From the recording Shame
“Tomino’s Hell” draws on Saijō Yaso’s 1919 poem, in which Tomino travels alone toward Mugen Hell amid images of blood, fire, a golden sheep, a caged nightingale, seven mountains and valleys, and a red marking needle. Oppressive layers and recurring motifs translate its childlike yet violent imagery into a descent shaped by loneliness, punishment, and separation. The track also acknowledges the later legend that reading the poem aloud brings misfortune, treating the supposed curse as modern folklore rather than part of Yaso’s original text.
Lyrics
"Elder sister spills her blood,
younger sister breathes out flame—
sweet little Tomino alone
lets fall his shining jewels.
All alone, Tomino
falls 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.
Strike him, lash him—ah!
Though never quite shattering.
There is but one road to Avici,
the eternal hell.
I beg for a guide
through that dark hell—
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 winding ravines
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.5
Sing, o nightingale,
in the vast, misty forest—
he screams he only misses
his little sister.
His wailing desperation
echoes throughout hell—
a fox’s buttercup
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 for idle fancy
are those red pins driven in:
they serve as hellish signposts
for sweet little Tomino."