(A) Enoshima Pool

In Sagami Province, there is a 200 foot-high waterfall called Shiokawa Falls in a hamlet in a mountain called Aikawa Village near Mt. Tanzawa*. And just above the falls is a pool of unknown depth called Enosima Pool. Locals say this pool leads to the Benten Cave on Enosima Island**. A long time ago, a woodcutter in this village dropped his lunch box when he finished eating it by the pool and was about to drink water. Not long after, he visited Enosima Island and found his lunch box in a rock cave there. There is a Tengu living in Shiokawa Fall, and it is said that if someone goes to the foot of the fall and makes a loud noise, he will get angry and increase the water there, and those who go to see the fall will try it, but I have not yet asked them if the water increased as a result. (Shoji Kojima in Umanori, Hachioji, Musashi Province)

(B) Horai Grotto

A large grotto, locally called Ananjo, is located in a rock near the Horai district on the upper reaches of the Sakoma River in Kikuchi County, Higo Province. The entrance is 18 feet wide, but the back is getting narrower and narrower, and no one has ever checked how far it extends. Once upon a time, someone put a chicken in this hole, and it never came out. Then, a few dozen miles away, from a cave on Mt. Kora* in Chikugo Province, a chicken that no one should have let in came out with a crackling sound. And the number of days it walked out was just right. That led us to conclude that the Horai Grotto extends all the way to Mt. Kora. (Shin'ichiro Udo in Kikuchi, Higo Province)

There is a story that alligators (or sharks) * lived in a waterfall basin at Gakuen Temple in the Province of Izumo, and Priest Chishun was served by Buddhism, but this waterfall is said to continue to a port called Kawashimo about a mile away, and there is a story that a child somewhere fell into this waterfall and disappeared, but after a while his body floated to Kawashimo Port. (Ryozo Shimizu)

(A)

*Mt. Tanzawa: A mountain in the Tanzawa Mountains of Kanagawa Prefecture at an altitude of 1567 meters. Along with the surrounding mountains, it is designated as Tanzawa-Oyama Quasi-national Park.

**Enoshima Island: A landlocked island in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture. In 1182, Minamoto no Yoritomo dedicated the shrine to Benzaiten (Benten). In the Edo period, the belief in Benzaiten became popular, and many commoners came to visit it for sightseeing. Benzaiten was adopted by Buddhism from the Hindu goddess Sarasvati and is worshipped in Japan as a goddess of water and property.

(B)

*Mt. Kora: A mountain 312 meters high in Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture. Halfway up the mountain is the Kora Taisha Shrine, which has long been worshipped.

(C)

*alligators (or sharks): In the dialect of ancient or modern Japanese, sharks are called 'wani' (alligator).