Blogging Anecdotes of Oyasama 58

58. Today from Kawachi





‘Today there will be a visitor from Kawachi.’



“Come back soon, won’t you?”


Anecdotes of Oyasama, pp. 50–51

Translation of “Sawa’s note

“Submitted by Chuzo Yamada, head minister of Nishiyodo Bunkyokai (fifth son of Chozo?) in 1973.

“Chozo Yamada was from Osakabe, Akegawa Village, Nakawakachi County, Osaka. He later moved to Yodo-ku, Osaka City. He promulgated the teachings while farming and working as a rickshaw puller; he introduced Yasashichi Koyama (first head minister of Nishinari Daikyokai) to the faith in 1886.”

My take

There’s really not much for me to add here. Anecdotes 58 is a straight-ahead description of a gradual yet miraculous cure experienced by a young man after he prayed to God, which motivated him to make a thanksgiving pilgrimage to Jiba even though he wasn’t yet completely cured. On his journey, he finds he is able to walk without one of his crutches.

When he discovers he can walk without the other crutch as well, he sends home his younger brother, who had accompanied him until then, and continues the rest of the journey by himself.

The description fails to go into detail on the manner in which he specifically prayed, but one would assume that he either chanted the name of God (“Namu Tenri-O-no-Mikoto”) or sang the Songs for the Kagura (which also happen the same songs for the seated service).1

It appears to me that the central lesson of Anecdotes 58 is that Chozo Yamada desired to express his gratitude for the blessings that allowed him to get out of bed to the point where he was willing to travel roughly 22.5 kilometers or 14 miles to Jiba to do so. Other than that, it is just yet another episode in which Oyasama is depicted warmly welcoming a person “home” to “the Residence where [God] began human beings” (Ofudesaki 4:55).




  1. I discuss the Songs for the Kagura/seated service in Recent Questions no. 6.