At the foot of Mount Fuji towards the end of the 17th century, eight year-old Iwajiro attends a lecture on the Eight Hot Hells, and develops a burning fear of fire that will prove fundamental to his future.
Shaken, he asks his mother if there is any way of escaping damnation. A pious woman herself, she advises Iwajiro to attend the temple of Tenjin, where he is told to awaken each night at the hour of the Ox—that is to say 2 AM—and chant a certain sutra.
In this way, his unsettled soul finds slight respite, but in time his new-found faith divides his family. On the one hand, Iwajiro’s mother encourages her son, seeming to believe his devout behaviour will pave the way for something greater. His father, unfortunately—a businessman once poised to become a monk himself, who now neglects his own devotions—thinks it “ridiculous. You’ll turn him into a useless layabout, a lazy good-for-nothing with his head full of nonsense about burning in hell.”
Little does he know who or what his son will one day become.
[He should have had a little faith, eh?]