Togakushi was once closed to women, but it so happens that the last Shugendō practitioner there was a woman. She lived during the Showa period. After training in China, she moved to Togakushi to train for two and a half years. She stayed in a hut in the mountains where the temperature dropped to -20 degrees Celsius in winter.
At that time, there were no Shugendō practitioners left, so some cautious people even reported her to the police. However, the police received orders from Tokyo to make sure she was alright and brought her rice to eat. In addition, she restored thirty-three caves used by former practitioners, and together with young, local villagers, built miniature stone shrines inside them. It must have been exhausting carrying these stone shrines to caves that are difficult to get to even today. This Kōmē-in Temple was built by her.
