Great Construction
The Battle at Flat Pass of Hades
As I am occasionally asked about the title of this essay, I shall provide a general summary. The Battle at Flat Pass of Hades (Yomotsu Hirasaka no Tatakai) is of course an account from The Record of Ancient Matters (Kojiki), and I shall describe the particulars of how I actually experienced this conflict.
Just about twenty years ago, at a point along the avenue leading to the Meiji Shrine from the direction of the Aoyama District, about three hundred meters at the lowest point along the gradually rising slope, facing the shrine, on a little backstreet lived in the area in those days a certain viscount. On day, I was invited to the residence. The viscount and his family had fallen on hard times, and they were living in distress. They had just started a faith based on a form of Shinto. With only a few adherents, they were in circumstances in which they still could not cover their living expenses. Their worship centered on the Earth Eternal Standing Deity (Kunitokotachi no Mikoto), so at the time I did feel something mysterious, and we had a very engaging discussion about aspects of faith as well. I also promised them rather substantial support. At that time, one thing I did learn from my spiritual sense was that this household would become Yomotsu Hirasaka—the Flat Pass of Hades. Yomotsu has the meaning of “to hold the world,” which means the emperor of Japan. Furthermore, what had vanquished the Shogunate, then succeeding it was the Meiji emperor, and as the avenue leading to the Meiji Shrine was a level slope, so it became the Flat Pass, literally “even slope.” Interestingly, when the viscount and I came to be on more cordial terms, we visited each other’s homes several times. The last time we met was when I had been invited to his home for dinner, so both my wife and I went. For this visit, we took a present, and indeed it was most mysterious, and the gift became a treasure of the viscount’s household. Until the occasion of that visit, a conflict had come about between the viscount and I. It was a rather complicated affair, so I omit the details of it here, but at the end of that conflict as a form of reconciliation was the dinner to which I had been invited.
Thinking about the whole course of the affair from beginning to end, I can only think of it as a small prototype of the Battle of the Flat Pass of Hades. Furthermore, the conflict having been won, my visit that night was in the sense of the enemy taking reparations in the form of tribute, that is, taking the treasure previously mentioned.
So, as described above, when I think of the whole process from beginning to end, I can only think of it as a prototype of the Battle of Flat Pass of Hades.
Several years after these events, something intriguing occurred in 1938. The origins of the occurrence were the following. In 1934 I had rented a place to carry out my practice of a faith-based healing treatment at Hirakawa-cho in Kojimachi Ward. Just about a year or so into the practice, it saw great growth, and the need arose for the appropriate facilities for religious activity. There was land and a house, now the Hôzan-sô, put up for sale at Tamagawa Kaminoge, and so I put in a bid for the property. The economic times were very good, and even though the seller’s asking price was only one hundred thousand yen, all I had was a mere five thousand yen. However, I wanted the place more than anything. I honestly told the owner of my situation, and the interesting fact came out that the owner was laden with debts and wanted to get away as soon as possible. Differing from the present, in those days there were hardly any buyers. The owner was plagued by bill collectors, and he told me that if I put down ten thousand yen, he would promptly vacate the premises. The rest of the payment could be made in installments. I borrowed five thousand yen from others, and paid the requested ten thousand yen. I moved in on October 1, 1935.
Even though I say I “moved,” matters were still not settled. As I had paid only ten thousand yen for a purchase worth one hundred thousand yen, three months later, for the second installment of twenty thousand yen, I went all over the place borrowing money and was at last able to pay the installment. However, the property had been held as collateral for a loan by the Nippon Kangyo Bank, and the owner had paid back hardly any of the installments. The owner had kept this fact hidden from me and it was not until after the property had been purchased that I found out about the situation. I regretted my rash impulsiveness, but the deed had been done. After a while, Kangyo Bank put the property up for auction. I think that the debt had been, with principle and interest, fifty thousand yen. At the first auction, Kangyo Bank put the designated price at fifty-five thousand yen, but no one tendered a bid. At the second auction, the price was set to start from forty-five thousand yen, but I thought that since the price would become much cheaper at a third auction. I did put in a bid, but I was too greedy.
Unexpectedly, at the second auction, with the price at forty-five thousand yen, a bidder did appear and the offer was accepted. Receiving that notice, I was simply struck, but by then matters had already gone too far. I consulted an attorney, and he said there was one week until the sale was finalized and that during that period a formal complaint could be lodged, so there was a thread of hope. Here is where the miracle occurred. On the last day of the one-week period, the lawyer had come to my house, and, afterwards on his way, stopped by a certain place. While the lawyer was talking, this person, the host, was supposed to have said, “If the period for Mr Okada’s auction decision is one week, then that deadline must be around today sometime.” When he heard this, the lawyer realized that the day was an important one, that the day was quite certainly the limit of the filing period, and quickly returned to his office, prepared the papers, and took them to the courthouse. He took them at eleven o’clock that night. After one hour, the real estate would become the eternal property of the buyer. What an important one hour it was! The foundations for the Japan Kannon Church were laid in this house, so if the lawyer had failed, the growth we see today would not have been possible.
One thing I did think of at the time was that the security deposit for submitting an objection to the auction sale was rather a large amount of money, but miraculously, it was gathered together. Of course, this amount was made up in one-hundred yen bills, and the Chinese ideogram for “one hundred” can also be pronounced momo in Japanese. In other words, the one-hundred-yen note became the fruit of the peach (momo). Such is most likely the same significance as when the divine forces that had at one time appeared to be facing defeat at the Battle of Flat Pass of Hades, used the fruit of the peach they had received from Izanagi to throw against the army of demons and changed defeat into victory.
Accounts of Miracles, Jikan Library Volume 4, page 27, October 5, 1949
translated by cynndd