Background pictures

[Raoul[GER]]

Are the background pictures actually real photos or were they drawn?

[samael21walter]

I think they're real photos of Shirakawa-go, just edited. Every location in Hinamizawa is a real building in that town, right down to the Furude Shrine (obviously not called that in real life), to Satoko and Rika's house.

[samael21walter]

http://pre12.deviantart.net/ea0d/th/pre/i/2008/001/a/a/furude_shrine_2_by_cplcrud.jpg

Here's the real life Furude Shrine.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/whentheycry/images/0/06/Shirakawago.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100128041440

Overlooking the village.

https://www.akibanation.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/view-of-hinamizawa-comparison.png

Comparison of anime adaptation geography vs real place.

http://pm1.narvii.com/5763/b41d3b5adafb500deb909425ab514262a0f9afce_hq.jpg

Because the series got so popular, some people even made some models.

[Raoul[GER]]

Thanks for the pictures.

[Alex]

Wow...Full immersion,right there O_O

[logic__error]

Little late, but that is definitely the case that they are photos. 07th Expansion has done this with all their Visual Novels thus far, just using photos with filters over to give a more stylized feel. For Higurashi with Shirakawa-go there are even tourism guides, which isn't super surprising since it is a world heritage site as well. :)

http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/indepth/cultural/pilgrimage/higurashi.html

[dqwyy]

Good question. In fact, I have the same question. While playing the game, I found the background pictures look like real photos especially Ooishi's car and Angle Mart Restaurant.
Then I found some photos on Japanese Wikipedia.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9B%9B%E8%A6%8B%E6%B2%A2

I hope that I can visit there some day.