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It is fun to come across a small local temple or shrine when
you　walk around the city. The temple called Shakuzou-ji stands quietly the west of the Kyoto city center and local people visit the temple to pray their health and peace.
Locals called the temple Kuginuki-Jizo. It is said that you will be relieved from any suffering and pain
if you visit the temple.

Here is a story about this temple.
A man lived in Kyoto at the end of the 16th, he had terrible pain in his hands
and he couldn't get any better so he came to this temple and prayed for seven days. At the last night of
praying, Jizo appeared in his dream and Jizo said to him “you suffered from the pain because in your past life you pounded nails into a straw doll as a means to place a curse on somebody.
Jizo showed him the nails being taken out form the doll. He woke up next morning and
the pain has disappeared.
We usually pray by putting our hands together when you visit temples but the way we pray at this temple is a little different.
Take as many as the bamboo sticks as your age from the main hall, pray around the main hall and return the stick one by one for each round. At the time you will stroke the part of your body where you want to gr healed and you continue praying until you return all the sticks.

A lot of Ema, a small wooden tablet that people write down their wishes and
dedicate it to the temple or shrines, have been dedicated to the main hall. People who have healed come back to the temple again and dedicate the Ema .
Amazingly there are more than one thousand Ema hanging up in the main hall.
The head monk at this temple acquired a qualification of clinical psychology to help people and listens to them to ease their sufferings and pain.