Tokai was an ascetic Taoist of the Brotherhood of Shinsei. He was the abbot of the temple to Bishamon in a village beside Kosaten Shiro, and his superior was the abbot of the Temple to the Kami in Toshi Ranbo. Tokai was a calm and thoughtful man who speaks in a gentle voice, spending many hours of each day teaching the children of the town and working in the fields. In the late 12th century the governor Daidoji Sokazaka had suddenly raised the taxes, and the unrest among the peasants was rampant. A group of samurai asked around for information on who was most unhappy among the peasants.