Who Is The Young Monk / The Serpent in the Dream (Anchin)?

Anchin is the young monk in "Anchin and Kiyohime," a legend handed down at Dōjōji temple in Wakayama Prefecture. In early sources such as Konjaku Monogatari he has no name and is simply called "a young monk." The name Anchin was given to him later.

In Episode 10, on a pilgrimage to Kumano, he stays at an inn in Muro District, Kii Province, where the mistress of the house confesses her love. To get away, he promises to stop by on his way back, then returns by a different road. When she realizes she has been deceived, she becomes a giant serpent and chases him. The monks of Dōjōji lower their temple bell and hide him inside it. The serpent coils around the bell and burns it with its poisonous heat, and the monk is reduced to ash. Later he appears as a serpent in a dream to an old monk of the temple and begs to be saved through the Lotus Sutra.