Sotoba-komachi

The protagonist is Komachi, a withered old beggar woman of nearly a hundred years. She is resting with her hands on an ancient stupa in the southern outskirts of Kyoto, beyond the Rashōmon gate, when a pair of traveling monks from Mount Kōya happen upon her.

After some exchange of words Komachi begins to tell them of her past. When she was in the full flower of her youth, a young nobleman named Fukakusa no Shōshō began courting her. She made him promise to visit her for one hundred nights before she would return his affections, and forninety-nine nights he came. But on the final night he did not appear, for he had died from the emotional strain of attempting to fulfill this vow to her. Whether possessed by the anger and misery of the young nobleman or by her own grief and sadness, Komachi suddenly begins to dance, and her voice alters to that of a man. A dialogue begins between the spirit of Fukakusa no Shōshō, which has taken over her body, and the monks from Mount Kōya. Eventually Komachi recovers herself and attains enlightenment. The compassion of the Buddha is essential to freeing her from the malevolent spirit embodying the karma of her past.