Saheki no sukune Itachi of the Junior Fourth Rank, Upper Grade, lived in the reign of the emperors who resided at Nara Palace.

Once a man from the capital went to Chikuzen and died of a sudden illness, arriving at the palace of King Yama. Though he did not see anybody, he heard the voice of a man who was being beaten echoing through the earth. At every lash of the whip, he cried, “What pain! What pain!”

The king asked his clerks, saying, “When he was in the world, what good did he do?” The clerks answered, “He made one copy of the Hoke-kyō.” Then the king said, “Atone for his sins by balancing them against the scrolls of the scripture.” When they matched the scrolls with his sins, the scrolls were outnumbered without any comparison. Then they matched the 69,384 characters of the scripture with his sins, but still the latter outnumbered the former, and he could not be saved. Thereupon, the king clapped his hands in surprise, saying “Although I have seen many people who committed sins and suffered, I have never seen a man who committed so many sins.”

The man from the capital secretly asked a person beside him, “Who is the man being beaten?” The answer was, “This is Saheki no sukune Itachi.” When he returned from the Land of the Dead unexpectedly and was restored to life, he remembered the name very well and sent a report on the Land of the Dead to the local government. The government, however, did not believe it. Therefore, he took an opportunity to go up to the capital by boat and gave a report on how Lord Itachi had labored and suffered in the palace of King Yama. At this news, his family was deeply troubled, saying, “From his death to seven times the seventh day we practiced good and applied the merits to his benevolent spirit. How can we think of him suffering severely, having fallen in an evil state?” Then they made another copy of the Hoke-kyō, revered and dedicated it in order to save his spirit from suffering. This is also an extraordinary event. (Page 274-275)