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As usual, the monk chanted a sutra in front of the Jizou.
Then he turned back quietly towards the dungeon with his Buddhist
rosary in his hand after he finished chanting the sutra. As usual,
behind the monk was the culprit sitting on his knees in the dun-
geon. He was praying for the Jizou with his clapsed hands and with
his closed eyes even after the monk finished chanting the sutra.
Seeing the culprit in the dungeon, the monk also closed his eyes
for a moment. Then the monk turned back and gazed the little Jizou.
There were some flower leafs of sakura(cherry blossoms), which were
brought there by wind, scattered in front of the Jizou carved on rock.
Those flower leafs looked like a decoration on the soil. It was as if
those flower leafs were dedicated for the Jizou by somebody.
Looking the flower leafs of sakura on the soil, the monk noticed
spring has come again and was pleased about it in his mind.
The monk was reminded of the morning he attempted to let the
culprit flee, but did not mention it to the culprit. Instead,
the monk clapsed his hands in his mind for the Jizou he carved
on rock in the spring, and prayed the culprits' two children
to bring flower leafs of sakura to their father here.
Then, it blew. The low cliff on which the dungeon is made has
a thick bush on its top. While those trees of the bush kept
green leaves in winter as well, the wind swayed the trees and
the trees made sounds mimic of the sea.
The sound of trees amazed the monk. He was amazed by the sound
because he thought wind had stopped, though it was a windy day
since the morning.　The sound occurred when the wind seemed to
have stopped. The sound of wind made the monk look upwards.
Then he found the branches of trees moving in the wind and the
blue sky above the net of fine branches of trees. And he saw
two pieces of white clouds, which looked like a pair of sagi
(snowy herons), changing their figures as if they are playing
in heaven, without sound, cross the sky from south to north.
Looking up the white clouds, the monk was surprised by the
height of the sky. Then the monk, standing on the bottom of
the sky, noticed flower leafs of sakura, which were at the
foot of the Jizou when he prayed for the dead children to
bring flower leafs to their father in dungeon, have been
already brought away by the wind and have disappeared from
the foot of the Jizou.

(To be continued)

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