Witch's epitaph

The witch's epitaph is the central riddle of Umineko no Naku Koro ni. The epitaph appears in the main hall of the Ushiromiya family mansion, adjacent to the large portrait of the witch Beatrice. The riddle is outwardly a guide to reach the Golden Land, where Kinzo Ushiromiya supposedly hid his gold fortune. During the course of the games, the epitaph is interpreted instead to be a detailed account of how to perform the ritual to revive Beatrice. According to rumor, Kinzo put the portrait and epitaph on display as an elaborate means of determining the next family head. The epitaph is first solved by Lion Ushiromiya on November 29, 1984.

The Epitaph

English

Japanese

Behold the sweetfish river running through my beloved hometown. You who seek the Golden Land, follow its path downstream in search of the key. As you travel down it, you will see a village. In that village, look for the shore the two will tell you of. There sleeps the key to the Golden Land. The one who obtains the key must then travel to the Golden Land in accordance with these rules. On the first twilight, offer the six chosen by the key as sacrifices. On the second twilight, those who remain shall tear apart the two who are close. On the third twilight, those who remain shall praise my noble name. On the fourth twilight, gouge the head and kill. On the fifth twilight, gouge the chest and kill. On the sixth twilight, gouge the stomach and kill. On the seventh twilight, gouge the knee and kill. On the eighth twilight, gouge the leg and kill. On the ninth twilight, the witch shall revive, and none shall be left alive. On the tenth twilight, at journey's end, you shall attain to the power of the Golden Land's treasures, once and for the last time. The witch shall praise the wise and bestow four treasures. One shall be all the gold from the Golden Land. One shall be the resurrection of all the dead souls. One shall be the resurrection of the love that was lost. One shall be to put the witch to sleep for all time. Sleep peacefully, my beloved witch, Beatrice. Behold the sweetfish river running through my beloved hometown. You who seek the Golden Land, follow its path downstream in search of the key. As you travel down it, you will see a village. In that village, look for the shore the two will tell you of. There sleeps the key to the Golden Land. The one who obtains the key must then travel to the Golden Land in accordance with these rules. On the first twilight, offer the six chosen by the key as sacrifices. On the second twilight, those who remain shall tear apart the two who are close. On the third twilight, those who remain shall praise my noble name. On the fourth twilight, gouge the head and kill. On the fifth twilight, gouge the chest and kill. On the sixth twilight, gouge the stomach and kill. On the seventh twilight, gouge the knee and kill. On the eighth twilight, gouge the leg and kill. On the ninth twilight, the witch shall revive, and none shall be left alive. On the tenth twilight, the journey shall end, and you shall reach the capital where the gold dwells. The witch shall praise the wise and bestow four treasures. One shall be all the gold from the Golden Land. One shall be the resurrection of all the dead souls. One shall be the resurrection of the love that was lost. One shall be to put the witch to sleep for all time. Sleep peacefully, my most beloved witch, Beatrice.

懐かしき、故郷を貫く鮎の川。 黄金郷を目指す者よ、これを下りて鍵を探せ。 川を下れば、やがて里あり。 その里にて二人が口にし岸を探れ。 そこに黄金郷への鍵が眠る。 鍵を手にせし者は、以下に従いて黄金郷へ旅立つべし。 第一の晩に、鍵の選びし六人を生贄に捧げよ。 第二の晩に、残されし者は寄り添う二人を引き裂け。 第三の晩に、残されし者は誉れ高き我が名を讃えよ。 第四の晩に、頭をえぐりて殺せ。 第五の晩に、胸をえぐりて殺せ。 第六の晩に、腹をえぐりて殺せ。 第七の晩に、膝をえぐりて殺せ。 第八の晩に、足をえぐりて殺せ。 第九の晩に、魔女は蘇り、誰も生き残れはしない。 第十の晩に、旅は終わり、黄金の郷に至るだろう。 魔女は賢者を讃え、四つの宝を授けるだろう。 一つは、黄金郷の全ての黄金。 一つは、全ての死者の魂を蘇らせ。 一つは、失った愛すらも蘇らせる。 一つは、魔女を永遠に眠りにつかせよう。 安らかに眠れ、我が最愛の魔女ベアトリーチェ。

The Solution

The solution to the riddle is revealed in Requiem of the Golden Witch.

