Once upon a time, in the village of Ibori in Owari, there was a heavy downpour. As a result, the Kiso river rose higher and higher. The villagers were scared that the barriers might break. So, they set up a watch by the flood. One night, a voice called out from the depths of Mino-no-Ikiyama on the opposite bank. It said, “Yaroka! Yaroka! (Here goes! Here goes!)” The villagers could not understand it and found it really strange. They did not know what to do and just stared at each other. The voice kept on calling, “Yaroka! Yaroka!” Finally, one of the villagers instinctively shouted, “If you’re going to let go, let go!” The moment he said this, a great wall of water came rushing through. The fields everywhere were covered by the flood. The villagers were shocked and did not know what to do. Even at present, that flood is spoken of as the Yaroka flood.
The Yaroka Flood
