A certain monk of Ninnaji had grown old without ever worshiping at Iwashimizu Hachimangu, and feeling ashamed, he one day made up his mind and went on foot, all alone. He worshiped at Gokurakuji, Kora Shrine and the others at the foot of the hill, and, convinced that this was all, went home.
Then he said to a fellow monk, "I have at last fulfilled the wish of many years. It was even more sacred than I had heard. But all the other pilgrims were climbing the mountain; what was going on up there? I wanted to go and see, but I thought that worshiping the god was the real purpose, so I did not look at the top of the mountain."
Even in small things, one wants a guide.
＊
This too is a story of a monk of Ninnaji. When everyone was performing to mark a temple boy's farewell before he became a monk, one monk, drunk and carried away, took a tripod kettle that was nearby and put it on his head. It stuck, but he forced it down, squashing his nose to get his face in, and came out dancing, and the whole company was delighted.
After dancing a while, he tried to pull it off, but it would not budge. The party went flat, and everyone was at a loss. As they struggled, his neck was cut and bled and swelled up badly, and he could hardly breathe, so they tried to break the kettle, but it did not break easily, and the ringing was unbearable. They took him to a doctor, who said, "Such a case is not in the medical books, and there is no teaching handed down for it."
With nothing else for it, they said, "Even if his ears and nose are torn off, as long as his life is saved. Just pull with all your might," and they stuffed straw around it and pulled so hard his neck nearly came off; his ears and nose were torn and left holes, but it came off. He narrowly escaped with his life, and was ill for a long time afterward.