Previously: The Man in the Fields.
The instructions for Tomino’s Hell are pretty simple — deceptively so. In fact, they’re so simple that it’s possible to play this game accidentally, although I, er… wouldn’t recommend putting yourself or anyone else in a position where that might happen if you can help it. The game was apparently once quite popular on 2ch, and although some who tried it reported that nothing happened, others who mentioned that they were going to give it a shot never reported back.
Why they were never heard from again remains to be seen.
[Like what you read? Consider supporting The Ghost In My Machine on Patreon!]
I’m honestly not totally clear on the origins of Tomino’s Hell; most versions of the story online include some background on it, but I’ve found verifying it to be a little iffy. It’s said that the poem became known to modern audiences after Japanese writer and film critic Inuhiko Yomata (also known as Goki Yomata) included it in a book published in 1998 called The Heart Is Like A Rolling Stone; however, it’s also noted that the poem itself is much older than that, having originally been written by Saijo Yaso in a poetry collection published called Sakin, or Gold Dust, in 1919 — Sakin being Yaso’s 27th collection of poetry.
Both Yomota and Yaso are real people. Yomata was born in Nishinomiya on February 20, 1953 (making him 63 now), while Yaso lived between 1892 and 1970. Both also appear to have published the works in question, although honestly I have a little trouble with the timeline of Yaso’s work. If Yaso was born in 1892, and Sakin was published as his 27th poetry collection in 1919, that means that by the time Yaso was 27 years old, he had published a truly staggering amount of poetry. It’s not impossible… but it’s unusual.
Then again, I don’t have a background in Japanese literature, and I don’t speak Japanese, so it’s also possible that there just isn’t a whole lot of information available about these two writers in the English language.
In any event, I would actually argue that Tomino’s Hell is less like a game and more like a curse; the object is really not to play it. If you’d like to read the poem, do it in your head, rather than aloud. But if you absolutely must read it aloud…
…Play at your own risk.
Players:
- One principal.
Requirements:
- The poem “Tomino’s Hell.”
Instructions:
- Recite the poem aloud, in Japanese if possible. The commonly used English translation follows, although an updated version can be found here.
His older sister vomited blood, his younger sister vomited fire,
And the cute Tomino vomited glass beads.
Tomino fell into Hell alone;
Hell is wrapped in darkness and even the flowers don’t bloom.
Is the person with the whip Tomino’s older sister?
I wonder whose blood is on it?
Hit, hit, without hitting,
Infinite Hell’s one road.
Would you lead him to the dark Hell,
To the sheep of gold, to the bush warbler?
Fit as much as you can into the leather sack
For the preparation of the journey in the familiar Hell.
Spring is coming even in the forest and the stream,
Even in the seven valley streams of the dark Hell.
The bush warbler in the birdcage, the sheep in the wagon,
Tears in the eyes of cute Tomino.
Cry, bush warbler, toward the raining forest.
He shouts that he misses his little sister.
The crying echo reverberates throughout Hell;
The fox peony blooms.
Circling around Hell’s seven mountains and seven streams,
The lonely journey of cute Tomino.
If they’re in Hell bring them to me,
The needle of the graves.
I won’t pierce with the red needle,
In the milestones of little Tomino.
Additional Notes:
It is not recommended that this poem be recited aloud. Terrible tragedies tend to dog the steps of anyone foolish enough to do so — until there are no more steps left to dog.
***
Support The Ghost In My Machine on Patreon for behind-the-scenes access and other bonus content. You can also follow on Twitter @GhostMachine13 and on Facebook @TheGhostInMyMachine.
[Photo via Skley/Flickr]
Am I the only one that immediately scrolls down to the end of the poem without reading a thing?
The OP clearly says,don’t read it loudly. I didn’t read it at all.
I scrolled down too
I too scrolled down but i’m goin to do it just bcz f funnnnn…. 😂😂 _79*
What happened after reading it out loud?
Idk if I’m supposed to be dead or having a lot of misfortune right now, but I’m having an amazing day
You will get cursed it says but some people say that when they read it atloud nothing happens but overall I don’t know, I’d prefer to read it in my head then reading it atloud
Now I know that I’m not the only one lmao XD
Oh I did the same thing.
I read it
It’s only a curse if you let your mind believe it’s a curse.
Shit happens life goes on. Live each day as if were your last.
Hahaaa! Me too!
I did… It’s like, I’m not just gonna read the poem and wonder what happens next, thank you very much
I read it in my mind. I was reading so fast that I couldn’t really make note of what was happening. But I’m having a great day now, so I’m not sure if anything’s gonna happen.
