About this video

• Video Title: japan’s darkest educational video game.
• Channel: 4o3o1
• Speakers: [No speakers identified in the transcript]
• Duration: 01:32:15

Overview

This video explores "Kyoto Sen Monogatari," an educational video game that teaches about life, folklore, and the darker aspects of medieval Japan, specifically the Heian period. The game uses an in-game encyclopedia to link its content to real-world documentation. The video walks through various scenarios, historical figures, Buddhist and Yin-Yang practices, and the game's depiction of the six realms of Buddhist existence, including different levels of hell.

Key takeaways

• Educational Game Mechanics: The game "Kyoto Sen Monogatari" utilizes an in-game encyclopedia to provide context and link gameplay to historical and cultural documentation of medieval Japan.
• Heian-Kyoto Exploration: The video showcases the city of Heian-kyo (modern Kyoto), detailing its social structure, obstacles to movement, and various locations like the Eastern Market.
• Buddhist and Spiritual Practices: The game depicts various spiritual and religious elements, including the chanting of "Nenbutsu" associated with Amida Buddha, the practices of Shingon Buddhism, and Yin-Yang divination.
• Reincarnation and the Six Realms: A significant portion of the video explains the Buddhist concept of reincarnation and the game's portrayal of the six realms of existence (heavenly beings, asuras, animals, hungry ghosts, humans, and hells), detailing the punishments and experiences within each.
• Historical Figures and Folklore: The video introduces and reenacts stories featuring prominent historical figures like Watanabe no Tsuna and Abe no Seimei, alongside folklore tales from collections like the "Konjaku Monogatari."
• Thematic Exploration of Darkness: The game highlights the darker aspects of the era, including poverty, death, superstition, and the graphic descriptions of hell, as a means of education and cultural insight.

The video details eight levels of hell, each with specific transgressions and tortures.

1. Hell of Constant Revival (Level 1)

• Transgression: Killing living creatures.
• Tortures: Sinners are tortured to death and then revived to endure the suffering again. This includes being stripped of flesh by metal claws, pulverized by iron rods, or sliced like fish.
• Outer Chambers:
  • Chamber of Burning Vats: For those who killed and ate living beings; sinners are boiled in iron cauldrons.
  • Chamber of Whirling Swords: For those who killed living beings in a state of passion; sinners are subjected to raining red-hot iron clubs and sharp swords.
  • Chamber of Joylessness: For those who killed birds or animals or tormented them; sinners are attacked by birds, dogs, and foxes with flaming snouts, and maggots bore into their bones.
  • Chamber of Darkness: For those who killed an animal; sinners are roasted by a tremendous wind of sharp, hot swords.
  • Chamber of Extreme Agony: For those who unreasonably killed living beings; sinners are grilled on iron and suffer at the foot of a cliff.
  • Chamber of Excrement: For those who killed a deer or birds; sinners are thrown into boiling mud of dung and urine, eaten by maggots.
  • Chamber of Myriad Cruelties: For those who tortured people; sinners endure various tortures like being tied up, beaten, thrown off cliffs, or forced to inhale smoke.

2. Hell of Black Chains (Level 2)

• Transgression: Stealing.
• Tortures: 10 times the severity of the Hell of Constant Revival. Sinners are laid on burning iron grills, stabbed with searing spears, chopped with axes, or wrapped in hot iron chains. They also walk with iron weights along chains strung between iron mountains, falling into vats to be stewed.
• Chambers:
  • Chamber of Decimation: For those who killed a person, bound a person, or stole food; demons beat, slash, and shoot sinners with arrows.
  • Chamber of Endless Screams: For those who preached untrue sermons or committed suicide; sinners are tied to red-hot iron bars, thrust into burning coals mixed with swords, or torn by dogs with flaming fangs.

