Takase Jinja

Takase Jinja.

In the rice plains of Tonami, in Toyama Prefecture, sits a small shrine that visitors come to for an unusual purpose.

In the courtyard, there is a stone rabbit. Worn smooth by hundreds of years of careful touch, the rabbit sits quietly on a pedestal. Visitors approach it and rub the part of the stone that corresponds to the part of their own body that troubles them.

A sore shoulder. An aching knee. A heart in pain.

Whatever the trouble, you press your hand to the rabbit's matching place. The stone is cold. The patina is shaped by every other hand that has done this before you, going back centuries.

The tradition comes from the oldest mythology. In one of Japan's most beloved legends, a young white rabbit was found beaten and bleeding on a beach by a kind traveler, who taught it how to heal itself with cold water and pollen. The rabbit recovered. The kind traveler became, in the story, the deity now associated with this shrine.

That deity was, in old understanding, a healer of broken creatures.

The rabbit at this shrine remembers the legend on behalf of everyone who visits.

Stand by the rabbit. The bronze parts most often touched have a different sheen — the head, the chest, the belly. Look at where everyone has been hurting.

Some places remember that compassion is older than any of us.