I didn’t read it, I like my soul in my body, thank you very much.
I read some, in my head, I decided it was too creepy/boring.
Same!
I read it all backwards XD
What if I read it but make a bunch of mistakes while reading it out loud?
dude I did the same thing!!!
I’ve already read the poem in my head and nothing has happened to me… so im assuming it only “curses” you when you read it aloud, but i still scrolled down because that poem is creepy lmao
I read in my head and my chest instantly started hurting.
When I read my chest and my head started hurting
I read the first verse and scrolled down thinking, “I don’t wanna die.” Plus, my science teacher said that we aren’t allowed to die in school. Haha, my life…
I think it’s just a myth. I read it out loud and nothing has happened to me.
Same.
Yeah me too. I read it aloud 5 times and nothing happened 😑
I did read the poem but ……..the……instructions said to read …….it aloud!?
I think it means chant the japanese version aloud
That’s what I did and I’ve been having bad shit happen to me left and right.
In japanese
I will NEVER try this. EVER
ME!
Lmao I just read it out loud because I don’t believe any of this ‘beware because bad things will happen’
I would honestly love to know what the poem says but I’m too scared to even try to read it.
I didn’t either, I’m a huge coward.
So If reading the poem causes, great misfortunes to occur.. What would happen if I read it in reverse. Will I become fortunate???
I am a huge fan of your Most Dangerous Series!!! I found only a few days ago, and I read all of them in one day!! They plagued me
I think that might make it worse XD
What does it mean? I need it explained better.
I recited the first few lines of the poem out loud once and I know something bad happened to me but I forgot what it was.
En France, il y avait eu un live sur YouTube entre personnes d’internet. Aux alentours de minuit, ils se racontaient des histoires d’horreur ou juste de peur. L’une des personnes, un illustrateur se nommant Boulet, avait lu ce poème à tout le monde, nous donnant aussi le lien pour qu’on le lise avec lui chez nous. On peut dire qu’il a maudit au moins 3 000 personnes ! Et moi-même l’ayant fait, rien ne s’est produit. Je ne suis pas sûre que cette histoire fonctionne réellement, mais comme toujours : “Play at your own risk…”
Wow
I read it once in my head and twice out loud
So what happened after?
what if you get your phone to read it out loud? Like text-to-voice? Would you also get cursed or…?
No, if you hear it it doesn’t work
SHINOZAKI SACHIKO No, if you hear someone read it, nothing will happen to you, you’ll be fine, the same if you read it in your head, but if you read it aloud…. yeah, you’re f**ked.
I read it aloud and I’m fine along with everyone around me. It’s just an old myth a urban legend, if you will.
Well I’ve read the poem out loud so I’m curious to see if I actually do die.
Are you still with us? Lol
You don’t die you just get cursed . When I read the whole poem out loud I got a major headache after .
I never read the part before the instructions, where it explains where it’s from and origins, so I read the poem in my head accidentally. Once I got to the bottom it said it was more of a curse and something about how you shouldn’t read it. My heart literally dropped and I scrolled up to the top. I read it accidentally. But, it only said aloud, I thought I was fine but couldn’t stop thinking about it. Later on in the day at cheer I was weak, I couldn’t kick my leg up high or lift my flyer up. After cheer whenever I walked it felt like I was falling to the side and was disoriented. I also got a headache. I thought I was coming down with something until at night I thought about how strange my headache was, and I thought back to this comment. I forgot about the poem it just came back to me. This could just be a coincidence, but there is no telling. I mean you have to read it aloud, right?
Strangely , I had a headache before reading this but it perished after I read it aloud in English and Japanese… am i evil 😂😂
I read it in Japanese out loud. While visiting in Japan 😁 nothing happened. Besides scared people
I just did it in school. Not my best idea…..
Ow God I do have a headache now
You’re busted.
Most of these games have a goal- a reward- for playing. What is the point of this one?
Tempting Fate, of course.
Probably to curse your enemies… Dangerous stuff!
Um… I read this out loud… and nothing bad happen to me.
I had google translate read the Japanese version…. will that effect me? D;
I read the first line of the poem in my mind and then I skipped it all. Is something going to happen to me?
Nothing will happen to you if you read the poem in your head. You can hear someone else reading it, or you can read the poem in your head. Just don’t read it aloud, that’s when the bad luck happens. The worst that can happen while reading it in your head is a headache or a feeling of nausea.
Nothing happens if you read it in your mind. You need to read it out loud.