3. Hell of Mass Misery (Level 3)

• Transgression: Committing adultery.
• Tortures: Instruments of torture crush sinners, who are chased between closing mountains, ground up in mortars, or cast into rivers of molten copper. They also climb trees with sword-like leaves only to find women at the bottom, and are grilled or have molten copper poured into them.
• Chambers:
  • Chamber of Horrors: For those who forced a child into inappropriate acts; sinners watch demons attack their own children, then have molten copper poured into their anuses.
  • Chamber of Stoic Endurance: For those who had an affair with someone else's wife or mistress; sinners are grilled, reborn, and if they scream, fire enters their mouths.

4. Hell of Wailing (Level 4)

• Transgression: Wrongdoing while drunk, mocking those forced to drink, or selling watered-down liquor.
• Tortures: Demons roar, beat sinners with iron poles, chase them across hot metal, and dip them into searing cauldrons or vats. They are pierced with skewers and roasted.
• Chambers:
  • Chamber of Fire Clouds: For those who forced people to drink and mocked them; sinners are roasted by a 100m high bonfire until melted, then revived.
  • Chamber of Plagues: For those who watered down liquor and sold it falsely; sinners suffer 404 diseases, and fiery maggots devour them.

5. Hell of Greater Wailing (Level 5)

• Transgression: Lying.
• Tortures: Fires burn oceans and consume people like dry grass. Sinners have their mouths and tongues pinned with hot needles, or their tongues and eyeballs pulled out, and their bodies sliced.
• Chambers:
  • Chamber of Stabbing: For those who lied; mouths and tongues are pinned with red-hot needles.
  • Chamber of Infinite Torment: Tongues and eyeballs are pulled out repeatedly, and bodies are sliced.

6. Searing Hell (Level 6)

• Transgression: Holding wicked thoughts or believing incorrect ideas.
• Tortures: Fires are intensely hot. Sinners are laid on hot iron sheets, beaten, pierced, roasted, or pierced with skewers.
• Chambers:
  • Chamber of Winds: For those who believed in false ideas; sinners are blown, pulverized, and scattered by a tremendous wind, then reborn and repeated.
  • Chamber of Lotus Blossoms: For those who starved themselves or taught false ideas; bodies blaze, and they are tricked into falling into bonfire pits or ponds of flaming lotus blossoms.

7. Greater Searing Hell (Level 7)

• Transgression: Assaulting a nun or priest.
• Tortures: Suffering is 10 times worse than the six higher hells combined. Sinners have their skins peeled off by flaming swords, fried on griddles, and have molten iron poured into them.
• Chambers:
  • Chamber of Every Agony: For ordained priests who engaged in sexual relations with women upholding teachings; skins are peeled, bodies fried, and molten iron poured into wounds.

8. Interminable Hell (Level 8)

• Transgression: Denying karma, slandering teachings, or eating alms of believers.
• Tortures: A thousand times worse than the seven higher hells. It's filled with flames, stench, and screams. Sinners hang upside down for 2,000 years, are burned, pierced, or fed molten iron.
• Chambers:
  • Chamber of Crashing Mountains: For stealing food from those training for Buddhahood; mountains crush sinners, who are then reborn and crushed again.
  • Chamber of the Bird Monster: For damning a river or causing death by thirst; an elephant-sized bird with flaming beaks carries sinners to their deaths, or they are chased by flaming-fanged dogs.

Yes, the transcript indicates that each subsequent Hell level is significantly worse than the previous ones.

Here's how the escalation is described:

• Hell of Black Chains (Level 2): "all the tortures of the hell of constant revival are inflicted with 10 times the severity."
• Hell of Mass Misery (Level 3): The tortures are "10 times worse" than the previous level.
• Hell of Wailing (Level 4): Described as "greater wailing," implying an intensification.
• Hell of Greater Wailing (Level 5): The suffering is "10 times worse than all the suffering of the four higher hells."
• Searing Hell (Level 6): The fires are so hot that "the flames of the higher hells seem like fog or snow."
• Greater Searing Hell (Level 7): The tortures have "10 times the suffering of all six higher hells combined."
• Interminable Hell (Level 8): The tortures are "a thousand times worse than those of the seven higher hells and their outer chambers combined."

