134. Recollections (omoi-de)

About 1883 or 1884, Tamae, granddaughter, and Moto, great-granddaughter, who was two years younger,’* appeared before Oyasama and begged Her, “Grandma, please give us a snack.” Oyasama shaded Her eyes with Her hand and looked toward them, saying:

“Ah, Tama and Omoto. Wait a minute, dears,”

and She took something out from the small cupboard in the back and placed it in the palm of their hands. It was always sugar candies.

On another day, the two of them went to visit Oyasama as usual, and She said:

“Tama and Omoto, won’t you two come here? Let me carry you,”

and She carried both of them on Her back. In their childlike minds both were impressed with the thought that their grandmother was so strong.

* Tamae was then seven or eight, and Moto was five or six.

Anecdotes of Oyasama, pp. 109-110

My take
I cannot see how Anecdotes no. 134 has any historical or religious importance other than having an affective function showing how Oyasama adored and treated her granddaughter Tamae and great-granddaugther Moto.

It is also assumed that the description of Oyasama carrying Tamae and Moto on her back functions as implicit support to the claim Oyasama was not a mere human being but the “Shrine of God.”

There is a passage from The Life of Oyasama that ups the ante in describing a vitality one would not normally expect from someone of Oyasama’s age:

With the arrival of 1885, Oyasama entered Her eighty-eighth year. Her Eighty-eighth Year Celebration was held that year in the two adjoining rooms south of the north room with the raised floor. During the celebration, Oyasama put both Shinnosuke and Kikutaro Maegawa, both twenty, on Her back, and walked around the rooms three times, astonishing all who were present (p. 201).

The “sugar candies” mentioned here was none other than konpeito.

Bibliography

Tenrikyo Church Headquarters. 1996 [1967]. The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo (third edition). Tenri: Tenrikyo Church Headquarters.