Who Is The Priest of Amidaji / The Acolyte?
The head priest who protected Hoichi with sutras
The Priest of Amidaji
The Priest of Amidaji is the monk in "The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi" who loves Hoichi's music and storytelling. He lets Hoichi live at the temple and supports him.
When the priest notices that Hoichi slips out every night, he has the temple servants follow him and learns that Hoichi is being summoned by the ghosts of the Heike. Believing Hoichi's life is in danger, he and his young acolyte write the Heart Sutra all over Hoichi's body. He tells Hoichi: "Do not answer if you are called, and do not move." The sutra makes Hoichi's body invisible to the ghost, but there was no sutra on his ears, so they are taken.
The next morning, the priest finds Hoichi bleeding. He apologizes, saying it was his own fault for not checking that the ears had been written on, and calls a doctor to treat him. The acolyte also appears as the one who helped the priest write the sutra.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 1
When the Dead Call His Name, Don't AnswerHoichi the Earless
Kaidan, Tale One. Hoichi, a blind master of the biwa lute, is summoned night after night to perform for "a person of high rank." But the guests who weep at his tale are the dead of a clan that sank beneath the sea. On the night his whole body is covered in sacred writing, he must not answer, no matter who calls his name.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 2
Silent for Ten Years. Then He Told.Yuki-onna (The Snow Woman)
KAIDAN: Japanese Ghost Stories, Episode 2. On a night of howling snow, a young woodcutter is spared by a woman in white—on one condition: he must never tell anyone what he saw. Years later, blessed with a gentle wife and ten children, he finally breaks his silence... to the one person he should never have told.
19 pages