Additionally, the duration of a "lifetime" in these hells generally increases with each level, indicating a longer period of suffering.

Here's a breakdown of the time spent in each Hell level as described in the video, including the equivalent human years:

• Hell of Constant Revival (Level 1):

  • One day and night here is equivalent to 50 human years.
  • Life lasts for 500 years.
  • Equivalent Human Years: 500 years * 50 human years/day = 25,000 human years. (Note: The video states "life lasts for 500 years" but also "One day and night here is equivalent to 50 human years." This implies a very long stay, but the direct calculation based on lifespan and the day/night equivalence leads to the 25,000 figure.)

• Hell of Black Chains (Level 2):

  • A day and night here is equivalent to 100 human years.
  • Life lasts for a thousand years.
  • Equivalent Human Years: 1000 years * 100 human years/day = 100,000 human years.

• Hell of Mass Misery (Level 3):

  • A day and night is equivalent to 200 human years.
  • Lifespan in this realm is 2,000 years.
  • Equivalent Human Years: 2000 years * 200 human years/day = 400,000 human years.

• Hell of Wailing (Level 4):

  • A lifetime in this hell is said to be 4,000 years of 400-year-long days.
  • Equivalent Human Years: (4000 * 400) days * 1 human year/ (365.25 * 400) days (approximate human lifespan days) = approximately 4,383 human years. (The video states "1.6 million days or 4,383 years in hell," implying these are direct human year equivalents.)

• Hell of Greater Wailing (Level 5):

  • One lifetime here is equivalent to 8,000 human lifetimes.
  • Assuming a 40-year lifespan for humans in that era: 8,000 lifetimes * 40 years/lifetime = 320,000 human years.
  • The video also mentions this equates to 116,800,000 days.

• Searing Hell (Level 6):

  • A lifetime in this world is equivalent to 16,000 lifetimes in the human world.
  • Assuming a 40-year lifespan: 16,000 lifetimes * 40 years/lifetime = 640,000 human years.
  • The video states this means staying for a total of 640,000 years.

• Greater Searing Hell (Level 7):

  • A lifetime is "half an eternity." The video does not provide a specific human year equivalent for this level but emphasizes its extreme duration.

• Interminable Hell (Level 8):

  • A lifetime is "almost an eternity." The video describes it as 2,000 years of listening to screams before being further tortured.
  • The video defines an "eon" as a billion years and notes that suffering for such a duration would have long lost its meaning, indicating an unimaginably long period, far beyond quantifiable human years.

It's important to note that the video itself acknowledges the difficulty in precisely calculating these durations and often provides estimations or uses phrases like "almost an eternity" for the higher levels.

Here is a comprehensive list of the details presented:

Game Title: Kyoto Sen Monogatari (also referred to as "the cosmology of Kyoto")

Core Concept: An educational video game teaching about medieval Japanese life, folklore, and Buddhist concepts, using an in-game encyclopedia linked to real-world documentation.

Setting: Heian-kyo (ancient Kyoto), Japan.

Gameplay Elements:

• In-game Encyclopedia: Provides context and documentation for in-game events and elements.
• Map/Direction Kanji: Used to access the in-game map.
• Inventory: Stores collected items.
• Dialogue/Interaction Area: For player choices and communication.
• Action Window: Displays current events.
• Combat: Involves sword fighting and ranged weapons. The player can die, leading to reincarnation or entering the hell realms.
• Reincarnation: A core mechanic based on Buddhist beliefs, influenced by karma.

