The first dispute of the seven-day ceasefire broke out before the first bucket of water left Wellhead.
Iwatari Village had three hundred and forty-two people on its register.
Ashihara Village had only two hundred and ninety-seven.
If water was allocated by population, Iwatari Village was entitled to forty-five more people's shares.
But Ashihara Village's Recorder pointed out that the list included twenty-eight able-bodied adults who had left with a caravan, along with seventeen people who had married into other settlements.
Iwatari Village immediately checked the other side's register in turn.
Ashihara Village had counted three households temporarily staying with relatives, one of which had crossed the border only yesterday.
The well rope hung motionless in midair.
Though no weapons were visible beyond the white flags, the voices on either side sounded nothing like peace.
Gen did not make the side with fewer people accept the result first.
The registration team divided the names into four columns: "permanent residents," "temporarily absent," "temporarily staying with relatives," and "unverified."
Those temporarily absent retained a minimum share, which family members could collect on their behalf.
Those who had moved away were excluded from the count for the time being.
Those staying with relatives could receive emergency water, but that did not give them a claim to rights over the well.
Anyone whose status could not be verified received one day's share first, with one witness from each side to verify it before sunset.
By the time the register was corrected, the first bucket of water had been hanging at the well's edge for an hour.
But when it finally poured into an Iwatari Village child's wooden basin, no one on Ashihara Village's side said that this bucket proved the deep well belonged to the Land of Grass.
On the second day, three noticeboards appeared