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And the same night, in a dream, Kobodaishi appeared to him, smiling gently, and said: 'Do the work even as the Emperor desires, and have no fear. So he restored the tablets in the first month of the fourth year of Kwanko, as is recorded in the book, Hon-cho-bun-sui. And all these things have been related to me by my friend Akira.
But Kobodaishi, standing on the pavement before the gate, simply threw his brush at the tablet; and the brush, so thrown, made the ten there most admirably, and fell back into his hand. Kobodaishi also painted the tablet of the gate called Ko-kamon of the Emperor's palace at Kyoto.
'Now I will try, said the boy; and he wrote upon the water the Dragon-character the character Ryu in the writing which is called Sosho, the 'Grass- character; and the character remained upon the flowing surface and moved not. But Kobodaishi saw that the boy had not placed the ten, the little dot belonging to the character, beside it.
Then Kobodaishi asked the boy: 'Who are you? And the boy made answer: 'I am he whom men worship on the mountain Gotai; I am the Lord of Wisdom, Monju Bosatsu! And even as he spoke the boy became changed; and his beauty became luminous like the beauty of gods; and his limbs became radiant, shedding soft light about. And, smiling, he rose to heaven and vanished beyond the clouds.
And the Emperor at Kyoto having asked him why he had not put the ten beside the character, Kobodaishi answered: 'I forgot; but I will put it on now. Then the Emperor bade ladders be brought; for the tablet was already in place, high above the gate.
And the characters were beautiful beyond any that had ever been seen in China smooth-flowing as the ripples in the current of a river. And Kobodaishi then took a brush, and with it from a distance spattered drops of ink upon the wall; and the drops as they fell became transformed and turned into beautiful characters.
After having been literally overlaid by Buddhism for nearly a thousand years, Shinto immediately reassumed its archaic simplicity, and reestablished the unaltered forms of its earliest rites. But the attempt of Buddhism to absorb Shinto seemed at one period to have almost succeeded. But in this matter, of course, Kobodaishi was merely following precedents of Buddhist policy.
And the messenger did so; and Kobodaishi, from his place upon the farther bank, made the movements of the letters with his brush; and as fast as he made them they appeared upon the tablet which the messenger was holding up.
And he said again to Kobodaishi: 'I pray you, write for me write upon the surface of the river. Then Kobodaishi wrote upon the water a poem in praise of the water; and for a moment the characters remained, all beautiful, upon the face of the stream, as if they had fallen upon it like leaves; but presently they moved with the current and floated away.
Now in that time Kobodaishi was wont to meditate alone by the river- side; and one day, while so meditating, he was aware of a boy standing before him, gazing at him curiously. The garments of the boy were as the garments worn by the needy; but his face was beautiful.
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