The Tsuyama massacre (津山事件, Tsuyama jiken) was a revenge spree killing that occurred on the night of 21 May 1938 in the rural village of Kamo close to Tsuyama in Okayama, Empire of Japan. Mutsuo Toi (都井 睦雄, Toi Mutsuo), a 21-year-old man, killed 30 people, including his grandmother, with a Browning shotgun, katana, and axe, and seriously injured three others before killing himself with the shotgun. It is the deadliest shooting by a lone gunman in Japanese history.
Mutsuo Toi (都井 睦雄, Toi Mutsuo, 5 March 1917 – 21 May 1938) was born in Okayama Prefecture to well-off parents. His parents died of tuberculosis when he was a baby, so he and his sister were brought up by their grandmother. He was originally outgoing, but at the age of 17 he became socially withdrawn after his sister married in 1934.
He was interested in the story of Sada Abe, the prostitute who, in May 1936, strangled her lover then severed his genitals. He had started writing a novel, Yūtokaiōmaru (雄図海王丸).[citation needed]
He took part in "Yobai" (夜這い) or "night-crawling", a rural custom which involved creeping into young women's bedrooms during the night to seek sexual intercourse.
His suicide notes indicate that after May 1937 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and the young women in the village rejected his sexual advances.
Mutsuo Toi cut the electricity line to the village of Kamo on the evening of 20 May, which left the community in darkness. At around 1:30 a.m. on 21 May, he killed his 76-year-old grandmother by decapitating her with an axe in her sleep. Armed with a modified shotgun, a katana, an axe, several daggers and 200 rounds of ammunition, he strapped two flashlights to his head and prowled through the village like a youth engaged in "night-crawling" or "Yobai" (夜這い), entering the homes of his neighbors. He killed 29 neighbors (27 of whom died at the scene of the incident, while two others were fatally wounded, dying of their injuries later)[4] and seriously injured three others in about an hour and a half. This was almost half of the residents of the small community. At dawn he committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest on a nearby mountain.
Mutsuo Toi (都井 睦雄, Toi Mutsuo, 5 March 1917 – 21 May 1938) was born in Okayama Prefecture to well-off parents. His parents died of tuberculosis when he was a baby, so he and his sister were brought up by their grandmother. He was originally outgoing, but at the age of 17 he became socially withdrawn after his sister married in 1934.
He was interested in the story of Sada Abe, the prostitute who, in May 1936, strangled her lover then severed his genitals. He had started writing a novel, Yūtokaiōmaru (雄図海王丸).[citation needed]
He took part in "Yobai" (夜這い) or "night-crawling", a rural custom which involved creeping into young women's bedrooms during the night to seek sexual intercourse.
His suicide notes indicate that after May 1937 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and the young women in the village rejected his sexual advances.
Mutsuo Toi cut the electricity line to the village of Kamo on the evening of 20 May, which left the community in darkness. At around 1:30 a.m. on 21 May, he killed his 76-year-old grandmother by decapitating her with an axe in her sleep. Armed with a modified shotgun, a katana, an axe, several daggers and 200 rounds of ammunition, he strapped two flashlights to his head and prowled through the village like a youth engaged in "night-crawling" or "Yobai" (夜這い), entering the homes of his neighbors. He killed 29 neighbors (27 of whom died at the scene of the incident, while two others were fatally wounded, dying of their injuries later)[4] and seriously injured three others in about an hour and a half. This was almost half of the residents of the small community. At dawn he committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest on a nearby mountain.
