Ho-ichi continues to tell me the tale of his strange storytelling gig.

“The next night when I left the temple the servants were watching. They saw me leave after midnight as before. But is was raining and very dark and the servants lost sight of me, surprised by how quickly I, a blind man, was walking. The servants knocked on doors of homes where I was known to visit from time to time, but no one had seen me.

“Too ashamed to admit to Osamu that a blind man had given them the slip in the rain, the servants continued to search for me. About 2:30 AM the servants heard the sound of my biwa coming from the direction of the cemetery. Peering over the wall they saw me sitting in the mud, playing my biwa, and loudly chanting the story of the battle of Dan-no-ura. All around me the fires of the dead were burning like a thousand candles.

“The two men climbed over the wall and slowly crept up to me. they grabbed me by the sholders and shouted into my ears, ‘Ho-ichi San! Come back to the temple with us at once!’

“‘What are you doing?’ I cried. ‘Let me go! Do not humiliate me in front of this grand assembly.’

“But Osamu’s servants did not let go. They dragged me through the mud of the cemetery, out to the path, through the village, and to the temple where they changed my wet clothes and gave me some bread and hot tea.

“Osamu then asked me, ‘Ho-ichi, what have you been doing?’”

Next time: “A Grave Danger”