In the short story "He-y, Come on Ou-t" by Shinichi Hoshi, a shrine between a village and some mountains is swept away by a typhoon, which is the term used in the northwest Pacific region for a tropical cyclone. When villagers go to investigate, they find a meter-wide hole that is "so dark nothing could be seen" and that appeared to be "so deep it went clear through to the center of the earth."
The villagers, who are not named, react to the hole in various ways. One considers that it might be a fox's hole. He has probably seen the burrows of foxes in the vicinity and is giving a practical suggestion based on his experience. Another villager, who is identified as "a young man," calls into the hole for anyone inside to come out. He is also thinking practically, considering that if anyone was in the shrine when...
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the storm hit, they might have sought shelter in the hole. The young man then throws a pebble in to see if he can hear it hit bottom, but there is no sound. An old man, obviously traditionally superstitious, warns the young man to stop, as such actions might bring a curse upon them. A further response from the villagers is practical—they make a fence out of trees and rope so that no one will fall into the hole. A devout villager wonders if they should restore the shrine.
We see, then, that the author has the villagers offer a variety of opinions and points of view, just as real villagers might react with a range of different responses to such an unusual phenomenon.
When a concessionaire wants to take possession of the hole, the mayor of the village is at first reluctant, giving the religious argument that they have to rebuild the shrine. The villagers are soon persuaded to give up the hole, though, when the concessionaire offers to build them a shrine with an attached meeting hall closer to the village. They surrender the hole for a building, which they think is more valuable than the hole and the actual location of the shrine.