











































The Fate of a Materialistic 
Buddhist: A Cultural Edition of 
“Jikininki” by Lafcadio Hearn

A traditional Japanese folktale, 
“Jikininki” tells the story of 

Muso, a traveling Buddhist monk, 
and the horrors he discovers in the 
mountains of Japan. In the story, he 
comes across a small, rural village 
where a citizen has recently died. 
Muso is told by one of the townsfolk 
that after every funeral the bodies 
mysteriously disappear. That night, 
he discovers that the bodies are 
being devoured by a corpse-eating 
ghost, called the Jikininki, cursed 
to consume the recently dead. In 
Japanese Buddhist mythology, 
Jikininkis are usually the spirits of greedy people, unable to enter the afterlife 
because of their earthly appetites (Roberts 62). 
 Little is known about the exact origin of the story, but much can be assumed 
from what is known about Japanese culture, specifically Zen Buddhism, one 
of the primary religions of Japan, and customs of rural Japanese communities. 
When studying “Jikininki,” it is clear that the teachings of Zen Buddhism and the 
cultures of rural communities are reflected in the fears and horrors surrounding the 
Jikininki, specifically in the monstrification of materialism and the denouncement 
of rural folk traditions. The corpse-devouring monster depicted in “Jikininki” 
is the intersection of two prominent cultural forces in rural Japan (the selfless 
transcendence from human nature depicted in Zen Buddhism and ancient folk-
religions, such as Shintoism, built upon spirits of nature and ancestral worship) and, 
in addition, appears to represent the fear of losing both the global Zen Buddhist 

ABSTRACT
Lafcadio Hearn has written and adapted 
many Japanese folktales that explore 
religious and cultural traditions of the 
civilization. “Jikininki” tells the tale 
of a Buddhist priest who encounters 
a cursed, corpse-eating ghost. The 
authors examine the depiction of this 
corpse-devouring monster, its relation 
to the cultural forces in rural Japan, and 
the representation of a fear of losing 
both the global Zen Buddhist and rural 
traditions through selfish mistreatment 
and material desires.

Natali Cavanagh, Sarah James, & Shannon Walter, Ball State University

1Digital Literature Review, vol. 4 (2017).     Ball State University. All Rights Reserved.
Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu.



traditions and the rural traditions through selfish mistreatment and material 
desires. 
 “Jikininki” was originally published in a collection of Japanese folktales, 
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, written by author and journalist 
Lafcadio Hearn. This collection is said to be loosely based on various excerpts of 
Japanese Buddhist mythology. From sections in his journal, it is apparent that 
Hearn had been fascinated with evil, demonic creatures from a young age (Bisland 
26-28). Hearn was born in Greece and spent the majority of his childhood and 
young adult life in Ireland and America, but he found his home in Japan, spending 
fourteen years in various parts of the country. By day, he worked as an English 
literature professor, but he spent his free time carefully observing, learning, and 
recording the folklore of the ancient Japanese culture. Kwaidan is a culmination of 
what he learned and is considered to be his most successful work (Lewis). 
 Throughout history and around the world, it is clear that religion and 
philosophy drastically shape the societies they are cultivated in, and this idea is no 
different for Japanese culture. Zen Buddhism is one of the predominant religions 
that has influenced the Japanese way of life — their hopes and beliefs, but also 
what they fear. Buddhism was originally founded in India during the fifth and sixth 
centuries B.C.E. by Siddhartha Gautama, or the Buddha, and arrived in Japan by 
the sixth century C.E. (Roberts XV). While there are many variations of Buddhism 
(in China, Korea, etc.), Zen Buddhism is specific to Japan, and each sect has 
different ideas about how a person reaches enlightenment. 
 According to Paul Carus’s article “The Mythology of Buddhism,” Zen 
Buddhism is driven by four specific truths (or the Four Noble Truths) that 
comment on the origin of pain (Carus 415). Specifically, the underlying belief 
in these truths is that “to be human means to suffer” (Roberts XV) and that the 
root of suffering comes from our resistance to change and our attachment to the 
physical world; Carus writes, “The second noble truth states that the origin of 
suffering is the craving or clinging that clamors for the gratification of desire; it is 
the pursuit of pleasure . . . the lust of the senses, and the infatuation of all selfish 
conceits” (415). Buddhism contends that humans are fooled by the illusion of 
physical pleasure; the tangible, material world we reside in may satisfy a person in 
the moment, but, because the physical world cannot last forever, it will never truly 
fulfill a person’s nature or soul. Thus, we cannot be at peace simply by consuming 
the physical world. 
 Shunryu Suzuki, a modern Zen Buddhist master, also notes, “According to 
the traditional Buddhist understanding, our human nature is without ego. When 
we have no idea of ego, we have Buddha’s view of life. Our egoistic ideas are 

