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Tsunenobu and the demon

One autumn night, as the courtier Tsunenobu  (1016-1097) watched the moon rise from his palace, he heard the sound of someone pounding cloth in the distance.  Reminded of a famous Tang Chinese poem, he recited the following verse, “I listen to the sound of cloth being pounded as the moon shines serenely; and believe that here is someone else who has not yet gone to sleep."  As Tsunenobu finished, a gigantic demon appeared in the sky and recited a couplet by the Tang poet Li Bo, “In the northern sky geese fly across the Big Dipper; to the south cold robes are pounded under the moonlight.”