The Boy Who Drew Cats

[a][1] This tale was known from Tohoku to Chugoku and Shikoku regions under the title Eneko to Nezumi (絵猫と鼠, "The Picture-Cats and the Rat").

[6] It has been suggested that Lafcadio Hearn's version is a retelling, and has no original Japanese story which is an "exact counterpart".

[7] Thus "in his English edition, Lafcadio Hearn retold it with a thrilling ghostly touch.

In the original story, the acolyte becomes the abbot of the temple after the incident, but in Hearn's version, he goes on to be a renowned artist".

[6] Hearn stipulated that he would not contribute a story unless it would be "prettily illustrated" in publication,[9] and even though the choice of artist was not the author/translator's, Kason's [ja] drawing catered to the American readers' taste for the fantastical, as in the example of the illustration showing the dead giant rat-ghoul.