Twisted Humans, A Family Curse & Strange Houses

I decided to embark on this 'Strange' series by anonymous author and Youtuber Uketsu (雨穴). There are three books, not exactly connected to each other. There's a fourth 'Strange Maps' (October 2025) that should have its English release coming out in 2027 Q1.

I began with 'Strange Houses' 「変な家 1」. This was first published in Japanese in 2021, and was translated to English by Jim Rion and released in 2025. It's a short novella at 144 pages. 

I took a look at Uketsu's youtube channel, and gave up after 15 minutes. I'm not a very podcast or video person. I'd rather read the book, which is a summary of the whole concept. It's also much faster. 

This book isn't very imaginative in terms of a plot twists or developments. Any reader who fancies herself an amateur detective and is into solving mysteries would know what comes next. But as far as the stories go, they're fairly Japanese in terms of phenomenon unique to the country. It's not complicated, but the intriguing draw of oddly built houses and their dark history is truly irresistible. 

From the first strange perfect house with an odd dead space between the walls and windowless child's rooms, the journalist-mystery-author and his architect and draughtsman friend Kurihara investigated a few other strange houses. They have windowless rooms, bizzare hallways and trap doors. They hint at a dark history of the family who have commissioned these houses, including locking a child in a windowless room and hid its existence completely. 

In four chapters and an afterword, the book utilized floorplans to illustrate the discussions and outline how they solved each mystery. The first chapter had me doubling up in laughter — A house that is intended to hide the murderous intent of its occupants, including using their child to kill. Then the discovery of a second house with a similar floor plans followed, and a third.

The author and Kurihara went to the houses as well. The first known house in Saitama built in 2016 and was burnt down within 2 years, and the next one in Tokyo built in 2018. The timelines matched a story that Yuzuki Katabuchi talked about. Yuzuki had approached them in order to find out what happened to her sister Ayano. They also realized that Yuzuki's grandparents' home followed a similar layout, with a hidden room behind the altar.

Through their investigation of neighboring houses and the neighbors, they found out that the houses were owned by a family named Katabuchi. Keita and Ayano had young toddler named Hiroto who was about 1.5 years old, and another child about ten years old who might not have been registered or their biological child. 

It all unfolded from there. The Katabuchi family was old, and traditional and burdened with a family curse known as the 'Offering of the Left Hand'. A branch of the family splintered off from the main branch, and became more successful. The entire 'Offering of the Left Hand' nonsense was started by a family feud, incest, a fake mystic, a missing left hand in children born of incest, genetics, child murderers, and pure stupidity that lasted for generations.

We have Yuzuki Katabuchi's sister, Ayano Katabuchi who lived in that house in Saitama. Ayano was the designated successor.  taken from her original family at 12 years old. She vanished, and only resurfaced eleven years later, when she was in her early twenties. Ayano Katabuchi was married to a man named Keita. He took her name when they married. And their child was named Hiroto. Ayano and Keita were in love, and tried very hard to resist what the Katabuchi family asked for them. They didn't want to kill anyone, and they didn't want a child to kill anyone. 

In the end, Ayano's husband Keita killed everyone dedicated to the lifting the family curse in order to protect her and their child, and Momoya. Keita went on the run, and nobody knew where he went. Yuzuki and Ayano's mother Yoshie, isn't innocent either. She might have been a snitch, and was working with her ex-husband's family. This was a total family drama and tragedy stemmed from ignorance and superstitions. Humans are truly evil when they are petty, jealous and competitive.