Geography and role in games
Rokkenjima is a small island, roughly ten kilometers around, located among the Izu islands south of the Japanese mainland. The island's surface is mostly covered by lush, uncultivated forests with the main exceptions being the mansion grounds, a chapel behind the main mansion, and a harbor that connects the island to the outside world. In the past Rokkenjima is said to have been haunted by evil spirits before a travelling monk built a shrine on top of a cliff on the island, thereby pacifying the spirits. This shrine, dedicated to the guardian deity of Rokkenjima, can still be found on the island in the present day world of the visual novels.
In 1986 where most of the events of Umineko no Naku Koro ni take place the island is owned by the incredibly wealthy Ushiromiya family and acts as that family's seat of power. The head of the family, Kinzo Ushiromiya, lives here with eldest son Krauss and his immideate family, Natsuhi and Jessica Ushiromiya. Several servants of the family also live on the island while they work for the estate. Once a year the seeming tranquility of the idyllic island is broken when the rest of the family travel to Rokkenjima to take part in the annual October family conference. During this event on the 4th of October, 1986, a series of brutal murders occur on the island that serve as the main focus of the eight main episodes of the series.
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