Nearly three hundred and forty years ago a beautiful woman came to visit a young priest who was training at Mount Kubote. Her name was Oaki. She stopped in the village on the way to ask directions and when she got to Kubote she was greeted with very cold wind. She started her ascent. The next day villagers found her, she had cruelly murdered and left by the roadside. Villagers decided to erect a tombstone to console her soul for having died in such a lonely place. This tombstone still stands today, it has the inscription; Today Oaki's tragic story is passed from generation to generation.
For the goblins, this was an easy task, and in a short time they had completed nearly 1000 steps. This angered Gongen. He made the sound of a cock's crow, whilst banging a hat made of straw. In line with this sound, all the cocks in the area thought it was dawn, and began to crow too. It couldn't be helped. So the goblins left Mt.Inugatake and ran towards the sea. On the way they left a message saying "We are disappointed" and one of them hit his face against a camphor tree and died. After this wood knobs appeared on the tree. Local people call this the goblin's face and called this old tree the goblin's tree. There is a goblin's tomb near here. Once it was a big mound and it is said it was a tumulus of the goblin.
Once this temple changed was a Houjuan of Tendai sect but it converted to Shinshu sect during the early 18th century. It is said that one day the priest of this temple visited a shrine named Tsunashiki-Tenmangu of Shiida and he returned to Kubote via Hachiya. When he approached Nehou temple he felt an object in his straw sandals. He checked inside his sandals and found a small stone the size of a plum seed. He walked on but once again he felt an object in the same place as before. This time when he removed the stone he kept it in his kimono sleeve. After returned to his temple he put it by the side of stone lantern in the garden. Several months later he noticed something strange happening when he was cleaned up the garden. The stone, it appeared, was bigger than before. The priest thought this stone was the reborn Tenjin-sama so he deified it in the this small shrine of the mountain cave. It is said that nowadays this stone is around 30cm diameter and still growing now.
Once two old pine trees were standing by this Kannon Hall. Now they have withered and died. In the early eighteen century there lived a couple of poor farmer near Kannon Hall. One summer night they heard the voice if a crying child. A couple went out and tried to find the crying child but they failed. They concluded that it might have been their imagination. The next night the two were awoke by same crying voice. They told the local villagers about this mysterious voice. The third night nobody heard the voice. Seven days later a Sennin(superhuman being) came to their bedside and whispered that if the crying child was rubbed with pine needles in Kannon Hall the crying would stop. Then he disappeared. The couple talked to the villagers about this strange incident. One mother tried to stop her child crying at night by getting some pine needles in Kannnon Hall and rubbing her child with them.. The child slept soundly all night. Villagers concluded that this white-dressed person standing by the bedside was the Kannon or spirit of the old pine trees. After that the villagers called the two pine trees "Crying Pine at Night". |