<115>—Here is McCullough's translation from An Account of my Ten-Foot Hut (in her Classical Japanese Prose): "Again, around the Fourth month in the fourth year of Jishô [1180][note that the year is the same but the day different than in Heike], a great whirlwind sprang up near the Nakamikado-[Higashi] Kyôgoku intersection and swept all the way to Rokujô Avenue. Not a house, large or small, escaped destruction within the area of three or four blocks where the blast wreaked its full fury. In some cases, entire buildings were flattened; in others, only crossbeams and pillars were spared. Gates were caught up and deposited four or five blocks distant; fences were blown away and neighboring properties merged. And I need hardly mention what happened to smaller objects. Everything inside a house mounted to the skies; cypress-bark thatch and shingles whirled like winter leaves in the wind. Bust ascended like smoke to blind the eye; the terrible howl of the storm swallowed the sound of voices. It seemed that even the dread karma-wind of hell could be no worse. Not only were houses damaged or destroyed, but countless men suffered injury or mutilation while the buildings were being reconstructed. The wind moved toward the south-southeast, visiting affliction on innumerable people. Whirlwinds are common, but not ones such as that. Those who experienced it worried that it might be an extraordinary phenomenon, a warning from a supernatural being."
Above is an 1800s illustration of Ariô showing Shunkan the devastating letter written by Shunkan's adolescent daughter. As in the illustration in the text, Shunkan is shown as a disheveled, if not somewhat crazed, figure. Here is the link to the original webpage.