No you have to read it out loud.
What if there is a teacher that assigns their class to read this poem aloud for a presentation? Would there still be a curse involved?
I think so
Because you’re still reading it aloud it would, but it would only affect you. You have to hear it and see it for it to take affect.
Oh no!
Oh God, the day when you recite that curse thingy just be absent and if the teacher asks why, say you were sick.
What kind of teacher would do that lol ?
Someone who doesn’t know this, obviously.
I read this out loud accidentally
I’ll let you know if I’m still alive
HEY I am a reader from China and I also speak Japanese
Just to provide some additional background information… I read the Japanese Wikipedia and it says that Sakin is Yaso’s first poetry collection (rather than the 27th, and he had never published that much poetry collection actually)
So I think there’s a translation mistake in his English profile…
I got an enemy of mine to do it. this is where the fun begins 🙂
PFFF XD
I want to share this with you guys since it’s based on my personal experience
This Damned Poem is WRONG for the sake of Almighty God
Please do not be foolish and say “well imma go read it and nothin’ will happen” or “i don’t believe in stuff like that”
This “thing” has a demonic touch into it and I swear I never had such a terrible misfortune in my life as I had when I read the poem (Japanese Version)
Fortunatly the effects are long gone now but I advise anyone not to be fooled and put his life into danger
Reading the poem doesn’t lead to death (As I’m still alive) but misfortune, headaches, nausea or fever are likely to happen
PS: I read the poem 5 or 6 times btw
What happened?!??!!!
I read it once out loud in the japanese version and that was around 3 weeks ago bad shit is still happening
I read the poem aloud TWICE. Will anything happen to me? I’m curious! :/
Ech… I read the first few lines in my head and my foot got a tingling sensation and my head started to hurt a bit.. I’m definitely not gonna read it out loud. Lol.
I read the first 3 LINES and that exact thing happend to me, but i started crying uncontrollably. th is going on.
I tried it both in Japanese and English but nothing happened
I read it aloud but……
nothing happened -.-
R u alive now?
So I read it out loud cough* nothing happen
If people listen to me recite it, would they also get cursed?
What if I don’t read the whole thing? Like, I only read the first few lines out loud? Does that count? Or, what if I read it extremely slowly, like over a few days? Like, I recited one word, went about my life for an hour, recited the next word, and went on in this fashion for a while. Does that count as “reading it”?
Yeah…there was nothing. I did not actually experience a thing.
Its safe, guys – apart from the headache ya get.
I think all the things that happen are coincidences.
that was so depressing 🙁
All of you who read it out loud:
You’re all so brave. I chickened out when I read that
Woah, I gotta say this is some creepy stuff. I read the replies on this article. I read the first paragraph or something like that and now I feel a little dizzy? I’m hydrated, and I didn’t feel dizzy until now.
There’s no way in hell I’m reading the whole thing.
I read it.
This is gonna be a let down, but nothing. Absolutely nothing.
I read the poem aloud and in the middle I felt a sharp piercing in my chest just around the point I read “sharp needle” and later my elbows were almost unmovable.
I read this poem in my head while riding shotgun with my work partner on our way to a job site. Don’t know if it’s my bra, but I too have a stabbing pain in my chest. Nothing else right now, but if anything else happens I’ll be sure to update.
Uh uh.
Read half aloud, and I felt a pressure in my chest inhibiting my breathing, so I stopped. I ain’t fuckin with this shit
I read it all aloud and clearly with no mistakes. While reading it I felt a little uneasy but other then that I’m fine 🙁
I read it out loud and nothing happend at first but then my eyes started to burn and my ears were ringing, it was like her spirit was right in front of my face staring at me.
I read it aloud …. and nothing happen to me…..
And fortunes and misfortunes are part of life…. I don’t think it is related to this poem…
I found this poem about a year ago and I really wanted to try it out. I asked to of my best friends to read it with me at school. They agreed and during the break at school we stayed in the classroom alone and started reading it loudly together. As we were reading it nothing happened but there still was this interesting feeling I think it was only because we were a bit creeped out but nothing happened. As the bell rang I had French lesson and my best friends had German class. During French I felt really weird I can’t even explain the feeling. I asked if something similar happened to my best friends and they said that one of them almost started to crying without any reason and felt wrong. So I don’t know I guess it didn’t really worked out but then again we didn’t know what should’ve happened.
This is legit according to me. A few days ago I recited 5 to 6 lines of the poem in English. My head started hurting immediately, gradually increasing to a point where I couldn’t bare it anymore. Until this day, I have come across 3 to 4 accidents which could’ve killed me, just in a couple of days. Maybe these are warnings to not read the poem.