2Cavanagh, James, Walter



delusion, covering our Buddha nature” (88). Buddhists believe suffering comes from 
the desire and pursuit of earthly pleasures in physical, bodily desire and material 
objects. This desire is not even real, but merely an illusion, preventing us from ever 
knowing the true nature of the world or reaching enlightenment. And, according 
to the Buddhists, because this desire goes against our nature, one must overcome 
desire before reaching enlightenment. In order to overcome suffering, one must 
overcome selfishness. These ideas of overcoming selfishness are condensed into the 
Eightfold Path of righteousness, a guide to the right mindset, right actions, and 
right understanding one must have in order to achieve enlightenment (Roberts 
XV). 
 The focus on selfishness as the root of all evil is emphasized again in 
Buddhists’ personification of evil in Mara, the Buddhist Devil (Carus 417). He 
is depicted as a creature that feeds on bodily desires, sensual delight, and wicked 
selfishness — essentially the opposite of what the Buddha and the Eightfold Path 
embody. Interestingly, the monstrous Jikininki seems to also portray the wicked 
selfishness that is demonized in Buddhist mythology: a Buddhist priest who 
“thought only of the food and the clothes that my sacred profession enabled me to 
gain” is cursed to return to earth as a haunted spirit, forced to eat the bodies of the 
recently dead (Hearn 4). Monster scholar Jeffrey Jerome Cohen notes in “Monster 
Culture (Seven Theses)” that “[t]he monster is continually linked to forbidden 
practices in order to normalize and enforce . . . . The same creatures who terrify and 
interdict can evoke potent escapist fantasies; the linking of monstrosity with the 
forbidden makes the monster all the more appealing as a temporary egress from 
constraint” (16-17).  In this sense, the Jikininki seems to be a representation of the 
priest’s selfishness; the indulgence of the priest’s desire is what creates the monster. 
The priest is punished for straying from his own teachings but is also punished for 
his desires for material goods instead of enlightenment. He is punished for giving 
in to selfishness, for ignoring his true Buddha nature. And, therefore, his suffering 
continues after his death.
 For the rural areas of Japan, society is not only shaped by major religions, 
but also by the traditions and structures of small communities. Scholar and author 
Ichiro Hori claims, “The essence of Japanese folk-beliefs lies in the interaction 
between two belief systems: a little tradition . . . and a great tradition” (405). Little 
traditions are the native religions of rural Japan, whereas great traditions are the 
influences of major philosophies, such as Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. 
“Jikininki” is an excellent example of how these two traditions intersect; Muso 
Kokushi, a Zen Buddhist priest, represents the great tradition of major philosophy, 
while the Jikininki represents the little tradition of ancestor worship and respect for 

