By RYOTA NISHIYAMA/ Staff Writer The Asahi Shimbun May 14, 2016
MASHIKI, Kumamoto Prefecture--A 92-year-old woman whose home was destroyed in the recent Kumamoto earthquakes has credited her survival to her daily attendance at a small hall dedicated to Kannon, a Buddhist goddess of mercy, for two decades.
Hiroko Tamaoka had been hospitalized after falling while weeding at the Kannon hall on April 2, with two weeks before the first of two strong quakes ravaged this southern community.
Tamaoka, who lived in Mashiki with her oldest son’s family of four, cracked a bone in her left knee in the fall and was taken to a hospital in Kumamoto’s Higashi Ward.
Then the “foreshock” struck on April 14, destroying the family’s wooden, two-story house. The roof caved in and fallen pillars crushed Tamaoka’s downstairs room, but she was safe because she was in the hospital.
Tamaoka, who was born and raised in Mashiki, had lived in that same house continuously since her arranged marriage to her husband, Akira, at the age of 19. The couple took up farming and had three children.
Tamaoka began visiting the Kannon hall, some 200 meters from her home, since around the time Akira died 20 years ago. She would leave home at around 8 a.m., refill a cup in front of the Kannon statue with fresh water, and replace an offering of flowers every few days.
She would pull weeds and return home close to noon. She plied the route with a handcart every day, regardless of rain or chilly weather.
After her husband was hospitalized for a cerebral infarction, Tamaoka stayed with him in the hospital for a year and a half until his death.
She developed gratitude to Kannon for everything in her life--her marriage to Akira, who she said was “obstinate on the outside but kind at heart,” her longevity free of major diseases or injuries, and the presence of her 14 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who visited and asked after her during the New Year and summer holidays.
“Thank you very much for protecting me all the time,” Tamaoka said she thought as she joined her palms in prayer every day in front of Kannon. “I have spent another day in peace, without incident.”
Then came the day when she fell to the ground and got hurt.
“Why do I have to go through all this?” she recalled thinking immediately after.
But she changed her mind after she was told that her house had crumbled.
“My fall was Kannon’s providence; she intended to save me,” she said she thought.
None of Tamaoka’s oldest son’s family was hurt. Etsuko Aramaki, a 39-year-old granddaughter who lived with her, was trapped beneath a fallen roof for a while, but she took shelter under a table and survived unscathed.
The Kannon hall stands firmly in the midst of collapsed buildings.
“I will visit the hall before anything else when I am out of the hospital,” a smiling Tamaoka said slowly.
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