Zenshoan temple

This guide to Zenshoan temple in Tokyo centers on the fifty ghost-painting scrolls the temple displays each August, collected by Sanyutei Encho, the era's most celebrated rakugo storyteller, to sharpen his own ghost stories. It follows how Encho hunted down old paintings of yurei spirits and commissioned new ones from contemporary artists before ever performing. The guide also traces the temple's founding in 1883 by the swordsman Yamaoka Tesshu, who had once ridden alone into an enemy camp to spare Edo Castle from destruction.