Lady

Tokuonji Temple

The area around Hinochuuo, where Kasuga Shrine and Tokuonji Temple are located along the Kamakura Highway, was once called Miyashita Village. The road in front of the shrine was called the "Mine no Michi", and Kannondo stood quietly at the intersection of the road from Sasashita.
The road leading from there to Amida-ji Temple on the peak is called the "Moxibustion point road". There was a sad event that this Kannondo guard was killed by a robbery during the Edo period. Adults and children didn't approach very much because it was said that there was a "tari", so neither adults nor children came close.
Where there were few inhabitants, wetlands and small swamps, and reeds as tall as the man's back were growing thickly. In addition, a ghost called "Sawage-bo" occasionally appeared and took the villagers to the world. It is said that those who saw the Sawage grandmother would always die, and everyone believed and feared that the old man of Miyashita-mura died three days and three nights because he saw the Sawage old woman.
－It might be that figure, perhaps, the white hair, and his face, which had been disturbed in a white kimono, and his face, was more like a stranger, rather than fear. It's irresistible, but I can't imagine who was. I'm worried about it, but I'm so excited.
It might be remembered soon, but he wouldn't live anymore. Is it a welcome from that world? Perhaps this path was connected to a different world from this world as a "swage old lady"?
Alternatively, Tokuonji is the 69th temple of the 88th Sacred Site in the east of Shin-Shikoku. It seems that he went through while singing. After the pilgrimage, my parents told me not to go far away, "Don't keep up with Zange Lady!" But it may have been said, "I'll die if I see a swage lady."
"Zanage, Zange" becomes "Sawage", and the current slope between Konan Ward and Isogo Ward is called "Sawage-zaka" and the narrow valley is called "Sawage Valley" (Sawagaya).

This is a story recorded in "Hometown Konan's Old Story".
Each folk tale is free to use in principle only for non-commercial purposes.
For more information, please contact the Konan History Council.
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