Amazing Report of Afterlife by a Japanese Boy Having a Memory Before His Birth

This is a true story of a boy who had a memory before his birth.

There are a lot of reports about afterlife around the world.

Most of them are reports by those who were almost dead or revived from death.

In other words, they are the reports of near-death experiences by those who came back from the entrance of another world.

Of course, there are no reports by those who have gone to another world, that is, no reports by stone-dead people.

Thus, we can only know the entrance of another world through the near-death experiences.

However, there are unique reports about afterlife by a Japanese boy who had a memory before his birth.

In other words, the boy had a memory that he came from the exit of another world.

Thus, they are unique reports unlike any other in the world.

Atsutane Hirata, a Japanese scholar who had interest on an afterlife

About 200 years ago, Atsutane Hirata (1776-1843), one of the greatest Japanese scholars, had interest on an afterlife.

Atsutane Hirata (1776-1843)

Hirata is conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies of Japan, and one of the most significant theologians of the Japanese Shinto religion.

Hirata had a great interest in the spirit world.

What will happen to us after death?

Thus, Hirata collected evidences of the spirit world from all over Japan.

On June 1823, Hirata published “Chronicle of the Rebirth of Katsugoro” based on his interviews with a boy, Katsugoro Koyata (1814-1869).

Katsugoro was a son of a farmer of Tama District, Musashi Province (in present-day Higashinakano, Hachioji city, Tokyo) Japan.

Katsugoro had a strange memory of his previous life.

On November 1822, one night, Katsugoro said to his family,

I was a child named Tozo of a family living in a Hodokubo village (in present-day Hodokubo, Hino, Tokyo).

When I was 6 years old, I died from smallpox.

Then, he told them his amazing experiences after death to rebirth.

If you are interested in Katsugoro’s amazing confession about his rebirth, please click the link below.

Here, I would like to introduce Katsurogo’s amazing experience from death to rebirth.

A Japanese Boy Wanted to See His Parents in His Previous Life

On November 1822, a Japanese boy, Katsugoro told his family a memory of his previous life.

However, for Katsugoro’s parents and grandmother, it seemed to be a white lie of a young child.

Also, Katsugoro’s story sounded a far-fetched for them to believe.

So, they did not take it seriously at first.

At that time, Katsugoro’s mother had to nurse his 4-year-old sister at the breast every evening.

Thus, she could not afford to take care of Katsugoro.

Instead of his mother, his grandmother was in bed with Katsugoro at night.

One night, Katsugoro said weird things to his grandmother.

Please take me to Hanshiro’s house in Hodokubo village.

I want to see my parents in my previous life!

According to Katsugoro, Hanshiro was his step father in his previous life.

His grandmother thought that Katsugoro was kidding and thus she half-listened to his words at first.

However, since then, Katsugoro worried his grandmother every night to take him to his previous parents.

Do you want to see your step father?

You have no other parents!

What weird things you say, Katsugoro!

But Katsugoro persisted in asking his grandmother to take him to his previous parents.

At last, his grandmother gave in his persistence.

All right, Katsugoro.

Your enthusiasm won me over.

If you insist so much, tell me more about your previous life before you were born.

His grandmother soothed Katsugoro to tell her more about his previous life.

Oh, really?

Please don’t tell anyone other than mom and dad about this.

Don’t worry.

I won’t tell anyone other than your parents.

Katsurogo made his grandmother promise to keep his previous life in secret over and over again.

Then, Katsugoro told her what happened to him before birth.

Amazing After-Death Experience of Katsugoro

Katsurogo revealed his secret to his grandmother.

I remembered well my previous life until the age of 4.

But after that, the memory is fading away with time.

He continued,

I died from diseases, since I did not take medicine.

His grandmother asked Katsugoro.

What kinds of disease?

When I died, I didn’t know what disease it was.

But, I found out later that I died of smallpox.

Oh, You found out later that you died of smallpox.

But, that’s little weird, I think.

Why do you think so?

When you died, you did not know the disease name.

Yeah.

But you found out after death that you died of smallpox.

Though you already died, how did you know that?

I heard someone was saying that I died of smallpox.

So, you heard someone’s voice after death.

Yes, that’s right.

His grandmother thought that Katsugoro said weird things, because he told his memory after death.

Katsugoro Was Put in a Coffin

Katugoro continued,

While I was almost dying, I had a difficult time feeling the agony of death for a while.

But, after I died, I had no pain at all.

Then, my body was put in a coffin.

When they pushed my body hard into the coffin, I flew out of the coffin.

Then I found myself standing outside the coffin.

After that, they lifted up my coffin and walked toward a mountain.

The coffin was covered with a white cloth.

While they were heading toward the mountain, I sat on the coffin.

After a while, they arrived at a cemetery in the mountain.

Then, they began to dig a hole.

After they dug a big hole, they lowered my coffin into the freshly dug grave.

When the coffin slammed into the bottom of the grave, it made a loud bump.

I remember it well, because I was surprised by that loud sound!

Katsugoro Attended His Own Funeral

Then, a Buddhist monk began to chant a section from a sutra.

Many Japanese at that time believed that if a Buddhist monk chants a sutra for the dead, the dead can go to paradise.

Later, Hirata asked Katsurogo about the effect of chanting the sutras.

Japanese people believe that clergies are sacred.

After the Buddhist monk chanted the sutras for you, which of heaven and hell did you see?

However, Katsurogo shrugged prosaically.

The Buddhist monk chanted the sutras for me but nothing changed me.

It costs a lot of money for calling a Buddhist monk for a funeral but his chanting of the sutras was completely ineffective.

So, I really hate the monk and I came back home from the mountain.

A Mysterious Old Man Took Katsugoro to Another World

Interestingly, Katsugoro told that a mysterious old man appeared before him.

After I came home, I sat on the table in my house.

But, even if I speak to someone in my house, no one noticed me, as if they could not hear my voice.

At that time, an old man in black kimono appeared.

According to Katsugoro, the old man wore his gray hair long.

He called Katsurogo.

Come here, boy!

Katsugoro followed the old man, since he had nothing else to do.

He walked for a while and then he saw a field of grass.

Katsugoro did not know where it was but it was a beautiful place.

So, Katsugoro ran up to the field of grass and play on it.

He was playing on the field with flowers.

When Katsugoro tried to break off a branch of a tree, a small crow flew out of the tree.

I was very frightened to see a crow fly out of the tree.

Katsugoro said.

Strangely, when Katsugoro was playing on the field, he sometimes heard his family’s voices saying something in his house.

He also heard the Buddhist monk chanting of Buddhist sutras.

Katsugoro said,

No matter how far apart, I heard the family’s voices saying something and the Buddhist monk’s chanting in my house.

Interestingly, when his family placed a food offering for him, he smelled it.

Katsugoro said,

I could not eat the offering but when they placed a hot food offering, it smelled delicious.

Since then, three years have passed.

After that, Katsugoro returned to this world by the mysterious old man.

As for the detail of Katsugoro’s rebirth, I will write in the later post.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Someday, when you attend someone’s funeral, you may hear someone’s voice.

Also, you may feel like someone is watching you.

Even if you look around, there is no suspicious person watching you.

Maybe it’s just my imagination…

However, it is not your imagination, because

they are always watching you even after death, just like Katsugoro!

Published on June 2, 2019

Written by OTAKUPAPA

References

1. Hirata Atsutane (June 1823). “Chronicle of the Rebirth of Katsugoro“
2. Hino City Local Museum (2015-2018). “The Story of Rebirth of Katsutoro“
3. Katsugoro Koyata in Wikipedia.