were frequently performed for priests who had died. The dormitories were built in the precincts of the temple, and were very simple indeed, leaving little room to walk about. In the bath-room, the priests who belonged to the temple took their daily baths, and there were many classes of clergy and laity always coming and going between the dormitories and the bathroom, and the Naigu made it his duty to examine the faces of everyone of them, for he felt that it would greatly relieve his mind if he could find even one person who had a nose like his.
He never seemed to notice whether they were attired in deep-blue “suikan” (old-fashioned Japanese dress) or in summer garments of hemp. Furthermore, accustomed as he was to see the caps and gray hoods of the other priests, they never seemed visible to his eyes at all. He never looked at the man himself, but always at his nose. But even though he searched carefully among all these people that came and went, he never found another like himself. As his failure to discover another nose such as his went on continuously without any result, his moodiness increased more than ever. Despite his age, he blushed very easily, and when he was talking with others, he frequently found himself supporting his nose with his hand. Sheer nervousness caused him to act in this way.
Again, at one time the Naigu felt that if he were able to find any mention of a man with a nose like his in the “Naiten” (the Buddhist Scriptures) or the “Geten” (Scriptures of other religions outside the field
