Newspaper Article and “Unsolved Mysteries” (1)
(A. Newspaper Morning Edition, October 8, 1974)
THIRTEEN BODIES FOUND
KAKURIYO ISLAND, K. COUNTY, KAGOSHIMA PREFECTURE–On the 5th, a man visiting the home of a friend on Kakuriyo Island (population: 12) discovered two bodies in the island's cemetery. The following morning, T. Police Station, Kagoshima Prefecture received a report via marine radio that ten more bodies had been discovered in the island's village, as well as one on a rocky area in the sea approximately 50 meters from the island.
Police investigators believe that the bodies belong to the 12 former inhabitants of Kakuriyo Island, including Mikumo Eiko (40), and Sasakura Toshio (52), a professor at M. University who was visiting the island researching folklore, and are working quickly to identify the bodies. Investigations into the bodies' causes of death are also ongoing, and the police have not ruled out murder.
All of the bodies bore stab marks from sharp blades, with the body believed to belong to Sasakura found with particularly severe damage. In addition, because radio communication between the island and the outside world was possible prior to the evening of October 4th, it is believed some sort of incident occurred on the night of the 4th.
(“Unsolved Mysteries” Monthly Magazine, February 2017 Issue)
The Pursuit of Truth: The Case of the “Beast of Kakuriyo Island”
South of Kagoshima Prefecture in the Pacific Ocean, an uninhabited island sits alone. It is called Kakuriyo Island. The name traditionally refers to both the island itself and the neighboring “Divine Land”.
The island has a circumference of only four kilometers, but it is surrounded by the most beautiful seas in Japan, and had been prosperous as a hub of fishing and trade since ancient times. After World War II, the number of people leaving the island for the Kyushu mainland increased, but those residents who remained continued to live within their own unique culture.
It is said that there were no regular boats running from the island, and visitors were few and far between.
When discussing the island, there are two things that cannot be ignored: the “Thunder Festival”, and the story of the hidden treasure.
Among the most famous of the many secret festivals held on remote islands is the “Harvest Festival” held on Aragusuku Island in Okinawa Prefecture. It is said that Kakuriyo Island's “Thunder Festival” is just as mysterious.
The Thunder Festival is held on the island next to the main Kakuriyo Island. This sacred area, known to locals as the “Divine Land”, was once forbidden to anyone other than the island's priests. It is likely similar to the Utaki (a type of sacred place where the gods are worshiped) in Okinawa.
As a secret ritual, only those who lived on the island were allowed to participate in the Thunder Festival. Any outsider with the misfortune to be on the island when it was held would be turned away without a second thought. One theory states that the festival was a ceremony to welcome the gods coming from across the sea, but due to the taboo against allowing outsiders to witness the ceremony, no photographs, artistic recreations, or even written accounts of the festival exist.
To learn more about the culture of Kakuriyo Island, I requested an interview with Mr. A (name withheld by request), who lived on the island until he was in elementary school.
According to Mr. A, the Thunder Festival was not held on a fixed date, but would be performed whenever a large lightning strike occurred in the Divine Land. Though I am not an expert, this is the only festival I have ever heard of held in this way. Mr. A did not know the details of the festival, but it seems that the lightning itself, which sometimes did great damage to the island, was deified and worshiped.
Mr. A also told me that on the island, fishing was done with nothing but a needle and thread, that burial was a custom before the war, but simple in-coffin cremations were performed after the war... I was able to learn much valuable information about the customs of Kakuriyo Island.
Another famous story is the legend of the hidden treasure.
The story may have suddenly become suspicious, but this legend is deeply connected to the tragedy that occurred on that island.
There is a rumor that Captain Kidd's buried treasure is hidden on Kakuriyo Island. William Kidd was a real historical figure from the 17th century, a pirate who plundered all across the seven seas, and it is said that the treasures he stole are hidden all around the world.
However, the island that is famous as a suspected hiding place of Kidd's treasure is Takarajima, in the Tokara Islands, an archipelago in the wider Nansei Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture.
In 1937, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a letter stating that Kidd's treasure may have been hidden in the Nansei Islands, alongside a copy of a map that looked like it had been taken directly from the pages of Treasure Island. After being reported in the newspapers, the legend of Kidd's treasure took root in Japan. Of course, that treasure has yet to be found.
The reason this unbelievable legend spread to Kakuriyo Island is because it is known that the islanders did smuggle gold during the Edo period. There are still those who believe that the source of the gold was Kidd's hidden doubloons.
However, documentation suggests that the amount of gold actually traded on Kakuriyo Island was quite small. Therefore, it is more natural to assume that the islanders obtained the gold by secretly trading with the Southeast Asian mainland.
In any case, the truth behind the legend is not important. The relevant information is that there were those who believed that treasure was hidden on Kakuriyo Island.
