In the reign of Emperor Bidatsu, there was a farmer in the village of Katawa in Ayuchi District, Owari. One day, as he was drawing water into his rice field, a light rain began, so he sheltered under a tree, standing with a metal staff.
Then thunder sounded and fell before him. It took the form of a small child. When the farmer raised his staff to strike it, the thunder said, "Please don't kill me. I will surely repay you."
"What will you give me?" the farmer asked. The thunder said, "I will repay you by giving you a child. Make a water tub of camphor wood, fill it with water and float bamboo leaves on it." When the farmer did as he was told, the thunder raised a mist and went back up to heaven.
The child who was born had a snake wound twice around its head, with the snake's head and tail hanging down behind. When he was ten or so, he became tremendously strong. In the capital he even had a trial of strength with a prince who was proud of his strength, and beat him.
Later the child became a page at Gangoji, a boy who did odd jobs at the temple. At that time, people were dying in the temple's bell tower almost every night. The page offered, "I will catch the demon and put an end to this."
He set lamps at the four corners of the bell tower and told four men, "When I seize the demon, pull the covers off the lamps all at once." Near midnight the demon came, but noticed the boy and drew back. Near dawn it came again. The boy grabbed its hair at once and pulled with all his might. The demon pulled outward, the boy pulled inward. The four men were so frightened that they could not even take off the covers.
As day broke, the demon fled, with all the hair torn from its head. The next morning they followed the trail of blood and came to a crossroads where a wicked servant who had once worked at the temple was buried. The demon had been that servant's ghost. Its hair is still kept among the treasures of Gangoji.
Later, when someone blocked the water from reaching the temple's fields, the boy set at the sluice gate a great stone that a hundred men could not move, and so kept the water flowing. In time he became a monk and was called Dojo Hoshi. People say that Dojo Hoshi of Gangoji was so strong because he was born of the thunder's gratitude.