A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

The Story of Kogi the Priest'
NEARLY
one thousand years ago there lived
in the famous temple called Miidera, at
Otsu ^ in the province of Omi, a learned
priest named Kogi. He was a great artist. He
painted, with almost equal skill, pictures of the
Buddhas, pictures of beautiful scenery, and pic-
tures of animals or birds; but he liked best to
paint fishes. Whenever the weather was fair, and
religious duty permitted, he would go to Lake
Biwa, and hire fishermen to catch fish for him,
without injuring them in any way, so that he
could paint them afterwards as they swam about
in a large vessel of water. After having made
1 From the collection entitled Ugetsu Monogatari.
2 The town of Otsu stands on the shore of the great
Lake of Omi,— usually called Lake Biwa; — and the temple
Miidera is situated upon a hill overlooking the water.
Miidera was founded in the seventh century, but has been
several times rebuilt : the present structure dates back to
the latter part of the seventeenth century.
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