Dear Don and Rory,

Hi! I've translated the story about the Jotakuji temple and the seeds.

Jotakuji is famed as a ginkgo temple.It's located about 5.5miles north
east from Minobusan. It was originally an ashram for Shingon (esoteric
Buddhism)sect.

On the 17th of May in 1274, Nichiren shonin took up a challenge on
discussion on the teachings of Buddhism with a powerful Shingon priest
named Echo. Echo was defeated, and therefore to some extent, he surrendered
to Nichiren shonin, however, he had a grudge against Nichiren shonin at
heart and at Jotakuji temple, he conspired together with the head priest of
Jotakuji, to kill Nichirenshonin by offering poisoned rice cakes.
A white dog appeared from nowhere and Nichiren shonin kindly fed some of
the rice cakes to the white dog. As soon as the white dog had the rice
cake, it collapsed in agony.
Echo and the chief priest saw what happened and they realised the
greatness of Nichiren shonin and the Lotus Flower Sutra and they confessed
and apologised for their wicked heart and they also asked to become
disciples of Nichiren shonin again.
Nichiren shonin gave the white dog antidote and it lived for 10 years (I
think it lived about 10 years).
The head priest realised this white dog was an incarnation of various gods
and it protected Nichiren shonin, and when it died, the head priest buried
it with a great care. Nichiren shonin put his stick made of ginkgo tree, on
the mound as a grave marker.
The stick started having its roots again and the tree has become a big
tree as we can see today.

Interestinglly, the seeds of this ginkgo tree are born on the surface of
the leaves. The seeds are fang-shaped. The Ginkgo tree is well-known as
spiritted ginkgo, which is very unique not only in Japan
but also in outside of Japan.

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