Key Themes:

• Darkness of Medieval Japan: Depicts poverty, disease, superstition, demons, and harsh punishments.
• Buddhism: Explores concepts like karma, reincarnation, the six realms of existence, the Pure Land, Amida Buddha, and Nenbutsu chanting.
• Folklore and Mythology: Integrates numerous tales and figures from Japanese legends.
• Historical Context: Portrays aspects of life, society, and governance during the Heian period.

The Six Realms of Existence (as depicted and explained):

1. Realm of Heavenly Beings:
   • Experience: Pure joy, peace, tranquility.
   • End: Marked by decay signs (withering garland, dirty robes, sweating, failing sight), leading to grief.
2. Realm of Animals:
   • Experience: Living in fear, wounding each other, being prey.
   • Cause: Lack of reflection, returning no kindness.
3. Realm of Hungry Ghosts:
   • Cause: Stinginess, greed, envy.
   • Experience: 500 years of starvation. Food is often inedible (flames, cremation remnants, tree trunks, moths attracted by breathing fire), or turns to fire. Some have mouths like needle eyes and bellies like mountains. Rivers turn to fire.
4. Realm of Ashuras:
   • Experience: Born as angry, proud, or foolish demons, constantly battling gods. Live in fear of thunder (believed to be drums of gods).
   • Suffering: Inflicted by gods of the heavenly realm.
5. Human Realm:
   • Experience: The realm where most interactions occur, and where actions determine reincarnation.
6. Hells (Multiple Levels):
   • General: Sins committed in the human realm lead to reincarnation in these realms for punishment. Rebirth in these realms is temporary due to reincarnation.
   • Total Levels: Eight burning hells.

The Eight Burning Hells:

1. Hell of Constant Revival (Level 1):

   • Transgression: Killing living creatures.
   • Duration: 500 years (each day/night = 50 human years).
   • Equivalent Human Years: 25,000 years.
   • Tortures: Repeated death and revival, dismemberment, being pulverized, sliced.
   • Outer Chambers: Burning Vats, Whirling Swords, Joylessness, Darkness, Extreme Agony, Excrement, Myriad Cruelties (detailed tortures for specific sub-transgressions like cooking beings, tormenting animals, etc.).

2. Hell of Black Chains (Level 2):

   • Transgression: Stealing.
   • Duration: 1000 years (each day/night = 100 human years).
   • Equivalent Human Years: 100,000 years.
   • Tortures: 10x severity of Level 1; searing grills, spears, axes, chains, falling into vats.
   • Chambers: Decimation (beating, slashing, arrows), Endless Screams (tied to bars, thrown into coals, torn by flaming-fanged dogs).

3. Hell of Mass Misery (Level 3):

   • Transgression: Committing adultery.
   • Duration: 2,000 years (each day/night = 200 human years).
   • Equivalent Human Years: 400,000 years.
   • Tortures: Crushing between mountains, ground in mortars, rivers of molten copper, climbing trees of razor-sharp leaves, grilling.
   • Chambers: Horrors (sinners watch demons attack their children, molten copper poured into anuses), Stoic Endurance (hung upside down, grilled, reborn, fire enters mouths).

4. Hell of Wailing (Level 4):

   • Transgression: Wrongdoing while drunk, mocking drinkers, selling watered-down liquor.
   • Duration: 4,000 years (each day = 400 human years); 1.6 million days.
   • Equivalent Human Years: ~4,383 years.
   • Tortures: Roaring demons, beating with poles, hot metal, searing cauldrons, pierced with skewers.
   • Chambers: Fire Clouds (roasted until melted, revived), Plagues (404 diseases, eaten by fiery maggots).

5. Hell of Greater Wailing (Level 5):

   • Transgression: Lying.
   • Duration: Equivalent to 8,000 human lifetimes (at 40 years/lifetime).
   • Equivalent Human Years: ~320,000 years (or 116,800,000 days).
   • Tortures: Fires burn oceans, consume like grass. Skins peeled by flaming swords, bodies fried, molten iron poured.
   • Chambers: Stabbing (mouths/tongues pinned with needles), Infinite Torment (tongues/eyeballs pulled out, bodies sliced).

