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00:30the presence of ascetics and pilgrims
00:34has always existed naturally
00:36as part of the landscape
00:39we can gaze upon those surroundings
00:44and feel the layers of history
00:46the land has endured
00:51yet when i began walking through this
00:54region of southern Kyushu
00:57i felt a strange sense of distortion
01:02Miyazaki and Kagoshima
01:05which make up southern Kyushu
01:07possess a deep history of mythology and faith
01:11and yet there are no ascetics or pilgrims
01:15to be found anywhere
01:17why is this place wrapped in such absolute silence
01:23to find the answer
01:24i traveled to Kagoshima
01:30the bustling streets stand in contrast
01:33to the overwhelming presence of Sakurajima
01:37deep beneath this view
01:39there once existed a life or death silence
01:43that no one was ever supposed to know
01:46another side of this land
01:49completely unknown to us
01:51i am now going to uncover the truth
01:53behind that silence
02:07it all began back in the Sengoku period
02:12the greatest threat
02:14that once tormented Oda Nobunaga
02:17and shook the entire nation
02:20were the followers of the Ikkoshu sect
02:24who were bound by unbreakable ties
02:28the Satsuma domain
02:30rulers of southern Kyushu
02:32sought to fully eliminate Ikkoshu
02:35in order to maintain absolute control
02:37over the Shimazu kingdom
02:40thus began three centuries
02:43of brutal oppression
02:44by the Satsuma domain
02:51but no matter how fiercely they bared their fangs
02:55they could never imprison the hearts of the people
03:01during my visit to the museum Chiran
03:03I encountered something that completely captivated me
03:09it was a hidden Buddha
03:11so tiny that it could easily be overlooked
03:14but what emerged beyond the camera lens
03:19were incredibly intricate details
03:23from the fingertips
03:25to the folds of the robes
03:28in an era when discovery meant
03:31torture and execution
03:33facing extreme terror
03:36how deeply must they have cherished this image
03:40to keep their prayers alive
03:43that profound devotion
03:47silently radiates from the small grain of the wood
03:54where did the people carrying such intense devotion
03:59ultimately go?
04:04living under the watchful, strict eyes
04:07of the Satsuma domain
04:08the path they chose
04:11was one of silence and concealment
04:23I climb up a mountain path
04:25that leaves me breathless
04:29did they really have to endure this much hardship
04:35just to ensure their faint prayers
04:38were never extinguished
04:48I have finally arrived
04:50a space so confined
05:01that you can barely enter by crouching down
05:08it was here that the believers of the past
05:15living in constant terror
05:20that discovery meant the end of their lives
05:28searching for further traces of these prayers
05:33I have now come to Miyazaki
05:37far beyond the city center
05:40past a tiny isolated settlement
05:43stands a hidden Buddhist cave
05:46that still survives today
05:49in modern times
05:51the paths have been maintained
05:53allowing us to reach it
05:55but imagining the trackless wilderness of the past
05:58it is truly astonishing to realize
06:04how deep into the mountains they had to go
06:33stepping through the narrow entrance
06:36I find a space unexpectedly wider than imagined
06:45standing here
06:46what I truly feel
06:48is that a life or death silence
06:52hidden from the world
06:54unmistakably existed in this very place
07:09but if that silence was shattered
07:11and they were caught by the Satsuma domain
07:16what awaited them was a merciless hell
07:28on its grounds remains a stone
07:32once used for a specific form of punishment
07:35in an age without freedom of religion
07:42they were forced to kneel on wooden boards
07:46carved with sharp jagged ridges
07:49and heavy boulders were piled onto their thighs
07:52one after another
07:55in this land
07:57maintaining faith
07:58meant staking your very life
08:01and then
08:02just before the 300 year ban was to be lifted
08:09an even greater storm of upheaval
08:12swept across this land
08:15during the Meiji period
08:18behind the new government's modernization policies
08:23temples and Buddhist statues
08:25became targets of destruction
08:29this was
08:30Haibutsu Kishaku
08:32an anti-Buddhist movement
08:34carried out systematically
08:36it was particularly violent in Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures
08:411066 temples were abolished
08:45and every single monk was forced back into commoner status
08:52hearing that remnants of this destruction still linger
08:56I decided to go see them
09:00they were located at the burial site of Komatsu Tatewaki
09:04a prominent samurai of the late Edo period
09:07look at this statue of a neo-guardian
09:10even the grave of the prestigious Komatsu family was not spared
09:15even at the prestigious Komatsu family gravesite
09:20there was no mercy
09:22it speaks to the sheer thorough violence of the movement
09:26the stone Buddhas lining the area around the grave too
09:30are no longer in their original form
09:33in the shadow of the light of a new era
09:36how many Buddhist statues
09:39and how much history
09:41lost their form
09:42and were completely erased
09:45even though the old era had ended
09:48vigilance against prayer remained absolute
09:51unrelenting in its severity
10:01and then I encounter a Buddhist statue
10:05that brings a deeper shock than anything before
10:08leaving me completely speechless
10:11the statue of Amida Buddha
10:14along the approach to Myoenji temple in Hyokki city
10:18its sacred face was gone
10:21at the time it had been cast aside below a shrine
10:25but the people of the local community carried it all the way here
10:30and have protected it with deep devotion ever since
10:33even if history might forget these Buddha statues
10:37the hearts of the people never did
10:47today followers of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism
10:50make up nearly 70% of the population in this region
10:55yet the physical presence of ascetics or pilgrims remains absent
11:00instead deep within this overwhelming quiet
11:04a tangible memory of prayer still breathes
11:09tracing these invisible footprints
11:12and listening closely to the silence
11:15perhaps that too was a form of pilgrimage
11:20granted to me
11:27so
11:28that too was a powerful
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