He was skilled at talking in a humorous manner, inducing laughs even during his sermons, so at the request of Shigemune ITAKURA, Governor-General of Kyoto, he wrote the 'Seisuisho,' a pioneering work in the field of collections of funny stories.
笑い話が得意で説教にも笑いを取り入れていたが、京都所司代板倉重宗の依頼で「醒睡笑（せいすいしょう）」を著し、笑話集のさきがけとなった。