Koshin-to

  

  According to the teachings of Taoism, in the human body, there are three spirits; Kon, Haku and Sanshi.  The worms called Sanshi make trouble for human beings. 

  On the Kanoesaru day which comes once in 60 days according to the old calendar, Sanshi can get out from their owners’ bodies.  They also have a role to rise up to the sky and report the God how their owners act usually.  In some cases, your life will be made shortened according to the reports.  They return to their owners’ bodies by the next morning when their owners wake up.
  Then, if you sit up all night with a group from the day before the Kanosaeru day, Sanshi can’t leave out from your body.  People kept doing this meeting for three years, eighteen times.  To celebrate it, they built Koshin-to (formally it is Koshin-machi kuyo-to;stone monument erected for the repose of someone’s soul).
  In Japan, it was already popular in around the 10th century.  We can find descriptions about it in “Makuranososhi”, “Ohkagami” and so on.  People added Buddhism and the common people’s faith while this teaching spread out all over the nation.  In the Edo-era, it prevailed so actively among villages and so on.
  In Hagyu district, there are some koshin-to monuments, and some of the groups of staying up all night on the Kanosaeru days are still working, especially in Nakanome district, they have five of them.