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January 20, 2019

When the Path to Redemption is a Tunnel

Prologue: I started corresponding with an elderly man who is in jail for a murder he committed over forty years ago. He turned himself in six years ago, as a result of a combination of guilt and seeing how the negative actions of his life had hurt him. These days, he treats his time in prison as if he is in a monastery, meditating, reading, and cleaning.

In response to him directly asking how one can atone for such a crime, I had hoped to send him a copy of one of my favorite books, Beyond the Pale of Vengeance by Kan Kikuchi, which details the story below. However, the book is out of print and hard to find, so I wrote the following as a summary/amalgamation of that and other versions of the story that I have found in various compilations, and thought it appropriate to make it public. While I cannot attest to the complete accuracy of all specifics, the following is based on a true story:

The Story of The Blue Tunnel: Ichikuro was a samurai who had an affair with Oyumi, the favorite concubine of his master, Nakagawa Saburobei, a direct vassal of the Shogun. Saburobei learned of this and attacked Ichikuro, who fought back and killed the master, a capital offense. Filled with shame, fear, and confusion, Ichikuro helped Oyumi gather their personal items and what money they could find and fled, turning to a life of crime.

At first, Oyumi would seduce a traveler, only to have Ichikuro barge in and threaten the man. This turned to directly robbing passerby, sometimes killing them in the process. They opened a tea house, but instead of living off the proceeds, used it as a front to learn about those traveling the area. Ichikuro focused on the wealthiest possible victims, making 3-4 attacks each year.

As the story goes, his last victims were revealed not to be wealthy, but a happy newlywed couple. He felt shame for robbing them, more for killing them. He returned to Oyumi with what meager funds the couple had, as well as some of their personal effects. Oyumi, in turn, scolded him for not taking everything they had. Filled with disgust for what he had become, Ichikuro ran away, not sure where he was going, just that he had to leave a place where everything was stolen from his victims.

He came upon Joganji, a Shingon Buddhist temple, and confessed his crimes to the abbot, Myohen, who noted that authorities surely will execute the young criminal. Worse yet, dying with such bad karma would surely lead to rebirth in hell. For now, the abbot suggested he take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, and work for the betterment of others. He ordained the young man, giving him the dharma name “Ryokai.”

Ryokai fully embraced his new identity and showed remarkable aptitude as a monk, but was still wracked with guilt for his crimes. He did what he could to balance his karma, with focus on helping travelers, since he had done so much to make travel a scarier experience. He came to learn of a “chain bridge” on a mountain pass, a dangerous route where many travelers died. He realized that if there was a tunnel through that part of the mountain, those lives would be spared. If he were to dig that tunnel, he would be saving these lives, and that the number of lives saved would add up to be greater than the lives he had taken.

He moved into the closest temple and begged for food and supplies. All the locals were skeptical of his motives and ability to complete this task, but over the years, they grew to sympathize and help him. After a while, however, the helpers grew frustrated with how slow the project went, and gave up. Over the years, this cycle continued, but whether Ryokai had many helpers or none, he continued working on the tunnel for decades.

Jitsunoseke was three years old when his father was killed. He was raised by relatives, but not in the luxury he was born, as his family lost status because the patriarch was killed by a mere servant. At thirteen, Jitsunoseke learned that the killer was his father’s servant, the samurai Ichikuro. He grew to manhood with a heart filled with anger. He studied swordsmanship with devotion, the focus of his life to avenge his father’s death. Eventually, his search for revenge led him to learn that the former samurai was now an eccentric monk digging a tunnel.

By the time Ryokai was confronted, he had spent so much of his life toiling in a dark tunnel that he looked old beyond his years, pale and sullen. Without fear or surprise, he admitted that he killed Jitsunoseke’s father, and that dying on the son’s blade was a fair consequence…but…

He had devoted two decades to carving this important tunnel, and it was close to completion. If only his life could be spared until the work was finished. Then, he would willingly allow himself to be killed, for the son to avenge the father.

Less out of sympathy and more for diplomacy, since it would look bad to kill a feeble old man doing a good deed, Jitsunoseke agreed to wait until the tunnel was finished. He then realized that he would get his revenge sooner if he helped with the tunnel, so set upon helping his worst enemy. As the days went on, he found his hatred for the samurai who killed his father turned to admiration for the monk working so diligently to finish the tunnel.

On September 10 of the third year of the Enkyo Era, over two decades since the tunnel was started and a year and a half after Jitsunoseke arrived, a hole went through the edge of the mountain. While the work was not entirely finished, Ryokai knew that other volunteers would be able to easily complete the task. They had literally gotten to the light at the end of the tunnel

With tears in his eyes, Ryokai turned to Jitsunoseke and told him that he was now ready to be killed. Jitsunoseke, also crying, replied, “But how could I kill my teacher?”

Epilogue: The Aonodōmon, or “Blue Tunnel” that was Ryokai’s life work can be found in Nakatsu-shi, Oita Prefecture, Japan. While it has since been upgraded to modern standards with contemporary machinery, some original chisel marks are still visible.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Aonod%C5%8Dmon#/media/File:Ao_no_Domon_tunnel_1.jpg

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