Mount Tateiwa, in the Orono area of Kamiyama, is shaped like an eagle with its wings spread. Where the western wing would be is Ozo Valley, and the east wing is Yokichi Valley. These names are connected to a very old, and very mysterious legend.
Ozo lived in Omine in the west, and Yokichi lived in the east, in Sakobe. The villagers didn’t know how long these mountain men had been there, nor where they came from. Ozo was a big man, with broad shoulders. Yokichi was small and thin. They both cut trees to make charcoal, cleared land to make rice fields, and brought the charcoal and rice into the village and traded them for things like salt and eggs. They always gave a bit to people who were having trouble making ends meet, and taught the sick about medicinal herbs. Then they would talk a while about things like clearing land and growing rice with people before hurrying back to the mountains. If you asked them for something, they’d have it for you by the following day. They were both very honorable men. Sometimes the villagers could hear the sounds of trees being cut and rocks being rolled; Ozo in Omine, and Yokichi in Sakobe.
The funny thing was the villagers never saw Ozo and Yokichi together. If you mentioned Yokichi to Ozo, he’d quickly excuse himself and go home. Yokichi was the same way. Ozo made white charcoal, and Yokichi made black charcoal. Ozo grew white rice, and Yokichi grew black rice. And one day Ozo said he saw a giant white snake on Mount Tateiwa, and the next day Yokichi said he saw a black one. Black or white, both Ozo and Yokichi believed there was a giant snake on the mountain which was a servant of the god of Mt. Tateiwa.

One year, the rainy season came but no rain fell. Ozo’s valley and Yokichi’s valley both dried up. The rice, the grass, the trees, they all withered. When one hundred days passed and still no rain, the weakened villagers went to Mt. Tateiwa and started to do the twenty-one days rain-making ritual. On the twentieth day, the following day was to be the last day of the ceremony and still no rain. The villagers were exhausted and feeling desperate. The elders began to wail, calling out that there must be no gods and no Buddha for such a terrible thing to happen.
At that moment, Ozo and Yokichi, who had been doing the rain-making ritual with the villagers, were nowhere to be seen. Yokichi was there in the mornings, and in the evenings Ozo came, but in the afternoon, neither was there. The villagers began to worry that they had ruined the ritual by breaking the rules of the ceremony.
Twenty-one days had past since the start of the ritual. It was afternoon, and not one cloud in the great, blue sky. It was then, that Ozo came riding in on a great white snake, and Yokichi on a black one, and with flashes of lightning, they flew to the sky above Mt. Tateiwa. The sky suddenly clouded over, and with a huge crash as if the two snakes had collided, big, fat raindrops began to fall from the sky, reviving the fields and nourishing all creation. The villagers cried tears of joy, and they realized that Ozo and Yokichi must have been the servants of the god of Mt. Tateiwa.
Afterwards, everyone went up the mountain to find Yokichi and Ozo’s homes, and there they were on each side of Mt. Tateiwa. But after that, no one ever saw the two men again, and the sounds of wood being cut and rocks being rolled deep in the forest were never heard again.