On the night of October 4th, 1974, Kakuriyo Island was struck by an unprecedented tragedy.
Professor Sasakura Toshio, a folklore researcher, had been staying on the island for the previous three days. According to Mr. A, it was extremely rare for the island to have visitors, but on that day, the number of people on the main island, including the islanders, totaled thirteen.
Responding to a report, police arrived on the island on the morning of the 6th. They found thirteen bodies and no survivors. According to a statement made by the prefectural police at the time, each body had been stabbed once in the heart with a long, thin blade, like that of an awl.
I was able to speak with Mr. B (name withheld by request), a former police inspector with the Kagoshima Prefectural Police who worked on the case.
According to former inspector B, what they found when they arrived on the island was so horrible that even police personnel with extensive experience at murder scenes vomited.
The bodies were found in three separate locations. Two of them, Professor Sasakura and an islander, were found in the cemetery. The body of Ms. Mikumo Eiko was later found washed up on a rocky area about 50 meters from the bottom of the cliff below the cemetery... the remaining ten islanders were all found in their homes in the village.
Among them, only Professor Sasakura's remains were found in a gruesome state, as if an animal had eaten his entire body. It was impossible to identify his remains until they compared the body's teeth to his dental records.
The mass murder case came to be known as the “Beast of Kakuriyo Island” incident. This name was likely an allusion to the “Beast of Gévaudan”, which appeared in France in the 18th century and likewise claimed many lives.
The Kagoshima Prefectural Police staked their reputations on the results of a thorough investigation.
According to Mr. B, the investigation covered not only the entirety of the island, including the Divine Land, but also the surrounding waters. Eventually, it expanded to the point where a hundred human investigators and many police dogs were all investigating in unison.
As a result, a fourteenth body was discovered on the island.
The body in question was found burnt in a cave on the south side of the main island. It was determined to have been dead for 20 to 30 years prior to 1974. As a result, it was declared unrelated to the Beast of Kakuriyo Island incident and disposed of without being identified. Perhaps it belonged to one of those who lost their lives in the hunt for the treasure.
The prefectural police investigated with all their might, but the investigation was hindered by several factors, including a rainstorm two days after the incident.
The whole time, coverage of the incident continued to escalate.
One reason for this was the death of the first person to discover the incident (Mr. Sotani, a resident of Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture).
Mr. Sotani was a friend of Mikumo Eiko. He'd traveled to Kakuriyo Island aboard the ship Eirianmaru the day after the incident upon receiving a radio call from Ms. Mikumo... this was attested to by his family.
It seemed Mikumo Eiko was quite annoyed by Professor Sasakura, who had been investigating the island in the name of research, and had been asking Mr. Sotani, a lawyer, for help for several days.
...The fact that Mr. Sotani committed suicide by jumping from the Tojinbo cliffs in Fukui Prefecture two months after the incident was widely reported. Newspapers insensitively claimed that the Beast of Kakuriyo Island incident had claimed another victim.
Mr. Sotani had witnessed a scene horrific enough to unnerve even the most hardened of police officials. He had stayed on that island until the police's arrival. The mental strain he suffered is unimaginable.
According to his family, Mr. Sotani, who had seemed calm immediately after the incident, became increasingly strange with each passing day. For that reason, we can consider his suicide unsuspicious.
○A black and white photograph of the Eirianmaru immediately after the incident (The Eirianmaru is floating in T. Port, being towed by a police vessel)
One week after the news of Mr. Sotani's suicide broke... the Kagoshima Prefectural Police held a press conference, where they announced the following conclusion:
Professor Sasakura had been accumulating debts over the past year. It seemed that he believed the rumors of hidden wealth on the island, and so, under the pretext of research, had actually gone to the island to repay his debts. And, in fact, there were signs of digging in the island's cemetery, and an old coffin had been opened to retrieve the gold buried within.
Given the circumstances, it was thought that Sasakura had first tried to retrieve the buried treasure and take it for himself. However... an islander had spotted him digging up a grave in the middle of the night. Professor Sasakura quickly stabbed the islander with an awl-shaped object. Afterwards, he proceeded to attack the sleeping villagers in their homes, silencing them one after another.
Mikumo Eiko, who was awakened by the commotion, desperately tried to escape, but was caught by Sasakura. The two fought near the cliffs by the cemetery... and ultimately killed each other. It is believed that the awl-shaped murder weapon fell into the sea. It is also believed that Mikumo Eiko, who suffered a fatal wound to the chest, also fell from the cliffs and into the sea.
Furthermore, the prefectural police determined that the signs that Sasakura's body had been devoured were caused by three dogs kept on the island. They concluded the dogs had attacked Sasakura in an attempt to protect their owner, Ms. Mikumo. (Continued)
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