Mt. Inari tests people
A woman with whom I got acquainted at Ganriki-san Shop has been visiting Mt. Inari every month from 26 to 44 years old.
She started visiting Mt. Inari after being recommended by her boyfriend. At first, she visited there in long boots, a miniskirt and a beret, as if she enjoyed sightseeing.
It was January 4th then, and the mountain was so crowded with new year's visitors. It was when her boyfriend was taking a picture of her that she felt somebody on the second floor of a tea house watching her intensely. They were mumbling trash talks about her, "Lovebirds are making out!"
She looked up at the second floor to find a group of about ten girls who were looking down and shouting abuse at her. They seemed to be temporary part-time clerks at the tea house as they were wearing aprons.
Are they shouting at us? When she noticed so, she froze with fear and went home right away.
She was so confused then, although, in retrospect, she now thinks she looked so young that the girls thought they were around the same age and got jealous of her with her boyfriend. As a result, she was so deeply hurt by the one-sided unreasonable offense that she said to him that she would never visit that unpleasant place anymore.
Next February, however, her boyfriend invited her to Mt. Inari again. She declined at first as she had had a bad experience there, but he insisted that they visit Ganriki-san Shrine, which they hadn't reached last month. At last, she agreed reluctantly, thinking it would make him happy.
This time, they visited Ganriki-san Shrine without any accidents. However, they happened to sit on a base of a torii gate casually, taking pictures of themselves. Besides, they put their feet on it again and again. Furthermore, they even sat on it again while taking a lot of many photos.
The next day, she got acute stomachache suddenly to see a doctor, but he found nothing unusual about her according to the X-ray. To make matters worse, she became unable to stand. A sharp pain ran from her waist to her legs once she tried bending her waist. She had to stay in bed for two days.
Her boyfriend visited her and said, "Possibly, did your waist begin hurting after we took pictures at the torii gates?" Strangely, that made sense to her. She felt so sorry and apologized to the deity of that torii gates, saying in her heart, "I did something terrible to you. I'm afraid I don't know your name, but I'm so sorry for what I did to you. I will never do anything rude to you. Please forgive me." The next day, the pain at her waist got over as if nothing had happened.
When she visited Mt. Inari next March and April, she got offended again and again. Many things happened to her, such as rude acts and curt attitude toward her by passengers, clerks at food stalls, and Shinto priests in Mt. Inari.
One day, however, she came to realize that it might be herself who provoked people around her. As a 44-year-old woman now, she runs her own business. She tells me that she is visiting Mt. Inari monthly because she had realized Mt.Inari had tested her.
I've heard similar stories from other people, and I have similar experiences. The more promising a person is, the more Mt. Inari seems to give him/her a trial as if it shows an epitome of life.
KATO
