CHAPTER 4 
THE FOX IN THE KONJAKU MONOGATARI 
The Story of a Young Samurai Who 
Copied the Sutra of the Lotus 
For the Repose of a Fox's Soul 
ONCE there was a young and handsome samurai 
living in Kyoto, the capital, name unknown. 
One evening, on his way home, he was passing near 
the Shujaku gate of the Imperial palace when he saw a 
girl with a graceful figure, about 18 years old, attired in 
an exquisite robe of silk, standing on the main road. 
She looked so beautiful with her raven-black locks 
straying in the gentle breeze that the samurai was 
instantly fascinated by her. He approached the girl and 
invited her to go inside the gate and have a chat for a 
while with him. She complied with his request, to his 
great delight. 
They stayed in a quiet place inside the gate and 
talked together. Soon the stars began to twinkle here and 
there in the sky and even the Milky Way was seen 
faintly. It was a balmy evening. 
Said the young man: "We have met here by a happy 
chance-by the Providence of God, I might say. Therefore 
you should accede to my request-in every way. We 
should share the same feelings. I love you-and you must 
love me." 
Answered the girl: "If I comply with your request in 
every way, I must die. This is my 1ot.'' 
"Your lot-to die?" the young samurai echoed her 
words, "It is hardly possible. You are simply avoiding 
me by saying so." 
And he tried to gather her up in his arms. 
The girl shook herself loose from his grasp, and said 
tearfully: "I know you are living with your wife; and that 
you are telling me you love me on the spur of the 
moment. 
I am weeping because I must die for a man of 
mood's." 
He denied what she said, again and again until she 
acquiesced. In the meantime the stars and the Milky 
Way were shining more brightly in the heavens. A night 
of romance. 
They found a shed in the neighborhood, and spent 
the night together there. A lone cricket was heard 
chirping throughout the night.... 
The summer morning broke soon. The girl said: 
"Now I am going home-to die because of you, as I told 
you last evening. When I pass away, please say a mass 
for the repose of my soul by copying the Sutra of the 
Lotus and offering it to the merciful Buddha'' Said the 
young man: "It is the way of the world that man and 
woman have intimate relations with each other. You are not 
destined to die necessarily. However if you should die, I 
will not fail to do as you wish. I promise." 
Said the girl sadly, tying back her stray locks: "If you 
care to see whether what I am now telling you is true or 
not, come to the neighborhood of the Botoku-den* this 
morning." 
The young samurai could not believe what was told 
him by the beautiful girl. 
She said in a mournful tone: "Let me keep your fan 
as a memento." 
She took the fan. He took her hand, and looked 
straight into her eyes. 
He followed her outside, and stood looking after the 
departing figure until it faded into the grayish veil of the 
morning mist. 
The young man could not bring himself to believe 
what the girl had said. However during the morning, he 
went to the neighborhood of the Butoku-den as he was 
very anxious to know the fate of the girl. 
There he saw an old woman sitting on a stone, 
bitterly weeping. 
"Why are you crying so? What is the matter with 
you, old woman?" he asked her. 
"I am the mother of the girl you saw near the 
Shujaku gate last night. She is now dead,'' she answered. 
*The place where the Emperor used to see archery on horseback, horse 
races, and the like. Located to the west of the Imperial palace.
"Dead?" the young man said with a dubious look. 
"Yes, she is dead. I have been waiting for you here to 
break the sad news to you. The dead person is lying over 
there." 
So saying, the old woman pointed to a corner of the big 
hall and the next moment she was gone like magic no one 
knows where. 
The young samurai, approaching the spot pointed, found 
a young fox lying dead on the floor, its face covered with 
an open white fan, the very fan given by him! 
"So this fox was the girl I met last night!" he said 
mournfully to himself. He could not help but feel pity for 
the poor fox. 
He returned home with a heavy heart. 
He started copying the Sutra of the Lotus immediately, 
as was requested by the fox in the form of a beautiful girl. 
He found the task a hard one. However, he copied one 
sutra every week and offered it to Buddha and prayed for 
the repose of the soul of the dead fox, night and day. 
One night, about six weeks later, the young samurai 
dreamed a dream, a strange dream in which he met the 
beautiful girl. She looked so noble and divine that he 
thought her to be a celestial nymph. 
Said the girl in the dream: 
"You have saved me by copying the Sutra of the Lotus 
and offering several of them to Buddha. I was re-born 
through your efforts in Paradise delivered from sin. I am 
eternally grateful to you!" 
