Today, I'm writing about "Hyakudo-ishi", which I happened to find in the precincts of a Shinto shrine while walking my dog. The picture shows it. It seemed to have been set several decades ago.
If someone has a strong but almost hopeless desire, he or she might make a wish to the god in a shrine. How sincere the wish is, is said to be evaluated by God by the number of his or her visits to the shrine. "Hyakudo" means a hundred times. That is to say, people believed that the wish would come true if the number of their visits reached 100.
People pray for something moving back and forth between this Hyakudo-ishi post and the altar of the shrine. People start moving from this "hyakudo-ishi" post to the altar, pray and come back to the post after the prayer. They repeat this procedure 100 times. You see two layers of plates in the post. These plates are used to record the number of the visits. Every time they start visiting, they move the plate and count the number of visits. One of the two layers would be a tenths place and another is a single unit digit.
This custom is sometimes seen in period films and I supposed that it had disappeared a long time ago, but it survives even in this developed era. It was simply a surprise. This shrine is sited in the forest and couldn't be reached by car. I didn't notice the shrine until today. I have my mind set on walking everywhere within five kilometers in radius around my house.
(Vocabulary)
the precincts of a shrine 神社の境内
precinct [C](米) 行政区/[C](米) (特定地域の主要な) 警察署/precincts 《複数扱い》 (大学・大聖堂などの) 構内, 敷地
votive 願掛けの 奉納された
a votive offering 奉納物
make a wish to a god 願掛けをする
stand before the altar 神社の拝殿の前に立つ
a single unit digit 一の位
a tenths place [digit] 十の位
costume drama/piece/play 〔【注意】日本語の「コスプレ」の意味はない。〕//historical play//pageant（大仕掛けな）〔地域の歴史や伝統を題材にしたもので演劇や山車を連ねたパレードの形を取ることが多い。〕//period film/play //samurai dramas 時代劇
survive [自] 〈物体・建物・慣習・考えなどが〉 残っている, 残存する
A few pages of the original manuscript still survive. 原稿の数ページが今なお残っている．
have one's mind set on doing ぜひ～しようと思う
within a __-mile radius 半径＿マイル以内で
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