THE WELL OF ISRAEL

In the vicinity of Koryuji, there still live to this very day, a small number of descendants of the Hada tribe, whose houses are built quite differently from those of the ordinary Japanese. The gateways of these houses are adorned with "Madara" ( a corruption of Maitreya) masks of blue and red "Oni" (demons). They are placed there to frighten away evil spirits. Although these descendants of the original Hadas have lived in Japan among the Japanese people for over one thousand years, they have not been quite fully assimilated with the Japanese way of life. They keep their unique customs as befits a people marked by such a strong cultural individuality.

In front of the houses there is a well called "Isarai," that is, the "well of Israel," which has been kept by the family from the days of their ancestors. According to their tradition, altogether twelve of these wells had existed in this vicinity, thou the water in them is long since dried up. Formerly the waters of these wells were said to have had strange curative powers.