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A HAUNTED TEMPLE IN INABA PROVINCE 1 ABOUT
the year 1680 there stood an old temple on a wild pine-clad mountain
near the village
of Kisaichi, in the Province of Inaba. The temple was far up in a rocky
ravine.
So high and thick were the trees, they kept out nearly all daylight,
even when
the sun was at its highest. As long as the old men of the village could
remember the temple had been haunted by a shito dama and the skeleton
ghost
(they thought) of some former priestly occupant. Many priests had tried
to live
in the temple and make it their home but all had died. No one could
spend a
night there and live. At last, in the winter of 1701, there arrived at the village of Kisaichi a priest who was on a pilgrimage. His name was Jogen, and he was a native of the Province of Kai. Jogen Sights the Haunted Temple Jogen
had come to see the haunted temple. He was fond of studying such
things. Though
he believed in the shito dama form of spiritual return to earth, he did
not
believe in ghosts. As a matter of fact, he was anxious to see a shito
dama,
and, moreover, wished to have a temple of his own. In this wild
mountain
temple, with a history which fear and death prevented people from
visiting or
priests inhabiting, he thought that he had (to put it in vulgar
English) 'a
real good thing.' Thus he had found his way to the village on the
evening of a
cold December night, and had gone to the inn to eat his rice and to
hear all he
could about the temple. Jogen
was no coward; on the contrary, he was a brave man, and made all
inquiries in
the calmest manner. 'Sir,'
said the landlord, 'your holiness must not think of going to this
temple, for
it means death. Many good priests have tried to stay the night there,
and every
one has been found next morning dead, or has died shortly after
daybreak
without coming to his senses. It is no use, sir, trying to defy such an
evil
spirit as comes to this temple. I beg you, sir, to give up the idea.
Badly as
we want a temple here, we wish for no more deaths, and often think of
burning
down this old haunted one and building a new.' Jogen, however, was firm
in his
resolve to find and see the ghost. 'Kind
sir,' he answered, 'your wishes are for my preservation; but it is my
ambition
to see a shito dama, and, if prayers can quiet it, to reopen the
temple, to
read its legends from the old books that must lie hidden therein, and
to be the
head priest of it generally.' The
innkeeper, seeing that the priest was not to be dissuaded, gave up the
attempt,
and promised that his son should accompany him as guide in the morning,
and
carry sufficient provisions for a day. Next
morning was one of brilliant sunshine, and Jogen was out of bed early,
making
preparations. Kosa, the innkeeper's twenty-year-old son, was tying up
the
priest's bedding and enough boiled rice to last him nearly two full
days. It
was decided that Kosa, after leaving the priest at the temple, should
return to
the village, for he as well as every other villager refused to spend a
night at
the weird place; but he and his father agreed to go and see Jogen on
the
morrow, or (as some one grimly put it) 'to carry him down and give him
an
honourable funeral and decent burial.' Jogen
entered fully into this joke, and shortly after left the village, with
Kosa
carrying his things and guiding the way. The
gorge in which the temple was situated was very steep and wild. Great
moss-clad
rocks lay strewn everywhere. When Jogen and his companion had got
half-way up
they sat down to rest and eat. Soon they heard voices of persons
ascending, and
ere long the innkeeper and some eight or nine of the village elders
presented
themselves. 'We
have followed you,' said the innkeeper, 'to try once more to dissuade
you from
running to a sure death. True, we want the temple opened and the ghosts
appeased; but we do not wish it at the cost of another life. Please
consider!' 'I
cannot change my mind,' answered the priest. 'Besides, this is the one
chance
of my life. Your village elders have promised me that if I am able to
appease
the spirit and reopen the temple I shall be the head priest of the
temple,
which must hereafter become celebrated.' Again
Jogen refused to listen to advice, and laughed at the villagers' fears.