3Cavanagh, James, Walter



the dead in rural Japanese folk traditions. 
 This theme of an outside major philosophical force entering a local 
community is a common theme among Japanese folktales; Hori states, “One of 
the major problems of Japanese religious history is to grasp the importance of the 
role played by such migratory missionaries in forming folk-beliefs in Japan” (406). 
The role of missionaries from larger, global religions, such as Muso Kokushi in 
“Jikininki,” was to introduce new concepts to rural communities, opening the door 
for greater knowledge and understanding. The culmination of these two forces, 
the global religion and the local religion, is echoed throughout “Jikininki” and is 
represented by the monster itself.
  The selfishness of the Buddhist priest who becomes the Jikininki stems from 
both his desire for the worldly possessions given to him because of his religious 
position and from his apathy towards the treatment of the dead in the village he 
resides in. Japanese folk religion places a significant importance on its treatment of 
the dead, with ancestral worship and the sanctity of mountains being core attributes 
to their traditions (Hori 416).
  Although Zen Buddhism is popular in Japan, individual nature-oriented 
deities still exist in rural Japanese folklore. Most common of these are the spirits 
of the mountains. For example, many Japanese farming villages believe “the god of 
the rice-fields comes down from the mountain or hill at the beginning of spring 
before seeding to guard his worshippers’ fields” (Hori 415). In the mountainous 
area of Mino, where “Jikininki” takes place, the landscape itself would have been an 
important part of the village’s folk religions.  
 Mountains are seen as sacred in many cultures, providing landmarks as a 
source of identity or signifying being closer to god. In Japan, mountains play a large 
part in the treatment of the dead, acting as burial sites or places of meditation. They 
are also seen as sites of spirits, both in relation to folk-religion and the dead. Hori 
claims, “Another important folk-belief is that a particular mountain . . . is associated 
with the spirit of the dead at the time of funerals” (416). Mountains were viewed 
as a path to the afterlife, and many Japanese legends, including “Jikininki,” involve 
“Buddhist monks, [and] Shinto priests . . . [meeting] ghosts in such mountains” 
(Hori 417).
 In the story, the former Zen Buddhist priest says that “the bodies of the 
mountain-folk who died used to be brought here — sometimes from great 
distances — in order that I might repeat over them the holy service. But I repeated 
the service and performed the rites only as a matter of business” (Hearn 4). By 
disrespecting the importance of the treatment of the dead in a rural Japanese 
village, he is forced to spend his afterlife as a monster. The only way to relieve 

4Cavanagh, James, Walter



himself of his monstrous existence is to have a devout priest honor the dead and 
treat his body with the same respect seen across rural Japan. Cohen states, “The 
monster awakens one to the pleasures of the body to the simple and fleeting joys of 
being frightened, or frightening — to the experience of mortality and corporeality” 
(17). The pleasures of this world are what caused the curse upon the priest, and he 
exists as both a frightened and frightening creature, forced to eat the corpses of 
deceased villagers as punishment for his decisions.
 The Jikininki is forced to exist as a monster due to his selfishness and desire 
for worldly possessions, as well as apathy towards the treatment of the dead in 
Japanese mountain villages. He remains in his afterlife to plague the citizens of a 
mountainous Japanese village, their fear reflective of their shared beliefs; the loss 
of their values, represented in the Jikininki himself, invokes fear in the community. 
The culmination of the mistreatment of both community traditions and global 
religion leads to the birth of this monster.

“JIKININKI” BY LAFCADIO HEARN
 Once, when Muso Kokushi, a priest of the Zen sect1, was journeying alone 
through the province of Mino2, he lost his way in a mountain-district where there 
was nobody to direct him. For a long time he wandered about helplessly; and he 
was beginning to despair of finding shelter for the night, when he perceived, on the 
top of a hill lighted by the last rays of the sun, one of those little hermitages, called 
anjitsu3, which are built for solitary priests. It seemed to be in ruinous condition; 
but he hastened to it eagerly, and found that it was inhabited by an aged priest, 
from whom he begged the favor of a night’s lodging. This the old man harshly 
refused; but he directed Muso to a certain hamlet4, in the valley adjoining, where 
lodging and food could be obtained.
 Muso found his way to the hamlet, which consisted of less than a dozen 
farm-cottages; and he was kindly received at the dwelling of the headman. Forty or 
fifty persons were assembled in the principal apartment, at the moment of Muso’s 
arrival; but he was shown into a small separate room, where he was promptly 
supplied with food and bedding. Being very tired, he lay down to rest at an early 
hour; but a little before midnight he was roused from sleep by a sound of loud 

5Cavanagh, James, Walter

1 Zen Buddhism originated in China during the Tang dynasty. It emphasizes rigorous self-control, medita-
tion-practice, insight into Buddha-nature and the personal expression of this insight in daily life, especially 
for the benefit of others (D. Suzuki 104).
2 Mino is one of the old provinces of Japan. It lies in the southern part of modern-day Gifu Prefecture 
(“Mino Area”).
3 An anjitsu is defined as a hermit’s cell, or a retreat (“anshitsu”).
4 A small settlement, generally one smaller than a village (“hamlet”).



