This is a tale of love, betrayal and revenge. One day a monk named Anchin asked a feudal lord for hospitality.

Beneath that hospitable roof, however, passion broke out between the monk and Princess Kiyo, the lord’s daughter. The two were hampered by social ranks and religious precepts. For this reason they began to develop the desire to elope in order to love each other freely.

Anchin planned to travel to the main monastery to communicate his return to lay life, while Kiyo would wait for him by the river where he would retrieve her.

But that didn’t happen.

After arriving at the monastery, he was persuaded to change his mind, and so Kiyo saw him flee on a boat while ignoring her. Incredulous at first and then furious, she plunged into the water and tried to swim to him.

As she was struggling to stay afloat, a snake-like tail protruded from her robe and facilitated her.

The terrified Anchin fled to a monastery and the brothers there hid him inside a bronze bell.

Kiyo came crawling and hugged the bell several times; Passion turned into literal flame and Anchin died burning with love along with Kiyo.

In some variants of this story, it is said that after centuries she returned to that monastery disguised as a dancer, her only goal to get closer to the bell and claim its secular ownership.