In the autumn of 1168, the traveling monk Saigyo visited the tomb of Emperor Sutoku at Shiramine in the province of Sanuki. Sutoku was the emperor who, defeated in the Hogen Rebellion, was exiled to Sanuki and died there without ever returning to the capital.
The tomb lay deep in the mountains among thick pines and oaks, fallen into ruin, with no one coming to visit. Thinking of the emperor's glory in life, Saigyo wept at how desolate he now was, read sutras all night and composed a poem: "Matsuyama no / nami no keshiki wa / kawaraji o / katanaku kimi wa / narimasarikeri" (The waves at Matsuyama must look as they always did, but you, my lord, have vanished without a trace).
Then, late in the night, a voice called Saigyo by his religious name: "En'i, En'i." He looked and saw a gaunt, strange figure standing there. It was the ghost of Emperor Sutoku.
Answering Saigyo's poem, the emperor said, "For years now I have fallen into the demon path and brought curses on the realm. It was I who caused the Heiji Rebellion." Saigyo admonished him, preaching the way of the Buddha: "You who once held the throne, why have you strayed onto such a fearful path?"
The emperor showed fierce anger and told of his grudge from the Hogen Rebellion. "My brother Go-Shirakawa took the throne from me and I was banished to this island. I copied the five Mahayana sutras and asked only that they be placed in a temple in the capital, and even that was refused. With blood from biting off my tongue, I wrote on those sutras, 'I shall become the great demon of Japan, make the emperor a commoner and the commoners emperor,' and sank them in the sea."
The emperor's face turned as red as if vermilion had been poured on it, his hair stood on end, his eyes slanted upward, and he took on the form of a terrible demon king. "The whole Taira clan too, I will soon make into weeds at the bottom of the sea," he declared. Then a gust of wind blew, and the emperor vanished.
Afterward, just as the emperor had said, the Taira were destroyed at Dan-no-ura. It is said that Saigyo never told anyone of that night.