A poor farmer and his wife in a country-village struggle to feed their children, who help their parents as soon as they are old enough. The youngest child, however, is smarter than his siblings, but too small and weak to do physical labor. His parents decide he would have a better life as a priest, and take him to the temple to ask the priest to take their son as an acolyte. The priest asks the boy hard questions, and his answers are so clever that the priest agrees to take him as an acolyte and educate him. The little boy is a quick learner, but he is distracted from his studies as he draws cats nonstop–on his notes, books, walls, even the pillars. Despite the priest’s scolding, the boy cannot stop drawing cats. After drawing cats on a screen, the priest tells him to leave, as he could never be a good priest, but he could be a great artist. The priest gives him one final bit of advice to “Avoid large places at night; – keep to small.” Confused, the boy packs his clothes and leaves, too scared to say goodbye. Afraid to go home and be punished by his father, the boy decides to go to the village 12 miles away and ask to be an acolyte at the big temple. The boy doesn’t know the temple is locked up due to a goblin scaring away the priests and residing in the temple, so when the boy reaches the village by dark, he goes to the temple and knocks several times. No one answers, so the boy opens the door and enters the temple, which is seemingly empty, and dusty. Seeing blank screens, the boy finds ink and paints cats. Remembering the priest’s advice, the boy finds a small cabinet to sleep in. Late at night, the boy wakes to the sound of horrible fighting and screaming, terrifying him. The boy remained in the cabinet, unmoving, until sunrise. Leaving his cabinet, he finds the floor covered in blood and a giant dead rat in the middle of the room. No one else is around, and the boy notices his cats were also wet with blood. The boy understands the priest’s advice, and afterwards the boy becomes a great and famous artist.

This printing has a back catalog of other Hasegawa publications beyond the fairy tale series. Artist of this volume is determined by a small printed signature integrated into the illustration of page 4.