Up a long mountain path lies the Banzen Mansion, a beautifully designed former Yilik temple, refurbished by a noble family of Yamato.
It is comprised of a main building and a four-story pagoda, which are connected by a small path. People of the Yamato Valley rarely visit it these days, for there are many dark rumors surrounding the building.
After it was taken from the monks, members of the Kawakura clan took up residence here and lived in the mansion for many generations. Still, it is said that the people of that household were haunted by ill fortune due to the heretic way the monks had been disowned and executed. In 1298 GE, the last members of the Kawakura clan died here during a yarenma moth attack. All of them were sent into the eternal slumber by the narcotic moth dust and their bones were licked clean by the terrible beasts.
It has since been believed that this was divine punishment by the kami Yaren no Senme, the patron deity of yarenma moths enshrined at the foot of the path leading up to the mansion.
The impoverished clan had neglected to properly maintain and sacrifice to the shrine over the decades leading up to their gruesome end, and the people of the northwestern Yamato Valley believe to this day that the mountainside where the mansion lies has been cursed by Yaren no Senme and should not be approached by those who value their lives.
Architecture
The pagoda is four stories tall and lies to the West, behind the main building. It is dilapidated and its entrance has been sealed off with suspicious prayer tags. The main building is actually smaller than the pagoda and is about the size of a large house. It has a shed on its northern side and a small stone garden to the East. The building, too, has been in disrepair since the Kawakura line ended.
History
The Banzen Mansion used to belong to a sect of Yilik monks, who had built and maintained it during the Age of Awakening. When the scriptures of Yilik were denounced in the Yamato Kingdom during the nationalist surge in the 900th century GE, the monks were removed from the mansion, which was still referred to as a "temple" at the time (万善寺 Banzen Tera), and were executed by the local feudal lord. A branch family moved in after that, renovating the mansion, but it has always been the subject of fear and rumors due to it being "desecrated" by this act.
