Tomino's Hell

**Tomino's Hell** is a popular in urban legends and took place Japan if you read the poem aloud you will become cursed.

## Story

Tomino, was a young boy living in Japan in the early 1900s. Tomino reportedly lived his life with a severe physical disability that confined him to a wheelchair.

He enjoyed writing poetry as a way of helping him cope with the overwhelming emotions he had connected to his disability. Upon composing a rather grisly poem, Tomino's parents were anything but pleased. This reaction was not surprising given Japan's tendency for strict cultural norms, and the fact that the poem dove into some pretty intense details. To discipline him for his chilling verse, Tomino's parents confined him to their basement without food. In time, due to the harsh conditions of the damp and frigid cellar, Tomino tragically passed away from bronchitis.

The legend goes that Tomino's spirit lingered within his disturbing poetry. Anyone who dares to recite his poem out loud risks invoking a curse upon themselves, causing bad fortune and despair. The curse of Tomino's Hell Poem became famous when people began to suffer unfortunate events after reading the poem aloud.

In 1974, a movie was released called "To Die in the Countryside". It was written and directed by a man named Terayama Shuji. He got a lot of ideas from Tomino's Hell Poem for his film. People started saying that he died because of the poem. There were also rumors throughout Japan about some college kids dying after they read the poem. The legend spread, claiming that if you read the poem aloud you could have a bad fall, lose your voice forever, get really sick suddenly, or even have a car crash.

Back in the 1980s in Japan, it became fashionable to record friends while they read the poem aloud. This fad took off and it was said that reading the poem aloud didn't usually cause any problems. It appears that the curse has an unpredictable nature. It could even be part of a mysterious pattern that we don't fully understand yet. These days in Japan, even the older and wiser folk avoid talking about the poem, worried that it might bring them bad luck.

If you would like to try it for yourself, here is a version of Tomino’s Hell translated into english by David Bowles:

>
> Tomino’s 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.
>
>
>
>