| Ghost Marriage | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Japanese name | 幽婚 |
| Romaji name | Yuukon |
| Other names | N/A |
| Location(s) | House of Joining |
| Participants | A Maiden of Black Water and a bridegroom |
| Frequency | N/A |
| Purpose | To bind the souls of two people to each other as to strengthen the pillar |
| Game | Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water |
The Ghost Marriage (幽婚 yuukon) is a posthumous marriage ritual that binds the souls of two people to each other that they could be together in the afterlife in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water.
The ritual was formerly performed on Mount Hikami. Once a shrine maiden had fulfilled her duties and been put inside a casket, she would be forced to relive all of the pain and deaths she had seen, trapped in the rift between life and death until finally being melted away by the black water and vanishing altogether. In order to relieve the maidens' loneliness and suffering, therefore making them able to fulfil their roles as pillars for longer, men would be brought into the mountain as bridegrooms, led to the House of Joining. The man would choose his bride from paintings of the shrine maidens who had been put into boxes, creating a vow with her. For that time only, the maiden's spirit would return to the world of the living. If the match was successful, the man's soul would remain in the casket with her, and they would return to the darkness together. If it failed, he would be put into his own reliquary and placed in the Forbidden Valley, unmourned.
Yuukon is failed.
Ghost Marriage is also the name of a game played by local children. They would hide each other's dolls, and the designated Outsider would choose a partner of the opposite sex and search for that person's doll. The ghostly children that haunt the Shrine of Dolls continue to play this game after death.