When you receive the deity’s punishment
In those days, stray cats lived in each place of shrines, where people were implicitly allowed to feed them if it was not inside the shrine's precinct. At that time, I was more interested in feeding the cats than in worshipping, always carrying a plastic bag of dried sardines and bonito flakes with me.
When I was feeding the cats snuggling me, my hands got sticky, and I washed my hands with a dipper at a purification fountain nearby. Just then, the shrine maiden passing by said to me, "No. Don't use the dipper." The fountain was the oldest one at the main shrine, which is now forbidden for general visitors to step in. After that, I had a drink of water at a water dispenser in the precinct and came back home.
It was after 8 p.m. when I had a terrible stomachache and felt like vomiting in a bathroom. I repeated diarrhea and vomiting again and again. I alternated between sitting on a toilet bowl and clutching it in my arms time after time. It continued for 24 hours to 8 p.m. of the next day. During that time, I couldn't talk to my relative on the phone for one minute.
I had no choice but to suffer in a bathroom, detached from the outside world. Fortunately, it was from Saturday night to Sunday. I suffered from dehydration, and I couldn't call an ambulance, grunting and groaning in a bathroom with a stomachache for unknown reasons.
When I had nothing to vomit anymore on Sunday at 8 p.m., I guessed I might have got sick from the free water I had had at the dispenser in the shrine. I took the courage to call the shrine office to ask whether any other visitors had got sick from the water.
The staff member answered to me confusedly, "No, nobody made such a complaint about water." I said evasively, "I see," sitting down on my bed. Just then, I came up with an idea.
It was the purification fountain I had used to wash my hand. I was concerned my symptoms had lasted precisely 24 hours. The deity had been reminding me of what I had done in Mt. Inari. Moreover, my symptoms had been connected with water, whereas other family members had been all right although they had eaten the same things.
Only I had got sick from the water from the forbidden purification fountain. Although I have no idea whether it had been a virus infection or the deity's punishment because I didn't consult a doctor, I convinced myself and reflected deeply on what I had done.
KATO
