84. In the Southern Half of the Province
When Koiso Yamanaka was to be married to Ihachiro Yamada of Deyashiki in Kurahashi Village, her father, Chushichi, asked Oyasama about the marriage. Oyasama said to him:
“I am not sending her to be married. Rather, I am sending her to the southern half of the province to spread the teachings as none have spread it there yet. However, it all depends on her heart.”
The Yamanaka parents were hesitant about this request because the Yamada family was living deep in the heart of the mountains, but Koiso was married on May 30, 1881, after saying, “Let me be married as God desires.”
Koiso then found that Isa Yamamoto, a relative of the Yamada family had been bedridden for more than five years due to the paralysis of her limbs. Koiso prayed to God for her recovery and repeatedly gave her sacred water. The following year, when Chushichi Yamanaka came to visit them, Isa was marvelously healed. She rose to her feet, all her joints cracking, and was able to walk by herself. In her village Koiso also found a girl named Naragiku Tanaka who had been blind for more than seven years. Koiso prayed to God for the girl’s recovery, each time washing her eyes with sacred water. Soon, she received God’s blessing. The mention of Koiso’s cure of the cripple and the blind girl became so well-known throughout neighboring villages that many people came to see her one after another.
Anecdotes of Oyasama, p. 70