weeping in the next apartment. Presently the sliding-screens were gently pushed 
apart; and a young man, carrying a lighted lantern, entered the room, respectfully 
saluted him, and said:
 “Reverend Sir, it is my painful duty to tell you that I am now the responsible 
head of this house. Yesterday I was only the eldest son. But when you came here, 
tired as you were, we did not wish that you should feel embarrassed in any way: 
therefore we did not tell you that father had died only a few hours before. The 
people whom you saw in the next room are the inhabitants of this village: they 
all assembled here to pay their last respects to the dead; and now they are going 
to another village, about three miles off, — for, by our custom, no one of us may 
remain in this village during the night after a death has taken place. We make the 
proper offerings and prayers; then we go away, leaving the corpse alone. Strange 
things always happen in the house where a corpse has thus been left: so we think 
that it will be better for you to come away with us. We can find you good lodging in 
the other village. But perhaps, as you are a priest, you have no fear of demons or evil 
spirits; and, if you are not afraid of being left alone with the body, you will be very 
welcome to the use of this poor house. However, I must tell you that nobody, except 
a priest, would dare to remain here tonight.”
 Muso made answer:
 “For your kind intention and your generous hospitality I am deeply grateful. 
But I am sorry that you did not tell me of your father’s death when I came; for, 
though I was a little tired, I certainly was not so tired that I should have found 
difficulty in doing my duty as a priest. Had you told me, I could have performed 
the service before your departure. As it is, I shall perform the service5 after you have 
gone away; and I shall stay by the body until morning. I do not know what you 
mean by your words about the danger of staying here alone; but I am not afraid of 
ghosts or demons: therefore please do not have any anxiety on my account.”
 The young man appeared to be rejoiced by these assurances, and expressed 
his gratitude in fitting words. Then the other members of the family, and the folk 
assembled in the adjoining room, having been told of the priest’s kind promises, 
came to thank him — after which the master of the house said:
 “Now, reverend Sir, much as we regret to leave you alone, we must bid you 
farewell. By the rule of our village, none of us can stay here after midnight. We beg, 
kind Sir, that you will take every care of your honorable body, while we are unable 
to attend upon you. And if you happen to hear or see anything strange during our 

6Cavanagh, James, Walter

5 Upon death, Monks prepare the body by chanting comforting words while preparing the body for the 
funeral fire. They also accompany the family to the funeral to provide comfort and guidance for those left 
behind (Bodiford 153).



absence, please tell us of the matter when we return in the morning.”
 All then left the house, except the priest, who went to the room where the 
dead body was lying. The usual offerings had been set before the corpse; and a 
small Buddhist lamp — tomyo6— was burning. The priest recited the service, and 
performed the funeral ceremonies — after which he entered into meditation. So 
meditating he remained through several silent hours; and there was no sound in the 
deserted village. But, when the hush of the night was at its deepest, there noiselessly 
entered a Shape, vague and vast; and in the same moment Muso found himself 
without power to move or speak. He saw that Shape lift the corpse, as with hands, 
devour it, more quickly than a cat devours a rat — beginning at the head, and 
eating everything: the hair and the bones and even the shroud. And the monstrous 
Thing, having thus consumed the body, turned to the offerings, and ate them also. 
Then it went away, as mysteriously as it had come.
 When the villagers returned next morning, they found the priest awaiting 
them at the door of the headman’s dwelling. All in turn saluted him; and when 
they had entered, and looked about the room, no one expressed any surprise at the 
disappearance of the dead body and the offerings. But the master of the house said 
to Muso:
 “Reverend Sir, you have probably seen unpleasant things during the night: 
all of us were anxious about you. But now we are very happy to find you alive and 
unharmed. Gladly we would have stayed with you, if it had been possible. But the 
law of our village, as I told you last evening, obliges us to quit our houses after a 
death has taken place, and to leave the corpse alone. Whenever this law has been 
broken, heretofore, some great misfortune has followed. Whenever it is obeyed, we 
find that the corpse and the offerings disappear during our absence. Perhaps you 
have seen the cause.”
 Then Muso told of the dim and awful Shape that had entered the death-
chamber to devour the body and the offerings. No person seemed to be surprised 
by his narration; and the master of the house observed:
 “What you have told us, reverend Sir, agrees with what has been said about 
this matter from ancient time.”
 Muso then inquired:
 “Does not the priest on the hill sometimes perform the funeral-service for 
your dead?”
 “What priest?” the young man asked.

