A coughing agent at Jonen-ji Temple

Once upon a time, a traveling monk visited Shimada in Kami Noba.
The name of the monk is the Genjinbo.
When Genjinbo was walking in this village, he noticed that there were many sick people. In the old mountain villages of the past, living was poor, the weather was bad and the crops could not be stopped.
Even if he got sick, young people went to work around nearby Tozuka in a poor life without seeing a doctor, and in the village was only elderly and children.
"Con, Con,"
And looking at the peasants who suffered constantly coughing, the Genjinbo was sorrowful of his lack of power.
Genjinbo says, no matter how painful humans are, they can survive if they have hope for tomorrow and a healthy body. But in this village, the hope and health that it will be lost. The Genjinbo himself may have foresee the end of his journey as a monk. He called on the villagers and expressed his determination and had them dig a big hole.

And in it, he went in to fill his own life. And he asked the villagers as follows:
"When I enter the hole, I would like to have only water flow three times a day through this bamboo tube while there is a voice reading the sutra from the soil. And when the voice of the sutras is ceased, my wish will be heard and my village will no longer suffer from the suffering of the coughing people."
He said that he had gone away in the soil.
At first, the villagers did not believe in the words of a strange travel monk, but were surprised by the mysterious behavior of his life and the miracle as Genjinbo said.
And, with thanks and sadness to Genjinbo, build a mound, build a Sakaki tree and a stone shrine on it, and praise the virtue of Genjinbo until the later world. It seems to have. And even now, the people who suffer from coughing continue to be inclined.

Yamayuri of Jonen-ji

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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