In the Inland Sea of Japan, there is an island called Shodo-shima (adzuki bean island), which is famous for its scenic beauty. Iwagatani village by the sea, is located at the north-east part of the island.

When Osaka Castle was partly repaired in the early years of the Edo period, as the village produces good quality of rocks and stones, a great amountof them were chopped and shipped to Osaka for repairing stone walls of the castle.

There still remain gigantic rocks here and there along the sea. They are called as remaining rocks of Osaka Castle.

If you have a chance to visit Iwagatani village, you will find a conspicuously big rock called "8 men's rock". It is said that there rest the eight porters under the rock.

On that day, nine porters have been working for chopping the rock into two pieces. Why does a legend say that there remain eight bodies of the porters under the rock?

There is a mysterious story how only one could survive.

The survived porter was an ardent believer of "Hannya-kyo (one type of Buddism) ", uttering to Hannya Budaha whenever he found time.

He wondered about who kept calling him by such a voice.
The moment he creeped out of it, the rock fell on them.
What a sorrowful situation it was! All the porters but him were buried alive.

Since then the rock has been called "8 men's rock". There is a stone-lantern beside it in commemoration of the victim.