Ojizosan Is Always Watching for Us.

I found a little good article about this earthquake on Asahi Shinbun (newspaper), July 9th, 2011.

This article was about Ojizosan (お地蔵さん). I'll explain abaout Ojizosan a little before translating this article into English.

Ojizosan is a stone Buddha statue in the shape of a child. You can find them by the side of roads in rural areas. Usually Ojizosan are very close and familiar to common people (, some Buddha statues are so sacred that we respect them but feel remote from them at the same time ). There are many folk stories that Ojizosan helped honest common people, such as "Kasa Jizo (笠地蔵)".

Six statues of Ojizosan (お地蔵さん) have turned to Sakae village, where a large earthquake struck, because they care about the village people.

After the North Nagano earthquake occurred on the day after the great East Japan earthquake, six statues of Ojizosan at Iiyama city, Nagano turned all together to Sakae village, which received the biggest damage from this earthquake. Fortunately there were no fatalities by this earthquake, so the village people said "Ojizosan have saved us, and have watched over our revival."

In the early morning of March 12th the North Nagano earthquake struck Sakae village three times. The earthquake cut roads and railways, and 804 households and 2,042 people, which makes up 90% of the population of the village, got evacuation orders.

Ojizosan is located in Nishiotaki, Iiyama city next to Sakae village. There were seven statues of Ojizosan. One of them was set firmly on the base and six others of them turned 90 degrees and have watched Sakae village, because of the shock of the earthquake.

People in Sakae village have a very hard time now, so it's a tiny but precious miracle for them.