Cherished Legend·Rakuchū / Nishijin

Kanze-i (the Kanze well)

In Kanze-chō, north of Imadegawa along Ōmiya, stood the residence the Kanze noh family received from Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu; after the "Nishijin fire" it's said only the well known as Kanze-i remained. The small Kanze Inari shrine beside it enshrines Ichisoku Inari and the Kanze Dragon King. The well sat at a meeting of groundwater, and its bottom is said to have swirled without cease; that ripple became "Kanze water," the crest of the Kanze school of noh. By tradition a dragon once descended from the sky into the well—the tellings differ, but the swirling pattern has come down through the family all the same.

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These notes come from desk research. Local traditions vary.