Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Hell Dogs, Dogs of Hell
Category: Dog
The Myth
In the Usuki domain of Bungo Province during the An’ei era, there lived a man named Den’emon in the village of Hōsen’an. After falling gravely ill, he suffered for about one hundred days and died on the fifteenth day of the third month in the year 1776.
Yet after half a day had passed, Den’emon suddenly revived. When the villagers gathered around him, he told them of what he had experienced after death.
At the moment he thought he had died, he felt himself falling from a great height into a place of absolute darkness, like plunging into the bottom of a well. The darkness there was deeper than any night in this world, and nothing could be seen.
After a time, he heard barking.
The sound was so terrible that it filled him with dread beyond description. The villagers asked how loud it had been, and Den’emon replied that even if a hundred claps of thunder were combined, they would not equal the roar of the dogs in hell. Though he could not see them, their voices shook the darkness, and he also heard the screams of sinners who trembled in terror at their approach.
Overcome with fear, Den’emon began to chant the nembutsu over and over. As he prayed, the dreadful place seemed to fade away, and suddenly he awoke back in his own bed, alive once more.
After this experience, Den’emon declared that he had lived without faith and had entertained only evil thoughts, but now he wished sincerely to be reborn in the Pure Land. He said that no suffering in this world could compare to the terror of hearing the barking of the dogs of hell. From that day forward he devoted himself to the Buddha and constantly chanted the nembutsu.
Hearing his story, many villagers were moved to faith as well. It was said that the terrible barking of the dogs of hell described by Den’emon matched what was written in Buddhist teachings, and so his tale was taken as a warning to live a righteous life.
Gallery
Sources
Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Jigoku-inu. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1077741606.html
Interpretive Lenses
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