One man tried to move a big stone using heavy machinery for land preparation in 2004 in Aso, Kumamoto. When he began to break the stone, the excavator suddenly bit the dust. He repaired it and tried again, but the machine didn’t work twice in front of the stone. He couldn’t find the reason why the machine didn’t work well and finished his operation. On that night, he had a dream in which the stone said to him, “Why do you want to destroy me?” He answered, “Because I have to earn a living”. The stone replied, “If you need money, buy a lottery ticket and you will get much money. After you win, you have to build a shrine to worship me!” As the stone instructed him, he bought a lottery ticket the next morning and won. Then he decided to build his private shrine there.
I went there in the spring of 2011 for the first time, but I didn’t take my lottery ticket with me. In the shrine, there are a lot of places where you can make a wish, like a house of Hotei, a power stones cabin, a wallet shop, and so on. Of course, the main ceremony takes place in front of the big stone which was mentioned before. It is a good luck prayer for lottery lovers and participation is free! After a Shinto-style ritual prayer, a Shinto priest gives you a branch of the sacred tree. Then you dedicate it it to the shrine. It was a real Shinto ceremony like the first shrine visit of the new year. At the end of the show, you can get an oval-shaped golden sticker which brings you good luck. Anyway, you must go there when you get a lottery ticket.
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