Saigyo and the creation of artificial life / A secret Oni ritual

Wandering aimlessly,
I cross this bridge whilst thinking of you
but all I see is the shadow of the moon...
- Saigyo

There is a peculiar story related to Saigyo recorded in the Senshusho.

During the time of his training in Mt. Koya, Saigyo used to meet a friend of his, Saikei, who was also a monk, on a bridge under the moonlight to tell each other stories. When his friend left for Kyoto, Saigyo longed for him, and he recalled a certain story that he had been told. The story was about Oni who would appear in the darkness of a deserted place to gather human skeletons and perform a secret ritual that would revive the dead.
Knowing the intricacies of this ritual, Saigyo decided to try it himself, in order to forget his sadness. Collecting skeletons that were left deserted, he tied them with vines and succeeded in reviving a human being with esoteric chants. The results however, were poor. This creature, although it resembled a human being, had no color, no mind, and no voice.
Saigyo thought of destroying this creature, but could not, for it still looked like a person. Saigyo did not have the heart to murder it, so he took it into the depths of the mountain and left it there.

Once back in Kyoto, Saigyo went to Fushimi Chunagon for advice and to find out the cause of his failure. Chunagon pointed out Saigyo's mistakes, which were a result of his lack of training, and revealed that in fact, there were several people within the palace that Chunagon himself had recreated, but that certain death would fall upon the re-creator if his doings were ever exposed. He then proceeded to teach Saigyo the correct techniques involved in the ritual.

Saigyo, however, was thoroughly displeased at the thought of creating another being as full of flaws as himself. He quickly lost all interest in further involvement with this ritual. He thought that anyone with attachments to worldly affairs was not qualified to attempt such a thing, and soon left it all behind.

How to re-create a human being

"Gather human bones under the moonlight, line them up in precise order and coat with hiso (an arsenic potion). Rub strawberry and chickweed leaves together and add a generous amount of the juice from the leaves to the bones. Next, tightly and carefully tie the bones together with string and wisteria vines, and thoroughly purify the skeleton with water. Place burnt oak leaves and mukuge (a type of hollyhocks) leaves on the parts where hair grow. Then lay the skeleton down on a freshly woven grass mat on the ground, securing it so that it does not move in the wind. Leave it there for precisely fourteen days. After fourteen days, return to set it afire, chant the ritual chants and stay there, fasting, for another seven days."