Shouldering the packages that had been carried by Kosa, he said: 'Go
back with the rest. I can find my own way now easily enough. I shall be
glad if
you return to-morrow with carpenters, for no doubt the temple is in sad
want of
repairs, both inside and out. Now, my friends, until to-morrow,
farewell. Have
no fear for me: I have none for myself.' The
villagers made deep bows. They were greatly impressed by the bravery of
Jogen,
and hoped that he might be spared to become their priest. Jogen in his
turn
bowed, and then began to continue his ascent. The others watched him as
long as
he remained in view, and then retraced their steps to the village; Kosa
thanking the good fortune that had not necessitated his having to go to
the
temple with the priest and return in the evening alone. With two or
three
people he felt brave enough; but to be here in the gloom of this wild
forest
and near the haunted temple alone — no: that was not in his line. As
Jogen climbed he came suddenly in sight of the temple, which seemed to
be
almost over his head, so precipitous were the sides of the mountain and
the
path. Filled with curiosity, the priest pressed on in spite of his
heavy load,
and some fifteen minutes later arrived panting on the temple platform,
or terrace,
which, like the temple itself, had been built on driven piles and
scaffolding. At
first glance Jogen recognised that the temple was large; but lack of
attention
had caused it to fall into great dilapidation. Rank grasses grew high
about its
sides; fungi and creepers abounded upon the damp, sodden posts and
supports; so
rotten, in fact, did these appear, the priest mentioned in his written
notes
that evening that he feared the spirits less than the state of the
posts which
supported the building. Cautiously
Jogen entered the temple, and saw that there was a remarkably large and
fine
gilded figure of Buddha, besides figures of many saints. There were
also fine
bronzes and vases, drums from which the parchment had rotted off,
incense-burners, or koros, and other valuable or holy things. Behind
the temple were the priests' living quarters; evidently, before the
ghost's
time, the temple must have had some five or six priests ever present to
attend
to it and to the people who came to pray. The
gloom was oppressive, and as the evening was already approaching Jogen
bethought himself of light. Unpacking his bundle, he filled a lamp with
oil,
and found temple-sticks for the candles which he had brought with him.
Having
placed one of these on either side of the figure of Buddha, he prayed
earnestly
for two hours, by which time it was quite dark. Then he took his simple
meal of
rice, and settled himself to watch and listen. In order that he might
see
inside and outside the temple at the same time, he had chosen the
gallery.
Concealed behind an old column, he waited, in his heart disbelieving in
ghosts,
but anxious, as his notes said, to see a shito dama. For
some two hours he heard nothing. The wind — such little as there was —
sighed
round the temple and through the stems of the tall trees. An owl hooted
from
time to time. Bats flew in and out. A fungusy smell pervaded the air. Suddenly,
near midnight, Jogen heard a rustling in the bushes below him, as if
somebody
were pushing through. He thought it was a deer, or perhaps one of the
large
red-faced apes so fond of the neighbourhood of high and deserted
temples;
perhaps, even, it might be a fox or a badger. The
priest was soon undeceived. At the place whence the sound of the
rustling
leaves had come, he saw the clear and distinct shape of the well-known
shito
dama. It moved first one way and then another, in a hovering and jerky
manner,
and from it a voice as of distant buzzing proceeded; but — horror of
horrors! —
what was that standing among the bushes? The
priest's blood ran cold. There stood the luminous skeleton of a man in
loose
priest's clothes, with glaring eyes and a parchment skin! At first it
remained
still; but as the shito dama rose higher and higher the ghost moved
after it — sometimes
visible, sometimes not. Higher
and higher came the shito dama, until finally the ghost stood at the
base of
the great figure of Buddha, and was facing Jogen. Cold
beads of sweat stood out on the priest's forehead; the marrow seemed to
have
frozen in his bones; he shook so that he could hardly stand. Biting his
tongue
to prevent screaming, he dashed for the small room in which he had left
his
bedding, and, having bolted himself in, proceeded to look through a
crack
between the boards. Yes! there was the figure of the ghost, still
seated near
the Buddha; but the shito dama had disappeared. None
of Jogen's senses left him; but fear was paralysing his body, and he
felt
himself no longer capable of moving — no matter what should happen. He
continued,
in a lying position, to look through the hole. The
ghost sat on, turning only its head, sometimes to the right, sometimes
to the
left, and sometimes looking upwards. For
full an hour this went on. Then the buzzing sound began again, and the
shito
dama reappeared, circling and circling round the ghost's body, until
the ghost
vanished, apparently having turned into the shito dama; and after
circling
round the holy figures three or four times it suddenly shot out of
sight. Next
morning Kosa and five men came up to the temple. They found the priest
alive
but paralysed. He could neither move nor speak. He was carried to the
village,
dying before he got there. Much
use was made of the priest's notes. No one else ever volunteered to
live at the
temple, which, two years later, was struck by lightning and burned to
the ground.
In digging among the remains, searching for bronzes and metal Buddhas,
villagers came upon a skeleton buried, only a foot deep, near the
bushes whence
Jogen had first heard the sounds of rustling. Undoubtedly
the ghost and shito dama were those of a priest who had suffered a
violent
death and could not rest. The
bones were properly buried and masses said, and nothing has since been
seen of
the ghost. All that remains of the temple are the moss-grown pedestals which formed the foundations. ______________________________________
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