7Cavanagh, James, Walter

6 The gift of light and the accompanying prayers help bring less suffering and greater happiness in times of 
death, according to Zen Buddhism (“Lamp Offerings”).



 “The priest who yesterday evening directed me to this village,” answered 
Muso. “I called at his anjitsu on the hill yonder. He refused me lodging, but told me 
the way here.”
 The listeners looked at each other, as in astonishment; and, after a moment of 
silence, the master of the house said:
 “Reverend Sir, there is no priest and there is no anjitsu on the hill. For 
the time of many generations there has not been any resident-priest in this 
neighborhood.”
 Muso said nothing more on the subject; for it was evident that his kind hosts 
supposed him to have been deluded by some goblin. But after having bidden them 
farewell, and obtained all necessary information as to his road, he determined to 
look again for the hermitage on the hill, and so to ascertain whether he had really 
been deceived. He found the anjitsu without any difficulty; and, this time, its aged 
occupant invited him to enter. When he had done so, the hermit humbly bowed 
down before him, exclaiming: — “Ah! I am ashamed ! — I am very much ashamed! 
— I am exceedingly ashamed!”
 “You need not be ashamed for having refused me shelter,” said Muso. “You 
directed me to the village yonder, where I was very kindly treated; and I thank you 
for that favor.”
 “I can give no man shelter,” the recluse made answer; “and it is not for the 
refusal that I am ashamed. I am ashamed only that you should have seen me in 
my real shape, — for it was I who devoured the corpse and the offerings last night 
before your eyes. . . . Know, reverend Sir, that I am a jikininki7, — an eater of human 
flesh. Have pity upon me, and suffer me to confess the secret fault by which I 
became reduced to this condition.
 “A long, long time ago, I was a priest in this desolate region. There was no 
other priest for many leagues around. So, in that time, the bodies of the mountain-
folk who died used to be brought here, — sometimes from great distances, — in 
order that I might repeat over them the holy service. But I repeated the service 
and performed the rites only as a matter of business — I thought only of the food 
and the clothes that my sacred profession enabled me to gain. And because of 
this selfish impiety I was reborn, immediately after my death, into the state of a 
jikininki. Since then I have been obliged to feed upon the corpses of the people 
who die in this district: every one of them I must devour in the way that you saw 
last night. . . . Now, reverend Sir, let me beseech you to perform a Segaki-service8 

8Cavanagh, James, Walter

7 “Corpse-eating devils in Japanese Buddhist myth. Many jikininki are the spirits of greedy people whose 
appetites for worldly goods kept them from entering the spirit world” (Roberts 62).
8 “The name ‘Segaki’ means ‘feeding the hungry ghosts,’ and the rituals and practices done for this festival 
contain a great deal of teaching about training in Buddhism” (Carlson).



for me: help me by your prayers, I entreat you, so that I may be soon able to escape 
from this horrible state of existence”. . .
 No sooner had the hermit uttered this petition than he disappeared; and the 
hermitage also disappeared at the same instant. And Muso Kokushi found himself 
kneeling alone in the high grass, beside an ancient and moss-grown tomb of the 
form called go-rin-ishi9, which seemed to be the tomb of a priest.

9Cavanagh, James, Walter

9 Also referred to as a “Five Circle Stone,” a go-rin-ishi is a Buddhist tomb. This idea is further explored in 
our primary sources (“Gorintou”).



