Utaura (Poem Divination) : PhotoStory

A white-haired male shaman appears who travels around the provinces telling fortunes from strips of paper hung from a small bow.

The shaman will perform a poem divination at the request of a villager.

He asks the villager to select a strip of paper with a poem written on it.

The shaman considers the content of the poem. He divines that the illness of the villager’s father will be cured.

The shaman also lets the child Kōgiku-maru pick a strip for a poem divination.

Mysteriously, the shaman divines that Kōgiku-maru has already met his father.

As the shaman and Kōgiku-maru talk, they realize that they are in fact father and son.

As a farewell to the villager, the shaman performs the Dance of the Hells.

The shaman dances the infinite suffering of the various hells.

He continues to dance the hunger and suffering of hell, becoming more like a god in appearance.