The Benibana Museum (The Safflower Museum)
20.Supplication of Yoshiaki Mogami (最上義光の祈願文)
At the time when Nobunaga was given a gift of an excellent horse from Shiratori, Yoshiaki Mogami (最上義光) was suffering from a serious illness. Yoshiaki prayed Yudono-san (湯殿山) to donate benibana if he could recover his health.
This document is preserved even now. The document was dated on August 28, 1579, and titled "Wishes to a reverential avatar". He sent for Fukusenbou (副泉坊) with the document, telling he would donate a horse and matured benibana on April 8 of the following year after his wish should come true. Benibana mentioned in the document would be dried one.
This date would have something to do with the opening of the Yudono-san, the mountain of asceticism. At that period, the mountain was opened on April 8 and closed on August 8. As Yoshiaki prayed after the mountain finished its course of rites, he postponed his gift to the next year. Another document tells that he recovered his health by virtue of the praying. Benibana seemed to be cultivated in Mogami area, but its technique of cultivation was not prevailed. So it is a wonder how they treated them at the Yudonosan. Anyway, this benibana document is very valuable one and this story tells that benibana was already valueless thing.