Infamous Internet - Tomino’s Hell
On the 15th January 1892, a Japanese poet named Saijō Yaso (西條八十) was born. Information on Saijō Yaso seems to be quite limited in English, but from what I could find, he was regarded as a great song poet, who wrote children’s nursery rhymes as well as popular song lyrics. He spent time amongst French Symbolists in the 1920s before returning to teach the language in his home country, where he eventually passed away in 1970.
Despite a pretty impressive catalogue of work, Yaso’s internet fame appears to stem from one poem in particular. “Tomino's Hell” (トミノの地獄), written in 1919, was published as a part of his 27th poetry collection. Despite the lack of available information on Yaso himself, Tomino’s Hell has a long and torrid history that you can read about far and wide.
The basis of the legend is relatively simple - the poem is only ever to be read in your mind and never out loud. Should you dare to speak the poem out, you will fall victim to a terrible curse.
Before we go any further, what exactly is this supposedly cursed poem? Though reports claim that it is more deadly to read aloud in it’s original Japanese, below is the English translation of the poem which describes the eponymous Tomino’s descent into Hell.
Elder sister vomits blood,
younger sister’s breathing fire
while sweet little Tomino
just spits up the jewels.
All alone does Tomino
go falling into that hell,
a hell of utter darkness,
without even flowers.
Is Tomino’s big sister
the one who whips him?
The purpose of the scourging
hangs dark in his mind.
Lashing and thrashing him, ah!
But never quite shattering.
One sure path to Avici,
the eternal hell.
Into that blackest of hells
guide him now, I pray—
to the golden sheep,
to the nightingale.
How much did he put
in that leather pouch
to prepare for his trek to
the eternal hell?
Spring is coming
to the valley, to the wood,
to the spiraling chasms
of the blackest hell.
The nightingale in her cage,
the sheep aboard the wagon,
and tears well up in the eyes
of sweet little Tomino.
Sing, o nightingale,
in the vast, misty forest—
he screams he only misses
his little sister.
His wailing desperation
echoes throughout hell—
a fox peony
opens its golden petals.
Down past the seven mountains
and seven rivers of hell—
the solitary journey
of sweet little Tomino.
If in this hell they be found,
may they then come to me, please,
those sharp spikes of punishment
from Needle Mountain.
Not just on some empty whim
Is flesh pierced with blood-red pins:
they serve as hellish signposts
for sweet little Tomino.
The above translation was provided by author David Bowles, and is one of the most common translations for this poem that I could find. Popular interpretations claim that the poem was written following a tragic death within Yaso’s family. Perhaps that would explain the frequent mentions of Tomino’s sisters in the prose. But the meaning of the poem isn’t what captured the internet’s attention, but rather the curse that came with it.
Perhaps the most well known instance of the curse was the death of film director, Terayama Shuiji. In 1974, he directed a film loosely based on the poem, named Pastoral, to Die in the Countryside. Legend has it that the director passed away just weeks after the film was released. Others even claim that Yaso himself was the first to fall victim to Tomino’s curse. The reality, however disappointing it may be, is that both men lived for years if not decades after the release of their works. And all other supposed deaths relating to the poem are hearsay at best. Even the most common artwork linked to Tomino - “I Can’t Be A Bride Anymore” by Yuko Tatsushima - is actually more likely to be an abstract interpretation of death by hanging, a method incredibly popular for Japanese executions.
So while the legend of Tomino’s Hell is fascinating and fun, it is more than likely to be just that. A legend.
