Japan's Haunted Temple Gate to Hell: Supernatural Folklore | Thursday Thrills

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At a small temple in eastern Kyoto, a rope hangs
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through a hole in a white wall. Pull it, and
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a bell you cannot see answers from the other side.
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According to temple tradition, that sound travels much farther than
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just the courtyard. It reaches the realm of the dead,
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where listening spirits can hear that the road home is open.
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Then walk behind the main hall. There's a well. The
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legend says a 9th century court official entered that well
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after sunset, descended to the court of Enma, and worked
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among the judges of the dead until it was time
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to report for duty in Kyoto again. Government official by day,
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underworld official by night. And tomorrow, this legendary entrance begins
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a rare public viewing. This is Thursday Thrills, a quick
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weekly ride into the creepy stories, haunted places, weird obsessions,
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and eerie little corners of the world worth talking about.
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I'm Enrique Couto, and tonight we're headed to Kyoto's legendary
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gate to the underworld. How did a real courtier become
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the night shift employee of the afterlife? And why did
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one ordinary crossroads become a doorway between worlds? Rokudo Chinnoji
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sits in Kyoto's Higashiyama district. It's an active Buddhist temple,
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a place of worship and ancestor remembrance, not an abandoned ruin.
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The legend's threshold to the next world does not need
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a crumbling castle, because it has a street address. The
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temple's welcoming bell is called the Mugaigane. The bell itself
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is hidden inside a walled structure. From outside, a visitor
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takes hold of a rope extending through a small opening
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and pulls. You don't see the bell swing. You pull
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a rope, something concealed answers, and the sound is allowed
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to do the traveling. Temple tradition says its voice can
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carry all the way to the dead. But that is
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only one direction of traffic available here. The bell calls
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spirits toward Kyoto. The well behind the main hall supposedly
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carried one living man the other way. A modern video
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game is about to turn this part of Kyoto into
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a supernatural battlefield. Geography had already done the set dressing
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for them. The road past the temple continued toward Toribeno,
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a historic funerary area east of the old capital. For generations,
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the dead were carried in this direction. The streets of
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the living receded behind a funeral procession, while the burial
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ground waited ahead. A practical road gathered a spiritual shadow.
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The area became known as Rokudano Sushi, the crossroads of
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the six realms. In Buddhist cosmology, those realms include hell,
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hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, human beings, and heavenly beings as well.
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They're not six floors of a Christian hell. They are
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realms or modes of existence within the cycle of rebirth.
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At this crossroads, though, the name becomes wonderfully literal. The
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question is no longer which street you're taking, but which world.
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Rakuto Chinyo-ji traces its origins back more than a thousand years...
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although its own history acknowledges competing stories about exactly who
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founded it and when. The legend needs less certainty. It
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needs a temple beside an old road of the dead
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at a place people already understood as a kind of boundary.
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Then it needs the one man strange enough to use
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the employee entrance. That is part of the spooky fun here.
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In the legend's logic, the story doesn't need thunder splitting
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the sky or a flaming doorway beneath the city. A
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courtier finishes his work, waits for daylight to thin, walks
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toward a temple, and disappears behind the main hall. By morning,
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he's back. The impossible is treated like... A bus schedule.
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Onono Takimura was real. He lived from 802 to 852
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and built the kind of resume that makes a later
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supernatural legend feel inevitable. He was a scholar, poet, and
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imperial court official. He was selected as a deputy envoy
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to Tang China. But in 838, he refused to sail,
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criticized the mission, and was exiled to the Oki Islands.
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He was pardoned two years later, returned to the capital,
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and eventually rose to senior office. That is the documented Takimura. Brilliant. Outspoken. Punished.
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restored and apparently very difficult to keep in the place
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assigned to him. Then the stories gave him a second job.
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By the 12th century, collections of medieval tales were portraying
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Takemura as an official in the court of Enma, the
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judge of the dead. Enma is not the Christian devil.
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Think of him here as... the fearsome authority presiding over
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an organized underworld, one with judgments, records, officials, and, apparently,
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a demanding night schedule. During daylight, Takamura served the imperial court.
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After dark, according to legend, he reported to Enma. If
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medieval storytellers needed a civil servant capable of holding office
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in two worlds... they chose pretty well. Takamura had already
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survived exile and returned to government. He seemed like a
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man who could appeal a judgment, correct the paperwork, and
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still make it back before the morning meeting. One medieval
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tale sends a court official into the underworld after his death. There,
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among Enma's officials, he recognizes Takamura, That is such a
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perfect detail of a nightmare. The dead man does not
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merely discover that the afterlife has a bureaucracy. He discovers
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that a colleague from work is already on staff. Takamura
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intervenes for him and helps secure his return to life.
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Different versions change the identity of the man he saves,
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so this is a legend with moving parts. Not a
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laid-out transcript, but the central image stays put. Takemura belongs
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in both courts, and he has enough influence below to
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send someone back above. The Kyoto tradition eventually supplied his commute.
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The well behind the temple's main hall is identified as
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the route Takemura used to enter the underworld. Written connections
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between Takemura and this temple appear by the early 13th century.
