Long ago, when the Zen priest Muso Kokushi was traveling alone through the province of Mino, he lost his way in the mountains, with no one to guide him. Evening was falling, and after wandering a long time he at last found, on top of a hill, a small hermitage with an old priest living in it. When he asked for a night's lodging, the old priest refused coldly and said, "There is a village in the next valley; ask for a bed there."
When he reached the house of the village headman, many people had gathered inside. A young man came out and said, "My father died today. Tonight, by the custom of our village, we must all leave the body alone and go to the next village, because strange things happen during the night. Please come with us, reverend sir." Muso answered, "I am a priest. I will stay here and read the sutras for the dead."
At midnight, as Muso sat reading sutras alone beside the body, a vast, shapeless thing came in without a sound. It lifted the corpse and devoured it, quicker than a cat devours a rat, hair and bones and shroud and all. Then it ate the offerings too, and went out as silently as it had come.
The next morning, when the villagers returned, Muso told them what he had seen. They were not at all surprised: "That is how it has always been." When Muso asked, "Why does the priest in the hermitage on the hill not perform the funeral rites?", the villagers answered, "There has been no priest around here for many generations."
When Muso climbed the hill again, the hermitage was indeed there, and the old priest came out, prostrated himself and said, "What you saw last night was I. Long ago I was a priest in this place, but I read sutras and performed funerals only for the sake of food and clothing. In punishment for that greed, I became a jikininki after my death, a man-eating goblin, and must devour the bodies of those who die in this region. I beg you, perform a segaki service for me, for the hungry dead."
No sooner had he spoken than the old priest and the hermitage vanished, and Muso found himself kneeling alone in the long grass before an old, moss-covered gravestone, a five-tiered stupa. It was the grave of that priest of long ago.
Hearn tells this story as taking place in the mountains of Mino, as in the original. Muso Soseki was also the Zen priest who founded Eihoji temple at Kokeizan in Mino.