ELIZABETH BISLAND, LAFCADIO HEARN, AND BRUCE ROGERS’S 
“BOYHOOD” (1906)

To the devils indeed — because I supposed them stronger than the 
rest — I had often prayed for help and friendship; very humbly at 
first, and in great fear of being too grimly answered — but afterwards 
with words of reproach on finding that my condensations had been 
ignored. But in spite of their indifference, my sympathy of the enemies 
of Cousin Jane’s God steadily strengthened; and my interest in all the 
spirits that the Church History called evil, especially the heathen gods, 
continued to grow. (26-27)

 This letter was written by Lafcadio Hearn in regards to his thoughts on the 
influence his childhood had on his views of religion. This section of his letter is of 
particular interest because it denotes his fascination with “evil” and the dark side 
of religion. He finishes the section of the letter regarding “idolatry” and religion by 
stating, “[a]nd even to-day, in spite of larger knowledge, the words ‘heathen’ and 
‘pagan’ — however ignorantly used in scorn — revive within me old sensations of 
light and beauty, of freedom and joy” (28). The conclusion to his letter illustrates his 
positive associations with a side of religion that is not typically advocated.
 Through reading this excerpt from Hearn’s personal letter, readers are able to 
get an idea of Hearn’s point of view as is related to his upbringing. By reading about 
his childhood and his reflections on his childhood fascinations and religious ideals, 
the reader is clued into where Hearn was coming from when he wrote this short 
story. At the time, it was common for society to lump non-Christian religions, 
such as Buddhism, together with the Christian ideals of evil. As it is said that 
Hearn’s book of Japanese tales is loosely based upon snippets of Japanese Buddhist 
mythology, it begins to makes sense as to why Lafcadio Hearn is so interested 
in writing stories, like “Jikininki,” that investigate the dark side of the Buddhist 
religion, when excerpts such as this one so clearly delineate Hearn’s interest, or 
borderline obsession, with evil and heathen gods.

10Cavanagh, James, Walter



LAFCADIO HEARN’S “THE LITERATURE OF THE DEAD” (1898)
As I write these lines a full moon looks into my study over the trees of 
the temple-garden, and brings me the recollection of a little Buddhist 
poem:

From the foot of the mountain, many are the paths ascending in the 
shadow; but from the cloudless summit all who climb behold the self-
same Moon.

The reader who knows the truth shrined in this little verse will not 
regret an hour passed with me among the tombs of Kobudera. (147)

 The Buddhist faith puts a strong focus on reflection and meditation. This 
primary source is a collection of Hearn’s Buddhist writings and illustrates his deep 
connection with the Buddhist faith. Much of the background on the author depicts 
him as a world traveler, never staying in one place for an extended period of time, 
but all sources state that he spent most of his time in Japan, becoming absorbed 
in the Buddhist faith. While this excerpt does not specifically relate to “Jikininki,” 
it illustrates Hearn’s deep meditations and reflections in regards to Buddhism. 
As “Jikininki” revolves around Zen Buddhism, these deeply religious writings 
from Hearn provide an excellent example of the reason he chose to focus on Zen 
Buddhism in this short story as well as others he has written. In addition, while 
small, there is a connection in the setting of Hearn’s excerpt and the mountainous 
setting of “Jikininki.” Mountains can be viewed as quiet, removed places for 
reflection. As reflection is an important part of Zen Buddhism, the correlation 
between Hearn’s reflections in the mountains and Muso’s moments of reflection 
and prayer in the rural village in the mountains illustrates the importance of 
reflection in removed, quiet, and natural settings.
 Additionally, this source gives the audience a strong, well-rounded 
background of the author and where he is coming from when writing “Jikininki.” 
This conclusion to one chapter of his Buddhist writings illustrates the importance 
of Buddhism to Lafcadio Hearn. This provides an additional layer of connection 
when reading “Jikininki,” knowing that the author is a devout Zen Buddhist who 
believes and takes part in the religious cultures and traditions depicted throughout 
the short story.

