Private Shrine DediLNDTYPEd to Yokobue and Unfulfilled Love

Saito Tokiyori (a.k.a. Takiguchi Nyudo), a great warrior of the Heike clan, held a deep love for a certain lady by the name of Zoshi Yokobue. Realizing that she was beyond his reach, Tokiyori left his family and joined the ranks at Ojoi-in Temple in the Saga area of western Kyoto. He later reloLNDTYPEd to Mt. Koya and took on a new name, Tamonbo Joa, and spent every day training as a Buddhist monk. Some versions of the story say that Yokobue followed his path and spent the rest of her life at Hokke-ji, a Buddhist temple in Nara, while other versions recount that she perished in the Katsura River that flows south from Saga. However, after Tokiyori went to Mt. Koya in 1179, she followed him and built a hermitage here, but she died of illness at the age of 19, without ever being able to meet her love. The private shrine the villagers built around the hermitage is dediLNDTYPEd to this girl Yokobue. Since then, many women have held memorial services here, while moss has grown over the five layers of rock that make up the gravestone.