According to the "" (a book of desultory gossip stories) from the end of the
Azuchi–Momoyama period, Koji was born in
Echigo Province. Although he was initially a
Buddhist priest at the
Kōfuku-ji Temple in
Yamato Province (or on
Mount Kōya When a man did not believe this magic, he used a toothpick to stroke the man's tooth, which dangled as if it would fall out. Koji was especially close with
Hisahide Matsunaga. Hisahide challenged Koji by asking: "I have experienced many dreadful scenes [on the] battlefield, but can you still make me feel scared?" Koji conjured the phantom of Hisahide's wife, who had died several years before, and frightened Hisahide. In 1574
A Japanese Miscellany by
Lafcadio Hearn contains "The Story of Kashin Koji", in which some time after tricking Oda with the kakemono, Koji is invited to a party by Mitsuhide Akechi, drinks ten bowls of sake, summons a ship to come out of a
drawing, and he boards the ship and disappears into the drawing. According to "Old Man's Tea Talk" (古老茶話), an essay by Ei Kashiwazaki (柏崎永以), during the
Edo period, in July of 1612, someone named Koji Inshin (因心居士, the first character different from the one in Koji Kashin's name) appeared before
Ieyasu Tokugawa in
Shizuoka. Ieyasu, who already knew Koji, asked, "How old are you now?"and Koji replied he was eighty-eight years old. If this person was Koji Kashin, then it means that he was born in 1524. According to the modern stage magician and practitioner , the stories of Koji's tricks can be explained by the principles of modern
stage illusion. ==In popular culture ==