Up in the capital from Shinano, Lazy Taro left his lazy habits behind and worked hard. Eventually, as his term ended and the day to go home drew near, Taro asked the innkeeper, "I'd like to take a wife home as a souvenir." Half joking, the innkeeper told him, "Then go to Kiyomizudera and do a crossroads grab." A crossroads grab meant seizing a woman walking alone in the road and making her your wife.
Taro stood before the gate of Kiyomizudera watching the worshipers. A beautiful lady-in-waiting from a noble household came by. Taro suddenly threw his arms around her.
At her wits' end, the lady tried to escape by reciting riddle poems and telling him where she lived in riddles. But Taro, despite appearances, knew poetry, and solved all her riddles and found out where she lived.
Impressed by Taro's gift for poetry, the lady agreed to be his wife. When the people of the mansion bathed the filthy Taro and dressed him properly, he turned out to be a remarkably handsome man.
Word of Taro's talent for poetry soon reached the emperor's ears. When the emperor had his origins looked into, it turned out that Taro was the son of the Second-Rank Captain, a son of Emperor Ninmyo, born while that prince was in exile in Shinano.
The emperor appointed Taro "Captain of Shinano" and gave him the two provinces of Kai and Shinano. Taro went home with his wife to the village of Atarashi in Shinano, treated the villagers well, and lived to a hundred and twenty. It is said he was later worshiped as the god Otaga Daimyojin.