Botan DoroThe Peony Lantern

Hagiwara Shinzaburo is a ronin who owns fields and rental tenements in Shimizudani, Nezu, and lives on the income. The doctor Yamamoto Shijo takes him on an outing, and there he meets Otsuyu, the daughter of the hatamoto Iijima Heizaemon. The two fall for each other at first sight, but they never meet again, and time passes. Eventually Shijo tells him that Otsuyu has died of longing for him, and that her maid Oyone soon died as well.

The thirteenth night of Obon. As Shinzaburo gazes at the moon, he hears wooden clogs going karan-koron, and along come Oyone, carrying a lantern decorated with peony flowers, and Otsuyu, who is supposed to be dead. Each had been told that the other was dead, and they rejoice. From that night on, Otsuyu comes to Shinzaburo almost every night.

Tomozo, one of Shinzaburo's tenants, peeks through a gap in the door late at night. Clinging to Shinzaburo's neck is a woman who is nothing but skin and bones. Hakuodo Yusai, a physiognomist who hears about this from Tomozo, sees the shadow of death on Shinzaburo's face. Shinzaburo goes around Sansaki-mura in Yanaka, where the women said they lived, and on his way back he passes through the Shin-Banzuiin temple, where he finds a new grave and a peony lantern he recognizes.

Ryoseki, the priest of Shin-Banzuiin, lends him a solid gold statue of the Kaion Nyorai (a Buddha) as protection against the dead, and gives him paper charms. Shinzaburo pastes the charms on the doors and windows and shuts himself in. Otsuyu and Oyone cannot get in, and can only circle the house, lamenting.

At a loss, Oyone brings Otsuyu to Tomozo and asks him to peel off the charms and take away Shinzaburo's protective Buddha. Tomozo is terrified to learn they are ghosts, but his wife Omine has an idea: if anything happens to their landlord they will have nothing to live on, so he should do it in exchange for a hundred ryo.

Tomozo and Omine urge Shinzaburo to take a bath in a tub, and while Omine is washing him, Tomozo swaps the Kaion Nyorai that Shinzaburo keeps on him for a clay statue of Fudo that he has brought along. That night, when Oyone appears with the hundred ryo, Tomozo climbs a ladder on shaking legs and peels off the charm on the back window. The next morning Shinzaburo is found dead, his face twisted in agony, and beside him lies a skull, clinging to his neck. The story then goes on to what happens to Tomozo and Omine after they get their hands on the hundred ryo.