Riddle	Answer
Behold the sweetfish river running through my beloved hometown.	Refers to Kinzo's hometown of Taihoku, Taiwan. During the occupation of Taiwan, the Japanese lived in Taihoku. "Sweetfish river" refers to the Danshui Line, a railroad that went from Taihoku to the Danshui Harbor. Danshui is Japanese for "freshwater." Sweetfish only live in freshwater.
You who seek the Golden Land, follow its path downstream in search of the key	Refers to the railroad line. "Follow its path downstream" means follow the Danshui Line.
As you travel down it, you will see a village	Refers to a station on the Danshui Line, Sekihai Station. Sekihai Station was once called Kirigan Station (唭里岸), which has the Japanese character for "village" as part of its name.
In that village, look for the shore the two will tell you of	Refers to the aforementioned Kirigan Station. Kirigan Station has the character for "shore" in its name. The "two" refer to the namesake of Kirigan Station, also called Kirigan (唭哩岸), though written differently. This Kirigan has two characters for "mouth" in it.
There sleeps the key to the Golden Land	Refers to multiple things. The "key" refers to six things in particular.
On the first twilight, offer the six chosen by the key as sacrifices	Refers the same key as above. The Taiwanese pronunciation of Kirigan is Qilian which, when romanized, is six letters long. Those six letters are removed from a larger set of letters. On the relief adorning the chapel on Rokkenjima, there is a statement written in English, "You will be blessed only at a probability of a quadrillion to one". Each letter of quadrillion has a key attached to the back and can be removed from the relief. For the first twilight, one must remove the letters of "Qilian" from the relief. This leaves you with "_u_dr__l_o_".
On the second twilight, those who remain shall tear apart the two who are close	Refers to the "d" and "r" in quadrillion, which are the closest remaining letters. You "tear apart those who are close" by moving the "r" one keyhole to the right. This leaves you with "_u_d_r_l_o_".
On the third twilight, those who remain shall praise my noble name	Refers to rearranging the letters remaining on the relief while maintaining their positions. If done correctly, the phrase "lord u" is spelled.
On the fourth twilight, gouge the head and kill. On the fifth twilight, gouge the chest and kill. On the sixth twilight, gouge the stomach and kill. On the seventh twilight, gouge the knee and kill. On the eighth twilight, gouge the leg and kill	All refer to the relief. You "gouge and kill" by turning a key from left to right before removing it. Once all the letters have been removed, the lion statue outside the chapel will turn to face a different direction. The lion now faces another lion which faces another and so on. Follow the lions to the back of the chapel. There is now an entrance to a staircase leading to an underground VIP room wherein the gold is stored.

Trivia

• The first time the epitaph is solved in-game is during Banquet of the Golden Witch by Eva Ushiromiya.
• The epitaph can be solved without knowing the phrase "You will be blessed only at a probability of quadrillion to one" on the chapel. This can occur in three ways:
  • One comes from the one discrepancy within the riddle, On the tenth twilight, the journey shall end, and you shall reach the capital where the gold dwells, in which the Golden Land is instead referred to as the capital. Golden Land, in romanized Japanese, is "Ougon Kyou", which can also mean Golden Capital. The character for Land/Capital, "kyou", can be read as "kei", which is also a number equal to ten quadrillion. When divided by ten (tenth twilight), only one quadrillion is left.
  • Second, one can deduce that the string of letters to remove "Qilian" from is eleven letters long due to the five "gouge and kill" lines later in the epitaph. The six letters of "Qilian" plus five equals eleven total letters. There are only ten words in the modern English language that are both eleven letters long and also contain "Quilian": equinoctial, inequitable, liquidating, liquidation, quasilinear, unqualified, inequitably, quadrillion, tranquility, and tranquilize. Whether intentional or not, this can be further narrowed as only two of these words could contain a capital Q: quasilinear and quadrillion. The importance of the capitalization of the Q is never specified, so this could just be a useful coincidence.
  • Third, the line of the tenth twilight, "you will attain power once and for the last time" in combination with the "four treasures" offered by Beatrice can lead to the interpretation of raising 10 to 4th power once (resulting in 10,000) and then raising the result to the 4th power again, resulting in ten quadrillion. Like the first method, this is divided by ten, leaving you with one quadrillion. This method was actually impossible for English speakers until the Steam release as the English translation of the epitaph previously omitted the line "you will attain power once and for the last time.".
• The epitaph's role in Umineko no Naku Koro ni is similar to the role of Ten Little Indians in Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None
• The truth of the witch's epitaph garnered some controversy among fans due to the difficulty of solving it.
• The inclusion of Sekihai Station and Kirigan may have originated from their placement in the Beitou District of Taiwan, whose name is derived from the Ketagalan word for "witch."