Who Is Kwairyo (formerly Isogai Heidazaemon Taketsura) (Isogai Heidazaemon)?

Kwairyo is the hero of "Rokuro-Kubi" in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan. He was once Isogai Heidazaemon Taketsura, a mighty samurai who served the Kikuchi family of Kyushu. After his lord's house fell, he became a Buddhist priest, took the name Kwairyo, and traveled the country as a wandering monk who feared nothing.

In the mountains of Kai Province, Kwairyo is given lodging by a kind woodcutter. In the middle of the night, he sees that all five people in the house have no heads. He realizes they are rokuro-kubi, monsters whose heads come off and fly, and moves the master's body outside so the head cannot return. The heads, eating insects in the woods while discussing how to eat Kwairyo, attack him in fury, but he beats them off using a young tree as a weapon. The master's head dies still biting Kwairyo's sleeve.

Kwairyo calmly walks into the town of Suwa with the head still hanging from his sleeve and is arrested. But an old official recognizes it as a rokuro-kubi head, praises him, and sets him free. He is portrayed as a priest who never lost the spirit of a samurai.