The life of Guangzhi Guoxin: a legendary wandering in Japan

Around the middle of the 16th century, stories began to circulate in Japan about a mysterious man who was able to perform great magic. His name was Koji Kashin, and he most likely never existed. He survives today only through legend and folklore, but it’s easy to assume that this man Was He actually existed, and he simply wiped out all historical documents that could prove his existence, for no other reason than that he thought it was funny. This is more than we know about Koji Goshin.

Setting the Stage

Born in what is now Niigata Prefecture, Kashin Koji was said to be a Buddhist monk who was expelled from the temple for dabbling in non-Buddhist magic. It took a long time for people to learn about his sorcery, as all the stories about Koji’s wandering life after becoming a monk depicted him as an old man with a long white beard. Normally, it would be difficult to change jobs so late, but when life gave Koji bamboo leaves, he made fish out of them. This is not the Japanese version of the idiom “lemons into lemonade,” but one of the magician’s most famous tricks, in which he was said to have turned bamboo leaves into fish by throwing them onto the surface of the water of Sarusawa Pond in Nara Park.

He is also said to be able to summon the spirits of the dead, but he is more interested in drinkable spirits, which he considers an expensive hobby, as it was reported that Koji once drank 12 bottles of spirits in a bar. However, this is not a bad thing: thanks to his dealings with the Demon King, he can afford the bar tab.

“Nonsense, your painting is fake now”

The most popular Koji Kashin accounts are from Japanese Miscellany, Lafcardo Hearn’s 1901 collection of anecdotes. The story goes that Koji initially made a living by giving religious lectures and painting scrolls depicting Buddhist hells. These paintings were apparently so vivid that the warlord Oda Nobunaga, also known asThe devil,He could swear he heard the screams of the sinners in the paintings and the sound of rivers of blood flowing from the scrolls. He thought the paintings lived up to his nickname, so he announced that he would buy these depictions of hell from Koji without even asking if they were for sale. Nobunaga Brand.

Mitsuko initially refused, but then an overzealous retainer named Arakawa sneaked away, killed the monk and stole his painting. However, when he presented the painting to Nobunaga, the scroll was blank. Finding himself at odds with the man with the blood of tens of thousands of people on his hands, Arakawa scrambled to find the scroll. Unexpectedly, he stumbled upon Mitsuko drinking at a bar, seemingly still alive. Not doubting his luck, he dragged the magician before his master, who promptly accused Arakawa of hiding the real painting, earning the samurai a vicious but well-deserved beating with a bamboo stick.

Mitsuko eventually admits that he has the drawings, and agrees to sell them to Nobunaga. After receiving the money, he causes the visions of Hell to reappear on the blank scrolls, but the warlord can no longer hear any sounds coming from the scrolls. The monk explains that this is to be expected: before, the scrolls were priceless. But once Nobunaga put a price on them, they became just another thing that could be bought and sold, and thus lost their magic. There’s a profound lesson here about the true value of things – a lesson made less profound by later legend, in which Arakawa’s brother later tracks Mitsuko down, kills him and takes his money. But when he opens the bag at home, he finds not gold, but a pile of feces. Naturally, Mitsuko gets over the whole “being killed” thing with ease.

“The Magic of Guoxin Layman”, illustration by Yuhongmu. Wikimedia Commons

The Prestige

Other legends about Mitsuko include that he once drank with Akechi Mitsuhide, who betrayed Oda Nobunaga and forced him to commit suicide. At that time, he summoned a ship from a painting in the hands of the traitor samurai and flooded his house. The magician also apparently angered Oda Nobunaga’s successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, because he revealed some secrets about the warlord and was sentenced to crucifixion. He escaped punishment by turning himself into a rat. All of these stories help us understand why the legend of Mitsuko Goshin is so popular.

We mentioned before that Hiroji could summon the spirits of the dead. According to records, Hiroji did this to scare Matsunaga Hisahide, one of Japan’s “Three Great Evil Men” known for his brutality and cruelty. Oda Nobunaga wasn’t one of them, but with a nickname like “The Demon King,” you can imagine he wasn’t a particularly well-liked figure. The same was true for Mitsuhide and Toyotomi. In short, almost every famous historical figure that Hiroji has ever met was once considered one of Japan’s worst people. This suggests that magicians are a satirical framework invented by the powerless to tell stories about powerful people who end up being humiliated, deceived, or have shit on their hands.

True or not, it’s a legacy anyone can be proud of.

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