The Bell from the Dragon's Palace

This happened a very, very long time ago. In the temple of Sennenz-ji, located in Shimonoseki, there hung a huge bell on the belfry. Its ringing echoed far and wide, always bringing joy to the people.

Every morning at the same hour, the bell ringer would strike the bell.

"Well, there it is," the peasants would say. "That's the bell of Sennenz-ji Temple. It's time for us to head to the fields."

And every evening, people would know the time by the strike of the great bell.

"Do you hear it?" they would ask each other. "The bell has already rung. It's time to go home." And so, the people of that area lived their lives by the toll of the bell.

But one day, something strange happened. The peasants had gone out to the fields and were working hard when suddenly they heard the great bell of Sennenz-ji ringing. The peasants were puzzled:

"It's not time for our bell to ring yet. Could something bad have happened?"

The temple's head priest also heard the bell ringing. It made him very angry: "What kind of disorder is this!" he thought. "Who dared to strike the bell at such an hour?!"

The priest stepped out of the temple and looked up at the belfry, only to freeze in shock: the bell was ringing, but there was no bell ringer in sight!

"What a strange sight!" the priest exclaimed, throwing up his hands. "Who has ever seen bells ringing on their own?"

From that day on, true wonders began to occur at Sennenz-ji Temple. As soon as evening fell, a gentle breeze would rise on the belfry, and when midnight came, the bell would begin to toll loudly, ringing out across the entire area: dong! dong! dong!

People began to notice that the bell rang especially loudly during rain or storms. "This is no coincidence," they thought. But they didn't know what to do about it.

Meanwhile, life in the village became unbearable because of the bell. It rang all night long, and no matter how much the peasants covered their ears, they couldn't sleep. They would pull blankets over their heads, but sleep still eluded them.

And it's unknown how it all would have ended if one night a beautiful girl hadn't appeared before the head priest. She entered the temple silently, stood by his bedside, and said:

"The Lord of the Sea from the Dragon Palace himself has sent me to you. He greatly desires the bell from your belfry. Order it to be sent to our palace, or else great disaster will come—your temple will be destroyed, and the bell along with it, shattered to pieces!"

Having said this, she instantly turned into a wisp of smoke. The smoke drifted over the sea and disappeared.

The next morning, the head priest called the peasants, and they began to discuss the matter.

"If the Lord of the Sea from the Dragon Palace demands the bell, we must give it to him," the peasants decided. "Otherwise, he will ruin our lives. But how will we take the bell down from the belfry and carry it to the seashore?"

They thought and thought, and finally decided to weave the strongest net possible, made of women's hair. They collected hair from the village—some gave a strand, others two—and in two nights, they wove a large net. And wouldn't you know it: neither on the first night nor the second did the bell ring again.

On the third morning, the peasants gathered in front of the temple. They called the strongest men to help lower the bell. The head priest also came out of the temple.

Just as the people were about to begin their task, they heard a creaking sound from the belfry. They looked up and were stunned: the bell swayed, seemed to sigh, and then began to descend on its own. It moved from side to side, carefully stepping onto the stone steps—and there were nearly a hundred of them! The bell descended, shook off the net, and began to walk through the village.

When it reached the hill, it paused, caught its breath, and began to climb the steep path. It made its way all the way to the seashore. It stopped right at the water's edge, as if rooted to the spot, and wouldn't budge any further.

The peasants ran over and began to think about how to lower the bell into the water.

"Call Matagoro quickly!" they shouted. "He's the strongest man in our village!"

Matagoro arrived, along with all the other strong men from the village. They grabbed the bell and began to push it into the water. They struggled for a long time to pull the bell into the sea until, finally, it sank to the seabed.

Matagoro looked down and saw that he was holding the bell's handle—it had been torn off from all their pulling.

They say that from then on, peaceful life returned to the village, and the head priest of the temple was granted great secrets. He learned to predict the timing of storms, typhoons, high tides, and low tides, often helping fishermen and saving crops from bad weather.

And for the temple, a new bell was cast—no worse than the old one. But they attached the handle from the old bell to it, so that people would never forget the bell from the Dragon Palace.

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The Bell from the Dragon's Palace

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