Notes from "Shōdoshima's Legend of Two Dragons" by Spiritual Japan Journal
"After nightfall, two dragons, one male and one female, would descend from the mountain and ravage the fields at its foot...The stone vessel in which the dragons were sealed is called the Akazu no Ishigame（開かずの石瓶）. It remains enshrined inside a cave that leads deep into the rocky mountain. Beside it, water known as Ryūsui（龍水） continues to spring from the rock."
"In earlier times, Nishinotaki was known as Ryūsuiji（瀧水寺）. With a history of more than 800 years, it is regarded as the oldest mountain sanctuary on Shōdoshima. A mountain sanctuary is a sacred place where natural terrain, including mountains and caves, becomes a setting for prayer and religious training. Mountain ascetics known as yamabushi（山伏） are said to have once trained on this rocky mountain."
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"The principal image is the Eleven-Headed Kannon Bodhisattva（十一面観世音菩薩）. It is a hidden Buddhist image said to be unveiled only once every 33 years. Its next unveiling is scheduled for 2028, or Reiwa 10（令和10年） in the Japanese calendar."
Not a pic of the actual hidden figure, just a reference for what this specific Kannon statue tends to look like
"Kobayashi told me that visitors often ask him, “How can I become happy?” What he tells them is not to simply wish for happiness to arrive, but to declare in their own words, “I am happy now, and I will continue to be happy..." his words about happiness were not an abstract teaching spoken only from within a temple. They seemed intended for people facing uncertainty and suffering in their everyday lives."
"According to the story preserved by the temple, Kūkai was passing through a village when the residents told him that their fields were being ravaged at night. Kūkai is said to have realized that two malevolent dragons, one male and one female, lived on Mount Taima and descended after dark to terrify the villagers.
Kūkai entered the mountain and fashioned a vessel from its stone. He chanted sutras and sealed the two dragons inside it...granted them the rank of the Eight Great Dragon Kings（八大龍王） and instructed them to use their power to save people from then on. The Eight Great Dragon Kings are eight dragon kings who appear in Buddhist scriptures as protectors of Buddhist teachings. In Japan, they have also been worshiped as beings who govern water and rain."
