the taking of food became lessened. Famous doctors were called in; they prodded her thin body, cupped her weak blood, and applied leaches to her pallid skin. Days went by, weeks too, but the famous physicians shook their venerable heads, as they could find neither cause nor no cure for her mysterious ailment. The coming of Jizo Bosatu was feared; the formidable god who judges the souls upon entering the inner world neared.
Everything was tried to heal her. Oiwa was brought to the shrine of Yakushi Nyorai, a divine healer whose knowledge can overcome every disease. She was bathed and purified with the remedial waters of the hot sulphur springs of Mii-no-Kami, whose healing power cleanses and relieves the body. In the Shinto shrines, priests prayed for her health to Kamu-Nahobi, the gentle god who puts everything to right. Everything was offered, except the needed medicine, which was the love of Yotsu-ya, her brave samurai.
Then evil lurked in the heartless soul of the grandfather of the samurai’s newly found love. He gave the warrior a potion, which was supposedly a medicine to cure his ailing wife, but it was actually a poison. The poor woman was forced to swallow the ill-tasting brew, until the last of the murderous dregs flowed into her body. However, it hadn’t killed Oiwa, though it disfigured her face and body most dreadfully. The sight of her disfigurement was abhorrent to Yotsu-ya, and he inflicted additional suffering upon her. She endured the endless tortures until the calming balm of dissolution of the soul from its earthly form to the world of the shadows. There Oiwa was taken to the blessed arms of Yakushi Nyorai, the divine healer, the heavenly god whose knowledge can overcome every illness. .
Then Yotsu-ya