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Synopsis
Legend holds that prior to the construction of the Ao no Doumon tunnel, worshippers had to scale the cliffs the tunnel now passes through in order to reach a significant local shrine. The route was extremely hazardous, and people frequently fell to their deaths. During the Edo period, a Buddhist monk named Zenkai, who had taken a life earlier in his life, resolved to create a secure path for pilgrims as penance for his crime. Starting at the age of 49, he devoted three decades to excavating the 185-meter tunnel entirely by hand, armed only with a hammer and chisel.