Abbot Okawa

"MEMOIRS OF AN OPIUM EATER": Eighth Day, Month of the Rabbit I will never return to the Temple of Daikoku, even if I grow so old as to outlive mountains! I have never been so insulted and doubt I ever shall be again. What sort of deformed soul repays gratitude with malice?

This morning I went to give thanks for my good fortune, and as I left the temple, I saw the abbot himself. He was smiling, but as I bowed to him and gave him my name, his smile vanished. "I have come to show my gratitude," I told him, "For I have been blessed by Daikoku with wealth:' "You are wrong," he said, and his voice was as flat as his eyes. "You have been given Daikoku's curse:' Naturally, I was taken aback. "Curse? But. .. but I've been lucky! I've made a great deal of money since I came here!" "That is the curse; wealth unearned brings only misfortune to a weak soul" "But how can wealth be a curse?" Instead of answering my question, he reached into a pouch and pulled out a heavy roll of copper coins. With all his might, he flung it at me. I cried out, and he pulled out another roll. I started to run, as he hurled roll after roll at my back. "Wealth is only a reward to those who know how to spend as wisely as they can earn! Learn this lesson, or Daikoku's curse will put you in your grave!" I am mottled with bruises.

SHIGEKO'S DOSSIER: I saw little of the Abbot of the Daikoku Monks while I was in Ryoko Owari, but I had heard rumors of extremely unorthodox behavior. The one time I did encounter him was during a festival, in which he told me quite cheerfully that I could expect to make little improvement to Ryoko Owaris social order. "Can a crow teach a fish to fly?" he asked me. "Certainly not - and a fish would have no use for the knowledge. But one fish can teach another:' I asked him the meaning of this riddle, and he just laughed. "Now the crow would learn to swim?"