Touching Stone​​​ Gallery

The second destination was too far to walk to, Kuro-e took a taxi to a mountain west of town. The middle-aged driver with a bald head kept up a cheerful conversation until the car stopped by the side of the road in front of a deep cedar forest. He turned around and said, “Go through that gate,” pointing to a rustic Torii gate at the bottom of the hill. Kuro-e paid for the ride and thanked him. Before she got off, the man added in a low serious tone, “Chūi shite kudasai!” (Be careful!) His tone caught Kuro-e by surprise; she looked at the man quizzically, but he said nothing more.

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The wooden Torii gate was so old and weathered there was hardly any paint left. A sign warning of bear hung next to the gate. Perhaps that was what the taxi driver cautioning her about, Kuro-e thought. Having hiked in grizzly bear country in Montana, she knew how to behave. She walked through the gate, making noise and talking to herself. A long flight of steps made of ancient-looking wooden logs led steeply uphill. Fallen leaves covered much of the path. As she ascended, the trees grew taller and the undergrowth grew darker. Before long, she arrived at a massive rock, big as a truck, supported horizontally in mid-air by a pair of vertical boulders, forming a narrow archway. A sign said Tsuzuki Ishi. The formation did not look natural. Some said the stones were put in place by a strong warrior named Benkei. Others suggested that it was a tomb, but no one knew who created it or for whom.

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Squeezing through the stone archway, Kuro-e found a weathered wooden Shinto shrine. A copper suzu bell hung on a heavy braided rope from the eave; an assortment of rusted ceremonial iron blades affixed to the door frame. Inside, on the altar next to the incense holders sat a wooden effigy of a horse. A wooden plaque over the door bore the three characters 山神社 – Shrine of Mountain Kami (Gods or Spirits). Kuro-e recalled one of the Tono legends and sucked in a breath.

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According to this legion, there was a falconer in the town of Tono. They called him Torigozen. One day, he and a friend went mushroom-hunting in the mountains between the town and Sarugaishi River. The two became separated. Torigozen continued to climb higher until the sun hung low in the west. It was then he saw a man and a woman with beet-red faces, standing in the shade next to a big rock. When Torigozen approached, the man kept pushing him back. Judging from the couple’s appearance, Torigozen did not believe they were humans. He pulled out a knife and swung it at the man, but the man lashed out with a vicious kick and knocked him out. Torigozen’s friend found him unconscious at the bottom of a valley and took him home. After telling his friend what had happened, Torigonzen fell ill and died three days later. It was said that the way he died was so mysterious, he might have disturbed the place where Mountain Kami were playing.

 

Late afternoon sunlight filtering through the tall trees cast strange shadows around the shrine, adding to the mysterious aura of the place. The line between real and imagined became blurred. Before she left, Kuro-e paid tribute to the shrine. She bowed and gently tugged the braided rope attached to the copper bell, a symbolic gesture of calling the Kami. To her surprise, the sound of the bell was answered by rustling noises in the bush behind the shrine. The taxi driver’s cautionary words and the bear-warning sign flashed back in her mind; she suddenly felt vulnerable. Now, she was unsure if she should make more noise or stay quiet and not to disturb the Kami.  Warily, she retreated past the giant rocks, and quietly made her way down the shadowed path.