Warlord Sadamitsu Usui (later one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Minamoto no Yorimitsu, famous for his extermination of demons on Mount Oe) was born deep in the mountains of the Usui Pass and was called Ara-doji or Arataro as a child. As his name suggests, he was proud of his great strength from his childhood, and it is said that he tested his power with this stone.
~The great cloud of the field of clouds~.
A long time ago, a giant spider lived in Kumoba Pond. One day, a traveler was resting in a willow tree by the pond, and as he dozed off, he saw a beautiful woman coming out of the pond, hanging a string on it, and entering the pond. Then, I saw a beautiful woman coming out of the pond, hanging a string on it, and repeating the same process over and over again. The tree was so startled that it gently attached the string to the willow tree and stood by the tree to watch. When the string finally became white, the tree fell off its roots and sank into the pond in a flash.
~Kakure Sato-
It is said that there is a cave called “Kakure-ri” on the steep southern slope of the summit of Mt. Today, the caves of Kakure-ri are said to be a nest of bats.
～Ochikochi no Sato
In the old days, the area at the foot of Mt. Asama was like seven valleys, with only a few houses scattered over a wide area in each valley. It is said that when Narihira Zaihara passed through this village, he left behind a poem entitled “Shinano naru Asama no Dake ni Tachiburi Ochikochi Hito no Mieru ya Hatokamenu.
～Laughing Hill
It is said that when Oiwake was crowded with many Iimori women, there were many young people who came from nearby areas to visit. They walked up a lonely road with no houses from Miyota, and when they reached this slope, they saw the red sky of Oiwake and heard a lively sound, It is said that he was so happy that he beamed with joy.
～Cotton burial
The Mikage Irrigation Canal runs from the north to the west side of Furujuku and Borrowjuku. When the water was first introduced into this cistern, it flowed well up to the current cotton-filled cistern, but it leaked and did not flow from that point. After much consideration, he decided that if he could get a large number of people together and put on a play, someone would come up with a good idea, and so he did. Then someone said, “It’s a pity, the water is flowing here. If we bury the cotton, the water would flow.
~wiggly abyss~.
On the way from Sugiuri to Oiwake, there is a narrow river pool called Katsura-fuchi. This pool is named after a prostitute named “Katsura” who, unable to bear her pain, ran away from the Oiwake inn, but was pursued by her pursuers and finally threw herself into the pool to her death. The name of the pool is derived from the fact that he finally threw himself into the pool to his death.
~Kamagafuchi~.
There is a permanent bridge over the Yugawa River on the way from Toriihara to Hatsuji. This is the Kamagafuchi Bridge, and below it is Kamagafuchi. Legend has it that when there was a shortage of tableware at weddings or funerals, the kappa would lend out more than he could easily afford.
～The Crow Myojin of Yui
A deity for which there are only three places in Japan? A small hokora (stone) dedicated to the god Karasu Myojin still remains in the Yui area. The Myojin is very popular among the locals because when a wart or other protuberance forms on the skin, if the Myojin’s stone is brushed against it, the wart or other protuberance will fall off. However, if you do not return the stone twice as many times as the number of stones you borrowed in return, the wart that should have fallen off will grow back.
~Kannon of Gold (Sugi Uri Kannon)
There is a story about the origin of the Kannon image in the Sugiuri district. Once upon a time, when the children in the area went to the mountains to cut brush, they found a shiny object in the grass. The people of Sugiuria immediately built a shrine where the statue appeared as a guardian deity. The temple is now deserted, but at that time there were many worshippers who came from all over the Sakuhira area, as well as from Takasaki and Amaraku counties in Gunma Prefecture, over the Wami Pass to visit the shrine, and it is said that there was always a four-dozen barrels full of coins. It is said, however, that after someone stole and pawned the golden Kannon, the number of visitors to the temple disappeared without a trace. Although the golden Kannon has been lost, it is still worshipped as the guardian deity of the Sugiuri area.
~Hochi Koishiya ……~
It is said that once upon a time, there were seven temples and eight halls in Hatsuchi, located south of Karuizawa.
In Kanpo 2, the area was hit by an unprecedented flood, and the seven temples, eight halls, and the Nioh-sama enshrined there were swept away by the waters. It is said that Hatsuchi must have been a good place for Nioh-sama to live.
～Oshidateyama
When Minamoto no Yoritomo came to hunt at the foot of Mt. Asama with his men, his beloved hawk escaped and nested on Mount Oshidate, 1,102 m above sea level. Since then, it is said that hawks have been breeding in the Oshidateyama area. Oshidate, which is 1,102 m above sea level.
～Myogaiwa ~ Myogaiwa (Myoga Rock)
According to an oral legend, the abbot of this temple buried a lot of gold in the rock, and then he sang the following song and hung it on the rock. The legend says that the priest of the temple buried a lot of gold in the rock, and then he sang the following song: “A thousand gold pieces and two thousand gold pieces were dug up in the morning sun and evening sun, but no one was able to dig them out.
～The Horse Chestnut Kayan
Minamoto no Yoritomo often came to the foot of Mt. Asama to hunt and practice his martial arts.
The name was given to the horse that ran away when it was frightened by someone during a hunt, but was unable to proceed because it had entered a thicket of kaya trees.
~Big Man Day Rambo~.
A man so large that he was known as “Dayrambo” and could pierce the clouds and straddle Mt. Asama in a single bound lived here.
It is said that this big man used to take a wild boar by the hand every day and boil it on a rock as a kamado, and that the rock that resembles a kamado near the top of Mt.
Furthermore, it is said that Kumoba Pond, which is popularly known as “Omizubata” in Karuizawa, was formed by the footprints of this great man, D’Erambo, who seems to have been an incredibly large man.
～The story of the “devil’s eyeballs”.
It is said that every year on Misoka Day in January, demons go around houses in the Karuizawa area to see which house has the most beautiful daughters, and on Setsun Day in March, they kidnap the most beautiful of the daughters. The ogre would then come and say, “I have two eyeballs, but you have three,” and run away.
The reason why people display hina dolls on March 3 is that they are imitating the appearance of their daughters.
～Lords coming through!
When the lord would pass by, the government office would notify the innkeepers, and each innkeeper would take care of the road to his own place. The innkeepers were supposed to take care of their own roads. When a feudal lord of tens of thousands of koku (about $50,000) passed through, new sand was brought in front of each house and placed in the middle of the road about 1 m wide, so that the soil could not be seen. The village officials would then escort them to the outskirts of the inn, dressed in kimono, and have a child hold a stick about one meter long and “pay the first bell” (also called “pay the dew”), followed by the village officials and the innkeeper, etc. The villagers would get down on their knees and bow their heads, and it was not possible to look in on them from inside their houses.