6. Searing Hell (Level 6):

   • Transgression: Wicked thoughts, incorrect beliefs.
   • Duration: Equivalent to 16,000 human lifetimes (at 40 years/lifetime).
   • Equivalent Human Years: ~640,000 years.
   • Tortures: Fires hotter than previous hells; beaten, pierced, roasted, skewered.
   • Chambers: Winds (pulverized by wind, reborn, repeated), Lotus Blossoms (bodies blaze, tricked into bonfires/flaming ponds).

7. Greater Searing Hell (Level 7):

   • Transgression: Assaulting a nun or priest.
   • Duration: Half an eternity.
   • Equivalent Human Years: Not specified quantitatively, but described as extremely long.
   • Tortures: 10x suffering of the six higher hells combined; skins peeled, bodies fried, molten iron poured.
   • Chambers: Every Agony (skins peeled by flaming swords, fried on griddle, molten iron poured).

8. Interminable Hell (Level 8):

   • Transgression: Denying karma, slandering teachings, eating believers' alms.
   • Duration: Almost an eternity (2,000 years of suffering before further torture).
   • Equivalent Human Years: Unquantifiable, far beyond human comprehension (eons, billions of years).
   • Tortures: 1000x worse than higher hells combined; filled with flames, stench, screams; hanging upside down for 2,000 years; burned to marrow, roasted, fed molten iron.
   • Chambers: Crashing Mountains (crushed by mountains, reborn, crushed again), Bird Monster (carried by giant bird, dropped, chased by flaming-fanged dogs).

Historical Figures Encountered:

• Watanabe no Tsuna: A warrior who combats demons.
• Kuya: A Buddhist saint who popularized Nenbutsu chanting.
• Nizo (or Eshin): A monk who practiced Shingon Buddhism and founded the Circle of the 25 Meditations; associated with Pure Land Buddhism.
• Kam no Ayuki (Abe no Seimei): A 10th-century Yin-Yang master skilled in divination and manipulating puppet demons.
• Genshin: A pioneer of Pure Land Buddhism, author of "Essentials of Salvation," and organizer of the Circle of the 25 Meditations.
• Fujiwara no Michinaga: A powerful court noble.
• Sugawara no Michizane: A statesman and scholar, later deified as a vengeful spirit.
• Emperor Kammu: 50th Emperor, moved the capital to Heian-kyo.
• Emperor Daigo: 60th Emperor, a victim of Sugawara no Michizane's curse.

Key Folklore/Story Examples:

• Losing a Wife at the Kawarano: A story of a haunted villa where a woman's blood is sucked out.
• The Demon of the Suzaku Villa: A story where a servant blames a demon for a stolen item when he was actually asleep.
• The Fox is a Nursemaid: A story where two identical nursemaids fight over a child, one revealed to be a fox.
• Yoshi's Horse: A story emphasizing empathy towards animals, seeing them as potential reincarnations of parents.
• The Basket of Fish: A woman sells snake meat disguised as dried fish.
• The Flying Kimono: A mysterious entity in the sky attacked by an arrow.
• The Ghost of the Glowing House: A divorced woman's corpse glows and is possessed, requiring a Yin-Yang master's ritual.
• Wiping out the Suchum: A story involving Minamoto no Yorimitsu and a creature with many skulls.
• Gambler at Suzaku Gate: A game of Suguroku where the prize is a woman who turns to water if touched too soon.
• Wiping out the Suchum (Re-enactment): The player encounters and defeats a beast with a monkey's head, snake tail, badger torso, and bird call.
• The Thunderbolt: A historical event where a thunderbolt struck the palace, believed to be Sugawara no Michizane's vengeful ghost.
• The Chimera: A mythical beast encountered in the Imperial Palace.
• Emperor Daigo's Death: The emperor dies due to Michizane's curse and the building collapses.
• Nicho's Journey in Darkness: A monk's vision of the hell realms and his interaction with Emperor Daigo.

