Magician. Born as the son of a feudal retainer of the Echizen domain, he entered the Buddhist priesthood at the age of eight. He became interested in the fire-walking technique of esoteric Buddhism, and was expelled from the priesthood for performing staged religious miracles. After that, he became a street magician, went to Shanghai in 1871 and studied Western magic. He aspired to become a stage magician with large-scale gimmicks and in 1888, he succeeded at performing water tricks, cannon tricks, and religious drama tricks in Asakusa. He developed street tricks into modern stage magic, gaining popularity both at home and abroad.