Of Cults & Sins

This is 'Strange Buildings' 「変な家 2」by anonymous author and Youtuber Uketsu (雨穴). This was first published in Japanese in 2023, translated to English by Jim Rion and published in March 2026. This is meant as a follow-up to 'Strange Houses' (2021).   

The language is very elementary. I don't know if it's intentional. In the translated English, it keeps reminding me that it's written in very basic terms. And even in its original Japanese. I think this is very much... ... a Y.A mystery story.

The author shares 11 files and floor plans with his draughtsmen friend Kurihara. These files are presented as a short story to us, all 11 of them, but they don't stand alone — they're inter-linked. They're not presented chronologically, so if the readers are trying to solve a mystery wth all the clues, it can be a bit mind-boggling. 

The 11 stories/houses that hold dark secrets or experience terrible tragedies all led to a grand plan. Adultery, affairs, heartbreak, house fires, child abuse, murder, children born out of wedlock, child prostitution, etc. The houseowners or one of them would be a follower of a Rebirth cult that died eventually out. 

In its heyday, the Rebirth cult preached redemption for people who have sinned and borne children out of sins. You can't join if you don't have children. These people then joined the Rebirth Congregation, and start new families and build new homes. But guilt is carried forever, and made worse if the parents can't share their burdens with anyone. The Rebirth Congregation exploits that particular guilt to brainwash its members. 

The files link back to big construction companies in Japan that build houses cheaply and terribly. At the center of this is the Hikura Homes which builds houses with design flaws and dark intent stemming from the Rebirth cult's tenets. And they built houses into Halls of Rebirth, with secret rooms and weird corners. All these were done for business profits and for Hikura Homes to stay afloat while it was mired in financial troubles. 

Then we have Hikura Homes's young master Masahiko who at twenty years old, was into Yaeko's eleven-year-old daughter. Well, enough to take her away from the okito, pay off her debt, and openly married her when she came of age. And Masahiko set up his young wife's mother Yaeko to be the cult's emblem as 'Holy Mother'. However, it was really Yaeko's daughter who nursed a grudge against her mother for forcing her into prostitution. And that was how the Rebirth cult was founded. As a revenge tactic against Yaeko, and for Hikura Homes to turn its fortunes. 

The cult was born of nefarious habits of the rich and the wealthy, and the downtrodden, of debts, paedophilia, power and control. Humans are truly the monsters. I like it that the digital copy holds floor plans for each file, and a layout of how the entire thing is presented. Otherwise it's a tad hard to imagine a house that is like the Holy Mother's body that is missing a left arm and a right leg.

The story ended on a note of redemption for the grand-daughter of Yaeko — Mitsuko Hikura. She had broken off contact and all ties with her family — the monster of her mother and her father who has a history of paedophilia. She had chosen to work as a carer in a small elderly care home on the outskirts of town. She sought atonement for her sins, and for being manipulated to eventually kill Yaeko.