A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

The Story of Kwashin KojT
DURING
the period of Tensho ' there Hved,
in one of the northern districts of Kyoto,
an old man whom the people called
Kwashin Koji. He wore a long white beard, and
was always dressed like a Shinto priest ; but he
made his living by exhibiting Buddhist pictures
and by preaching Buddhist doctrine. Every fine
day he used to go to the grounds of the temple
Gion, and there suspend to some tree a large
kakemono on which were depicted the punish-
ments of the various hells. This kakdmono was
so wonderfully painted that all things represented
in it seemed to be real ; and the old man would
1 Related in the curious old book Yaso-Kidan.
2 The period of Tensho lasted from IS 73 to 1591
(a. D.). The death of the great captain, Oda Nobunaga,
who figures in this story, occurred in 1582.
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