11Cavanagh, James, Walter



BHIKSHU SUBHADRA’S A BUDDHIST CATECHISM: AN OUTLINE OF THE 
DOCTRINE OF THE BUDDHA GOTAMA IN THE FORM OF QUESTION AND 
ANSWER (1920)

It is addressed to those for whom material progress and augmented 
means of luxury do not constitute the goal of life, and to whom the 
prevalent cruel strife for the possession of worldly goods and grandeur, 
which the general selfishness makes each day more pitiless. (6)

 The Oxford English Dictionary defines “catechism” as “[a]n elementary 
treatise for instruction in the principles of the Christian religion, in the form 
of question and answer; such a book accepted and issued by a church as an 
authoritative exposition of its teaching” (“catechism”). While generally thought 
of as a part of the Christian religion, this Buddhist catechism serves the same 
purpose as defined above. Through question and answer, the guidelines are laid 
out to those who practice Buddhism. Very specific questions are posed, such as: 
“Who is Buddha?” “Is Buddha a proper name?” and “When was Prince Siddhartha 
born?” This catechism, Doctrine of the Buddha Gotama in the Form of Question and 
Answer, provides a detailed layout of what it means to be Buddhist, the history of 
Buddhism, and how to practice Buddhism.
 Through this Buddhist catechism, and mainly through the quote that has 
been pulled from the source, readers become more acquainted with what it means 
to practice Buddhism, especially as it pertains to the idea of materialism in the 
Buddhist faith. With the quote spelling out who the catechism is addressing, 
readers are given reference to the implications of the negativity of materialism in 
“Jikininki.” The Jikininki in the story states that he was cursed for his materialistic 
nature as a Buddhist priest, implying that this is an important aspect of the 
Buddhist culture. In addition, Cohen makes the statement that “escapist delight 
gives way to horror only when the monster threatens to overstep these boundaries, 
to destroy or deconstruct the thin walls of category and culture” (17). This quotation 
is an illustration of one of Cohen’s seven monster theses: “fear of the monster 
is really a kind of desire” (17). In “Jikininki,” this specific desire is materialism, 
and, as we see from the catechism, the desire for material goods is explicitly 
warned against, which as Cohen states, only makes it that much more desirable. 
Throughout the story, we see that the Jikininki itself is punished for this monstrous 
desire for worldly goods and gives way to a horrific ending of living eternally as a 
flesh-eating monster after overstepping the Buddhist boundaries throughout his 
life as a human being. 

12Cavanagh, James, Walter



BURTON HOLMES’S “A GO-RIN-ISHI OR ‘FIVE CIRCLE STONE,’ THE 
TOMB OF MATSUDAIRA, IN MATSUE” (1922)
 This photograph provides visual representation for the tomb mentioned 
at the end of “Jikininki.” In the story, it is stated, “Muso Kokushi found himself 
kneeling alone in the high grass, beside an ancient and moss-grown tomb of the 
form called go-rin-ishi, which seemed to be the tomb of a priest” (Hearn 33). 
As stated in the title of the photograph, this tomb, or go-rin-ishi, is made of five 
stones. Each stone is said to represent each of the five elements of Buddhism. The 
bottom, square-like rock corresponds to the earth, 
the spherical stone represents water, the triangular 
stone represents fire, the “reclining half-moon” stone 
represents the wind, and the final stone on top 
represents space (“Gorintou”). The importance of 
nature in the Buddhist religion shines through in the 
description and explanation of this specific tomb for a 
Buddhist priest.
 This visual representation provides context 
to readers as to what the tomb of a Buddhist priest 
looks like, as well as why it looks this way. With this 
concrete example of the tomb of a priest, readers are 
able to visualize what Muso is seeing at the end of this 
short story, which adds a level of understanding and 
connection. A second level of understanding is added 
when readers are provided with the context of what each stone means on the go-
rin-ishi.”The subtle focus on nature in the Buddhist religion and, specifically, in 
the short story, are illustrated well through this photograph and the explanation of 
the importance of each stone. Through better understanding the meaning of this 
Buddhist tomb, the audience is given a more well-rounded knowledge of the uses 
of nature throughout the short story. For example, “Jikininki” takes place in a rural 
Japanese village; this setting makes more sense when taking into consideration 
the importance of nature in the Buddhist culture. By understanding that each of 
the five stones that make up this tomb represent the most important elements 
of nature, the relation between the natural setting of the short story and the 
natural focus of Zen Buddhism creates a stronger understanding and focus for the 
audience.

13Cavanagh, James, Walter



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