From Murasaki Shikibu's poetry collection (Murasaki Shikibu shû) Someone had drawn on a scroll the unpleasant form of a woman possessed by an evil spirit. Behind the possessed woman, a priest was restraining the husband's former wife, who had appeared as a demon. The husband was trying to subdue the evil spirit by reading a sutra. Upon seeing the illustrated scroll, I wrote: Naki hito ni In his anguish
|