In Kikuchi Kan’s story Onshū no kanata ni (Beyond Love and Hate), published in 1919, Ichikurō kills his master. He repents, becomes the monk Ryōkai, and spends his life cutting a tunnel through rock. Jitsunosuke, the master’s son, finds him and comes for revenge. He agrees to wait until the tunnel is finished.
When the tunnel breaks through, the story ends: Futari wa soko ni subete o wasurete, kangeki no namida ni musebi-ōta no de atta. The two forgot everything there and wept together, overcome with emotion.
The story draws on the Ao no Dōmon tunnel at Yabakei in Ōita, which the monk Zenkai completed in 1763 with the help of hired stonecutters.