Tamon's parents.
Akira Shimura might have worked as a miner during his 20's, as found in a picture group [Item 27]; also at the start of day 1 he is found in the Gōjaku Peak within a mine shaft, maybe recalling memories of his youth.
The lights appearing in the sky during july 1976 previous to the overflow of the dam are also very similar to the Mothman prophecies and the strange sightings that happened the month before the Silver Bridge collapse (December 17, 1967) in Point Pleasant (West Virginia).
Yamijima Island and Hanuda Village both disappeared in the same year (1976).
Hanuda's tin seems to be very valuable due to it's distinct properties.
Maybe the baby hand found in a well is not from an abandoned infant and actually is the baby from the story of the turtle (Item 11) brought again to life by the red water.
Item 20 · The Red Water
Item 27: Commemorative Group Photo of Akira Shimura (1958 / 9 / 13).