Shrine of the Willow-Healing Kami

The Shrine of the Willow-Healing Kami located in Clear Water Village was one of the Empire's oldest shrines. Set on an outcropping just beyond the village docks, reachable by boat, little more than a stone lantern at the foot of a dappled willow, which enshrined the Willow-Healing kami, the kodama of the tree.

Founding
Clear Water Village was once a tiny speck, a minor fishing settlement at the mouth of the River of Gold, overlooking Earthquake Fish Bay. During the second century, Ekibyōgami, the Fortune of Pestilence, made its displeasure with the village known. A terrible plague swept through the settlement, and even the the fish seemed affected by the disease. When the spirit's daily visitor, a young girl who often played around its boughs, caught the disease and came close to death, the Willow-Healing kami approached the Fortune alone and bargained for the people's lives. When the disease miraculously vanished, the willow's once-strong boughs sagged, the bark became grey and soft, and its lush green left turned pale white. The locals venerated the willow since then. A blessed kobune ship, decorated with paper streamers and a torii arch, was maintained to reach the tiny island and considered by many to be a part of the shrine.

Appearance
The shrine was a knee-high stone lantern at the foot of a seven-foot dappled willow. This ancient shrub was perpetually in bloom, with splotchy pink flowers and colorless leaves gently shedding into the sea beneath the sagging boughs. A thick shimenawa rope encircled the knobby trunk. Visistors were rare, and they used to leave regular offerings of incense and sake in order to thank the gentle kodarna and humbly ask for its continued protection.