Overview[]
Face-cutting is a funerary rite observed on Rogetsu Island. It is used to restore the personhood or Moon Song of those who had suffered from Moonlight Syndrome while living.
The practice of Face-cutting first began after the first Day of Tranquility. Removing the deceased's faces was a precaution to prevent them from returning as a fully Blossomed spirit and infecting others via Resonance, since it was believed that without a face, a person could not Blossom.
While the Face-cutting ritual was always performed for those who had Budded in life, there is evidence that healthy persons with intact Moon Songs would also have their faces removed in death. It is uncertain if this rite was carried out for all who died on the island, or if healthy individuals were only subject to it when a face was needed to create a Vessel mask.
Ritual[]
The dead of the island would be placed in the Court of the Unhallowed and watched by a Shrine Guard (aka Court Guardian) from outside the locked chamber. Any person who had Budded in life would automatically be subjected to the rite of Face-cutting, but the Shrine Guards would observe the faces of all of the dead for any signs of changes which would indicate they were in danger of Budding or Blossoming as a precaution.
Masks as similar to the deceased's living face as possible would be created for each body showing signs of Budding or Blossoming.
The Shrine Guard would wait until a full moon to enter the Court of the Unhallowed to begin the ritual.
The Shrine Guards would scalp the flesh off of the body's face in one piece, using a small sickle-like harvesting tool. Then the death mask would be placed on the corpse. As the face was considered closely tied to a person's identity, restoring it via a mask would make the body's spirit, distorted and fragmented from Moonlight Syndrome, become whole again. Note: The spirits of the Shrine Guard appear wearing masks, making it highly plausible that they wore masks when carrying out their duties, possibly to aid in the preservation of their own personhood, and guard against Resonance or Budding.
The removed faces would placed in the Shugen Temple, where they would be purified by moonlight, and then enshrined.
Taboos[]
Shrine Guards were forbidden from harvesting a face from a living person. They are specifically required to wait until a person stops breathing.
Only trained and purified Shrine Guards were allowed to enter the Unhallowed Court, and even then were forbidden from entering unless it was a full moon. Entering at any other time was considered unsafe, and would put the living in danger of insanity and Budding themselves.
It was forbidden to use the face of Budded person to create a Vessel mask. Only the purified faces of those with intact Moon Songs could be used. This taboo was broken to create both versions of the Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.
If a person had advanced past Budding, the Shrine Guards were forbidden from fully looking upon their faces to prevent Resonance. Presumably they would need to carry out the rite without looking, or there may be a different, unmentioned and unnamed, method for handling such cases.
Related Texts[]
Trivia[]
- Face-cutting (顔刈り, literally 'face-pruning' or 'face-reaping', a verb often associated with cutting flowers or grass)
- The Haibara family traditionally oversaw the Court Guardians and the Face-cutting ritual. Shigeto Haibara is the most-recent chief of the Shrine Guards, who serve him and his orders.
- (Unconfirmed) This gory history may have some relevance on the Haibara family's penchant for sadism, corpse mutilation, medical experiments, and viewing people as 'dolls'.