Eye of the Needle

Eye of the Needle forest is a small forest just outside of the walls of Kyuden Doji. During the reign of Hantei XXII, his young son fled the confines of the courts and spent the night in the woods. When the Seppun guardsmen found him the next morning, the perfectly safe boy said that a silver fox kept him safe though the night. None believed the small child, but were not going to contradict the Imperial Heir.

One of the first acts of Hantei XXIII was to declare that the forest was sacrosanct, allowing no harvesting or hunting in its confides, a prohibition the Doji would follow long after the end of the Hantei line.

The truth is that the young child's story was perfectly true. The forest contains a passage to Chikushudo, the spirit realm of animals, and is the home of many kitsune, tanuki and many other animal spirits.