S P O T ／ SPOT-250

Gotogoto-ishi (the Rocking Stone)

ゴトゴト石ゴトゴトいし

Deep in a cedar grove in the mountains of Kuwao, Tosayama, Kochi City, a boulder roughly 1.5 to 2 meters tall and said to weigh several tons rests on a base rock through a single delicate point of contact. Push it and the multi-ton mass rocks back and forth with an audible "goto-goto," tilting as if it must surely topple — and yet it never falls. A child can set it swaying, but nothing can bring it down. From that marvel of unstable equilibrium grew a peculiar folk belief: because the stone "never falls," exam candidates come to pray that they will not "fall" their tests, and politicians facing elections come to pray that they will win. The local Kuwao district has long cherished it as a guardian deity, draping it with a sacred straw rope (shimenawa) and tending an information board beside it. The oldest record of its existence is a 1984 village newsletter; how and why such a stone came to balance there is unknown even to the town office, and remains a genuine mystery. In November 2022 an act of vandalism left the stone unable to rock, and it has stood still ever since — but as a great balancing boulder and a place of prayer, it can still be freely visited.