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Overview
A footnote to Hearn’s “Gaki” relates a story about an old énoki in the garden of Satsuma Shichizaëmon at Echigawa in Ōmi. Earlier generations have avoided removing even a branch or leaf. When Shichizaëmon decides to cut it down, a monstrous being appears in his mother’s dream and threatens death to the household. He dismisses the warning and orders the felling.
The tale then attributes a succession of fatal mental disturbances to the tree. Shichizaëmon cries that its branches reach like hands to tear him; his wife likewise says that it is killing her. Other residents, including servants, die. The text supplies no detailed anatomy for the dream figure, and the reaching branches are reported through the sufferer’s statements rather than described as a publicly witnessed walking tree.
The abandoned house is eventually occupied by Jikun, a daughter of the family who had become a Buddhist nun in Yamashirō. She performs a daily service for the spirit formerly dwelling in the tree, and the disturbances cease. Hearn gives an unusually specific chain of testimony: the priest Shungyō said he heard the account from Jikun herself. This is the tale’s stated transmission, not independent confirmation of its events. Its supernatural explanation of illness belongs to the narrative; the surviving daughter’s role also prevents a careless claim that every member of the wider family died.
Origins & earliest records
Japanese traditions and religious literature as mediated by Lafcadio Hearn
Records & interpretation
Complete named essay and all associated notes read in the retained edition.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Kottō: Being Japanese Curios, with Sundry Cobwebs
Gaki: complete essay and notes; Macmillan, New York and London.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Primary records and illustrations
Lafcadio Hearn, Kottō (1903)
Named essay. Gaki footnote3
Complete hearn-kotto-Gaki.txt read, including all subsections and notes. Full edition55473.html. Hearn-mediated names, claims and uncertainties explicitly scoped; no original-language scripture verification or art reuse claimed.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical primary essay and reported traditionHearn, Kottō (1903), GakiResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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