No. 45
Kin'yo, an officer of the second rank, had a brother called the High Priest Ryogaku, an extremely bad-tempered man. Next to his monastery grew a large nettle-tree which occasioned the nickname people gave him, the Nettle-tree High Priest. 'That name is outrageous,' said the high-priest, and cut down the tree. The stump still being left, people referred to him now as the Stump High Priest. More furious than ever, Ryogaku had the stump dug up and thrown away, but this left a big ditch. People now called him the Ditch High Priest."
-- Kenko --
from Essays in Idleness
Perhaps he should have just left well enough alone. Frankly, I think I would have much more preferred being called the Nettle-tree High Priest than the Ditch High Priest. Some people take longer to learn than others, while some never learn.
Notes:
Fujiwara no Kin'jo (died 1301) was a poet.
Ryogaku Sojo (died about 1305)
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