Career
Until the 1982 killing by Woo Bum-kon, this incident was regarded as the second-worst massacre by an individual in modern history, behind the 1927 killing of 45 people by Andrew Kehoe. 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.
Then he strapped two flashlights to his head and prowled through the village entering the homes of his neighbours.
He killed 29 neighbours (27 of whom died at the scene of the incident, while two others were fatally wounded, dying of their injuries later) and seriously injured three others in about an hour and half using a Browning shotgun, a Japanese sword and an axe. This was almost half of the residents of the small community.
At dawn he committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. (都井 睦雄, Toi Mutsuo, March 5, 1917 – May 21, 1938) was born in Okayama Prefecture to well-off parents.
He was interested in the story of Sada Abe, the prostitute who, in May 1936, strangled her lover then severed his penis.
He had started writing a novel, Yūtokaiōmaru (雄図海王丸). 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. From his suicide notes it appears that after May 1937 when he was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis, the young women in the village rejected his sexual advances.
Toi left several long notes which revealed that he was concerned about the social impact of his tuberculosis, which in the 1930s was an incurable fatal illness.
He felt that his female neighbours became cold towards him once they knew of his illness, and that he was despised as hypersexual, and he also stated in the notes that neighbours insulted and treated him badly after he was found to have tuberculosis. Foreign revenge, he decided to enter their homes and kill them.
He waited for the time when the women returned to their houses. The authorities were concerned, and his gun license was revoked.
He however prepared swords and guns secretly.
He regretted that he would not be able to shoot some people he wanted to, as that would have involved killing people he regarded as innocent.