Game Mechanics/Lore Specifics:

• The Beard Cutter Sword: A weapon obtained early in the game, useful against human enemies but ineffective against demons.
• Sutra Scroll: A powerful item capable of repelling or destroying demons.
• Yin-Yang Divination: A practice involving rituals, spells, and the use of a table or instrument to channel energy.
• Nenbutsu: A chant ("Namu Amidab") used in Pure Land Buddhism for spiritual practice and seeking rebirth in the Pure Land.
• Circle of the 25 Meditations: A group founded by 25 monks to aid souls in reaching the Pure Land through chanting.
• Death and Rebirth: Dying in the game can lead to reincarnation into one of the six realms, determined by karma. Players can retrieve their items from their old bodies.

Game Interface:

• Action Window
• Reference Button (to Encyclopedia)
• Location/Direction Kanji (for Map)
• Inventory Area
• Dialogue/Interaction Area

Overall Message: The game serves as a dark educational tool, illustrating the beliefs, fears, and historical context of Heian Japan through its challenging and often grim scenarios.

Here are the distances and dimensions provided for the Hells:

• Hell of Constant Revival (Level 1):

  • Located about 8,000 km below the human world.
  • It is 80,000 km in height, width, and breadth.
  • Has 16 outer chambers positioned outside the four gates of its four walls.

• Hell of Black Chains (Level 2):

  • Located below the Hell of Constant Revival.
  • It is the same size as the Hell of Constant Revival.

• Hell of Mass Misery (Level 3):

  • Located below the Hell of Black Chains.
  • It is similar in size to the Hell of Black Chains.

• Hell of Wailing (Level 4):

  • Located below the Hell of Mass Misery.
  • It is similar in size to the Hell of Mass Misery.

• Hell of Greater Wailing (Level 5):

  • No specific radius or distance is given, but it is described as having "10 times the suffering of all the six higher hells and their respective 16 outer chambers combined."

• Searing Hell (Level 6):

  • Located below the Hell of Greater Wailing.
  • It is the same size as the five higher hells.

• Greater Searing Hell (Level 7):

  • Located below Searing Hell.
  • No specific radius or distance is given, but it is described as having "10 times the suffering of all six higher hells combined."

• Interminable Hell (Level 8):

  • Located below Greater Searing Hell.
  • The description mentions:
    • Mountains 8 km high and wide.
    • A castle with seven stakes.
    • Walls beyond which are thickets of standing swords.
    • Each castle having seven stakes spouting fire.
    • 84,000 fire-breathing iron pythons.
    • 50 billion insects.
    • Demons with eight bullheads.
  • While specific overall dimensions aren't given, the description implies an immense and complex structure.

Here's a breakdown of the severity scaling for each Hell, based on the information provided:

• Hell of Constant Revival (Level 1): This is the baseline for comparison.

• Hell of Black Chains (Level 2): 10 times the severity of the Hell of Constant Revival.

• Hell of Mass Misery (Level 3): 10 times worse than the previous level (Hell of Black Chains).

• Hell of Wailing (Level 4): Implied to be more severe than Level 3, described as "greater wailing." Specific multiplier not given, but severity increases.

• Hell of Greater Wailing (Level 5): 10 times worse than all the suffering of the four higher hells (Levels 1-4) combined.

• Searing Hell (Level 6): The fires are so intensely hot that "the flames of the higher hells seem like fog or snow," indicating a significant increase in the fundamental nature of the torment. No specific multiplier is given, but it's described as a distinct escalation.

• Greater Searing Hell (Level 7): 10 times the suffering of all six higher hells (Levels 1-6) combined.

• Interminable Hell (Level 8): The tortures are a thousand times worse than those of the seven higher hells and their outer chambers combined.