Okiku was beautiful, beautiful enough to catch the eye of one of the most prominent

samurai at Himeji Castle, a powerful samurai named Aoyama

Aoyama tried many different ways to seduce Okiku, only to be rejected at every
advance
Eventually, Aoyama became impatient, and decided to resort to trickery to make
Okiku his lover
One of the castle's treasures was a set of 10 very fine Chinese plates
Aoyama hid one, then summoned Okiku
He told her that a dish was missing, and demanded to know where it was
Okiku was terrified
Losing one of those plates was punishable by death, and Aoyama accused her of
losing one
She counted them, One two three four five six seven eight nine
She counted them over and over, each time, she would come up short. She was
distraught.
Aoyama told her that he would not tell the daimyo that it was her who lost the
plate, if she would agree to marry him
She refused
This time, the samurai was livid
He ordered his servants to beat and torture Okiku, breaking her bones with a wooden
sword
He had her suspended over the well, dunking her over and over again into the frigid
water, still beating her
Aoyama, furious and red-faced, demanded one last time for Okiku's hand in marriage
She refused
Aoyama struck her one last time, a fatal blow that sent her body down into the
murky depths of the well
Not long after this incident, Okiku's ghost was seen wandering the castle grounds