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A centuries-old pilgrimage image even labels the well as the
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one through which he commuted to his second job. He
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did not fall in. He punched a clock. In the
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logic of the legend, that changes everything about the opening.
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A well is supposed to end at water. This one
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ends at an appointment. Somewhere below waits a court with
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records of the dead, and the man descending is not
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a prisoner or a lost soul. He knows where he's going.
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Presumably somebody expects him on time. The temple also identifies
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a second well on former temple land as his route back.
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Older traditions placed his return door elsewhere in Kyoto Which
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gives the legend one more unsettling wrinkle The road home
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has moved as the story traveled That second route is
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the detail that follows you Going down is easy to understand.
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Gravity handles most of the sales pitch. Coming back, that
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requires finesse. The legend gives Takemura something more valuable than courage.
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He knows which opening leads out. The wells are real.
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Their supernatural assignments belong to tradition. So please don't try
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to settle the question yourself. personally. Still, one mysterious well
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could be an accident of storytelling. An entrance and exit
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feels more like infrastructure, albeit of the dark and underworld variety.
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If you enjoy these quick trips into haunted places and
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strange folklore, Make sure you subscribe to Weekly Spooky on
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your favorite podcast app so Thursday Thrills shows up every week. Plus,
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Halloween is almost here and you need all the spooky
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you can get. We publish something scary every single day
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of the week. And send this podcast to the person
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who would absolutely investigate a well-marked underworld after being specifically
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told not to. The best stories travel by word of mouth.
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Now we have to return to the hidden bell, because
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even that has a story about somebody failing to follow
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very simple instructions. According to a tale preserved by the temple,
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the monk associated with its founding ordered the bell buried
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for three years before he traveled to China. The people
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left behind managed roughly a year and a half before curiosity.
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Just one. They dug it up and rang it. The
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legend says the sound carried all the way to China.
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Instead of being impressed, the monk was disappointed. Had they
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waited the full three years, he said, the bell would
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eventually have rung by itself at the proper hours. So,
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in the traditional account, premature unboxing cost Kyoto an automatic,
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supernatural bell. This is why instructions in old legends are
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never suggestions. But a bell whose sound could cross that
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much of the living world might cross greater distances to
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the dead. That idea became popular part of the tradition.
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During Rakuto Mari, in August, worshippers ring the welcoming bell
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as part of rites for ancestors returning home. Memorial tablets, incense, water,
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and koyamaki greenery all have roles in that journey. This
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is remembrance, not ghost hunting. The same doorway that sounds
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frightening when a living man travels downwards can feel loving
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when it allows a missed family member to travel home.
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This legend doesn't make every presence from the other side
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into a monster. Sometimes the dead are travelers, and the
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bell is a kind of porch light. Tomorrow, the gate
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opens again in a thoroughly modern way. Capcom's Onimusha, Way
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of the Sword, is scheduled to launch on September 4th.
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It is a supernatural action game set in a fictional
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early Edo period Kyoto, and its director says the game's
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world is centered on the real folklore, with mystery built
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into the setting. The temple has announced a special opening.
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from September 4th through the 6th to mark the release. Normally,
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private treasures and Takamura's legendary Underworld Commuting Well are included
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in the announced viewing. If a demon-hunting adventure needs a headquarters,
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a temple whose most famous courtier already had clearance for
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the Underworld is pretty hard to beat. The game supplies
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monstrous enemies and swordfights, The real location needs a lot less.
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It has an old funeral road, a bell hidden behind
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a wall, a judge waiting down below, and a well
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with a job description included. Visitors arriving for the special
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opening will not be stepping into a dungeon. They will
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be standing at an active temple while an old story
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quietly rearranges the space all around them. The garden stays
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a garden. The well stays a well. But once you
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know its alleged destination, the darkness inside it has somewhere
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to be. And that may be why Takamura's story keeps returning.
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It takes death. the most unknowable journey we have, and
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gives it a route. There is a crossroads, an entrance,
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a judge, an official, an appeal, an exit, and a
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bell to guide travelers home. The afterlife is no longer
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a shapeless dark. It has an office, and worse yet,
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it has a commute. So how did a real court
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official become Kyoto's legendary night shift employee in the afterlife?
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The evidence gives us a gifted, defiant courtier whose life
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invited larger stories. Medieval storytellers placed him beside Enma. Kyoto
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gave him a crossroads already associated with death, and local
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tradition gave him a well. None of that proves the
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well leads anywhere supernatural, but it does show something more
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interesting than a simple haunted place claim. A legend and
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a landscape fitting together so tightly that each made the
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other feel inevitable. Tomorrow, visitors can approach the famous entrance
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during the temple's special opening. History promises an old, sacred
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place and a physical well. The legend asks you to
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notice the route continuing below the rim. One well to
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clock in, another route to come home, and a bell
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that tells the dead when the road is clear. I'm
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Enrique Couto, and this has been Thursday Thrills. Drive safe.
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Keep your headlights on, and if you find a well
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at the crossroads between worlds, remember, the dangerous part may
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not be getting in, it may be finding the right
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way home. On time for dinner. Come back tomorrow for
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more fear. Until then... Lock your doors. As if that
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will help.