The stone chamber of King Nukada's tomb has been preserved, too.

[Japanese]

Friday, 30th of October, 2020

On Saturday, October 24, I met Mr. Takebe at 10:00 a.m. at Tsubosaka-yama Station (壺阪山駅) on the Kintetsu Yoshino Line.

Mr. Takebe always arrives at the appointed place before the meeting time.

He has never been late.

When I got out of the station gates that day, Mr. Takebe was waiting for me.

I got into Mr. Takebe's car and we headed for the five-hundred arhats (五百羅漢) in the inner shrine of the Tsubosaka-Temple (壺阪寺).

It took about 20 or 30 minutes from the station, It took about 20 or 30 minutes from the station, we parked the car at the spot where there was a parking space for two cars underneath an information board that said "Five Hundred Arhats of the inner shrine of the Tsubosaka Temple" and started to climb up.

Then, it didn't take so long to walk up to see the carved Five Hundred Arhats on the rock.

I followed Mr. Takebe from there, with the five hundred arhats on our left. And as usual, when Mr. Takebe found a sacred rock, he came face to face with it.

We gave way to a climber who was following behind us, "After you."

With the Geographica on his smartphone, Mr. Takebe is sure to get closer to the point.

As getting closer, I felt the uniqueness of the atmosphere and structure of the mountain around the tomb.

"I will see Princess Nukata (額田王) soon" I became excited.

When I reached the place we were aiming for, I took out my special zero-magnetic field L-rod core from my backpack and immediately began to investigate.

Then,  the rods responded instantly.

I measured it, I found there existed a large stone chamber, roughly 4.5 meters by 5.5 meters, in the basement.

The trail that the climber walks on passes over the edge of the stone chamber.

  A dead tree blocked the path as if to say, "You can't go through it!"

There was also an altar stone at the top of the mountain.

While I was investigating it, Mr. Takebe was searching for a sacred stone, then he told me, "I found it. It was there." Then I finished investigating, I went down to the place where he was. 

After seeing the sacred stone, we went back to the altar stone. We sang "Kimigayo" (Japan's national anthem) as the song dedicating to the altar and    walked down the mountain.

It is always strange, but as I began to sing, a strong light came through the trees.

it seemed to be as if it answered us, "Thank you!"
 そhe next place we are going to visit is the tomb of Princess Tōchi (十市皇女), the daughter of Princess Nukata (額田王).

...To be continued