I ws alone When I was reading this poem, the door of my bedroom opened automatically. I closed it but it opened again. Suddenly I heard a terrible scream in the hall and I ran like mad out of my house screaming like anything…. I had it purified with incense and now still my head is aching and my heart is thumping crazily. I was never so scared in my life. I read it yesterday and was almost gonna die from an accident. Please, please do not attempt this Demonic game, may God stop me from doing such stupid things ever again…?
I just read it outloud but nothing happened yet.
I read it in Japanese, but backwards!
I read this aloud and now I have a massive headache with a feeling that someone is holding my leg down that I can’t move at all.
Hey can you have a problem after reading this poem ???????
Guys just do a simple thing….. put on your headphones and play a loud song, so that you cant hear anything and then read the poem as loud as you want and nothing will happen?
I finished the whole poem…
I read the whole thing out loud and felt fine for a little while. My leg cramped up, but it went away in seconds. Other than that, totally fine. Don’t recommend reading it though, it’s pretty creepy.
I read it aloud and nothing happened soo…
Just read it aloud and I died. Highly recommended.
I read it aloud and I feel really dizzy.
I.. I was reading this in class, fifth hour science, and just that little section. It was almost like the words were trying to force themselves out of my mouth, so much so, I had to hold my jaw and mouth shut. I actually tried to talk with my mouth shut, making noises for some words before I caught myself and reminded myself of what could happen.
And from some of the drawings I’ve seen for Tomino’s Hell… I’ve seen them, in different parts of my life. For example, one of the sisters in the music video for “Aishite, Aishite, Aishite”, and similar looking people from the corner of my eye in my dark room. They’re real.
Read it, now the waiting game.
Did you die yet?
I accidentally read the elder sister vomits part and I’m scared that my older sister might actually vomit blood. Please help. When one of my friends asked me what I read I accidentally told it. Does that consider as reading it out aloud? I don’t want my sister to be hurt please.
SAME! Im freaking out!
I’m already cursed tho 😀
I’ve read 3 renditions of the poem back to back and I am still alive. What the fuck, Tomino.
I did read it aloud in Japanese AND English (even tho I know I’m pretty late to this ) idk, I just had this random urge to read it out aloud because I don’t really believe in these things , however I kinda started to feel sad while reading it because of tominos and his sisters fate.. I can strangely approve of the fact that before reading this , I had a strong headache. And now , it’s almost gone, but the sadness still lingers there ?
I almost read it aloud by accident, I did half way until my friend stopped me. What a relief!
So is it safe to read in your head and not aloud?
I just read it out loud and I’ll keep you guys updated, but nothing’s happened yet.
I have read this aloud before nothing bad/negative has happened to me sooo far (keep in mind it was a few months ago)
Holy moly….. Me and my friends decided to check to poem out. I was reading and they were listening. I read the first four lines and then my friends told me to stop because it was too disgusting to imagine. The following night me and each of my friends who were present there had a nightmare!
I’ve read it out loud nothing happed…
I’m just glad I got caught by my teacher reading halfway through.
I read it in my head twice and so far I just feel a bit nauseous.
no chance in hell I’m ever reading it out loud though.
what if you do read it out loud? ’cause I did and I doubt anything actually but if I could get a warning or a thing I should watch out for that would be much appreciated.
I have read it about 7 times aloud and nothing has happened. is there a specific way I need to read it or does it have to be in japanese? can someone inform me on it please, it would be much appreciated
It has to be in Japanese but you have to properly pronounce the Japanese. Don’t do it, trust me.
Well, I read it aloud, and I’m fine.
I read the Japanese version about 2-3 weeks ago and ever since then bad shits been happening to me. The police have came to my house 4 times in the past 2 weeks because my parents called them. I lost my phone, my computer was taken away too. My computer was the device I read the poem off of. I also lost a really good friend around the same time I read Tomino’s Hell. I started failing 3 of my classes. I then got really sick. I dont like superstitions or bullshit like that, but all this shit is happening and it started happening after I read this. Does anyone know how to stop this or get rid of the curse? I need help please. Im not fucking around.
what happens if you only read some of the poem aloud?
So I read it out loud waited and nothing happened, and when I got up from my bed after reading aloud I felt like I got stabbed in the back so I got my mom to look at it and she said it looked like someone ripped skin off my back.
I wish I had the English version of this poem as a part of my syllabus in English textbook