So saying, she ascended to Heaven to sweet celestial 
music. She was accompanied by two maids of honor, and 
he saw the Great Buddha sitting calmly with his saints in 
front of the Castle of Heaven, and several scrolls of the 
Sutra of the Lotus were seen flying in the air like so 
many birds as if welcoming the girl! 
It was a dream. However the young samurai still 
continued to copy the Sutra of the Lotus for the repose of 
the soul of the young fox who died for him. 
The Story of a Fox 
Coming Disguised As a Wife 
ONCE the wife of a zoshiki* went out at dusk on 
urgent business. She did not, however, come home for 
quite a long while. Her husband, naturally, felt it 
strange. 
After a while, however, the wife returned home to 
the relief of the husband. Then, to his surprise, another 
woman entered the house. She was a woman exactly 
like his wife: The same face the same figure the 
same voice the same manner in the same dress! 
The zoshiki samurai was puzzled, to say the least of it. 
One of them must be a fox, or something in the guise of 
my wife, he thought. How to tell one from another? This 
was a very difficult thing for me to decide. 
*A petty officer, low in rank, not allowed to wear the robes of regular color. He wore 
a parti-colored dress. Zoshiki literally means parti-colored. Hence the name.
In desperation, the zoshiki finally pulled his sword 
from its sheath in an attempt to kill the woman coming 
home after the first one. 
Said the woman, crying: 
"Are you going to kill me? Have you lost your mind?" 
Then the man, again in desperation, and reckless 
rushed toward the woman returning first, with the sword 
raised overhead. The woman screamed and implored 
him to spare her, clasping her hands. At this juncture, 
however, her behavior raised suspicion in the mind of 
the zoshiki. Therefore he seized her by the arm as he 
wanted to take her captive. 
This woman, however, turned herself instantly into 
the shape of a fox, made water on the man, and ran 
away through the open door barking, and disappeared 
into the gathering twilight. 
The zoshiki samurai was angry with the fox for 
making a fool of him. But it was now too late. He 
should have set his mind to work a little earlier. It was 
his fault. In the first place, he should have caught both 
women and bound them with ropes. If he had done so, 
the fox would have revealed its natural shape sooner or 
later. 
However the fox was lucky in effecting its escape. 
The animal had evidently seen the wife of the zoshiki 
and wanted to disguise itself as the wife for fun. In such 
a case, one should be cautious not to be deceived by 
such a crafty and mischievous beast as a fox. The 
zoshiki was also lucky not to have killed his own wife.
The Story of a Fox Repaying Kindness 
For Returning Its Treasured Ball 
ONCE there was a woman believed to have been 
possessed by a fox. 
Said this woman to those present one day: 
"I am a fox, but I am here not to bring evil upon 
people. I just came as I thought I could find some 
food here and there." 
Presently she produced a whitish ball about the size 
of a mandarin orange, and she played with it by throwing 
it up in the air and catching it as it fell with her hands. 
The people who saw it thought that she had the 
intention of cheating them by some trick. 
A young samurai who happened to see it took the 
ball when it was thrown and pocketed it. 
Said the woman possessed by a fox: 
"How mean you are! Return the ball immediately! 
Give it back to me!" 
The young fellow, however, laughing, would not return 
it to her. 
The woman said again, with falling tears: 
"It would be useless for you if you do not know how 
to use it. However it is a thing indispensable to me. If 
you do not give it back to me, therefore, I will cast an 
evil spell on you. If, on the other hand, you will be 
good enough to return it to me, I will protect you as 
your guardian angel." 
"Is that true?" said the samurai doubtfully. 
"Without fail," answered the woman. "In such things, I 
never tell a lie. And, mind you, I am not an ungrateful 
fox, either."
The young man produced the whitish ball of the size 
of a mandarin orange and gave it back to the woman, 
who received it gladly. 
The woman believed to have been possessed by a fox 
came to herself a little later, thanks to the prayers offered 
by an ascetic who visited the house. Then they searched 
the woman for the whitish ball. Strange to say, however, 
it was missing! It must have been taken away by the fox 
who possessed the woman, they said. 
Later the young samurai who returned the whitish ball 
to the woman possessed by a fox went to Uzumasa, the 
suburbs of Kyoto, the capital, one evening. 
He went by way of Omuro. So it was quite dark by the 
time when he was passing the Oten gate. He did not 
know the reason why, but, at that time, he felt a chill 
creep over him. He was sure something was to happen 
and that he was in danger. He was wondering whether he 
could find some way of escape. Now he recalled what 
had been told by the woman possessed by a fox. 
"She might protect me in such a case," he thought. 
Therefore he cried aloud in the dark: 
"KITSUNÉ! KITSUNÉ!" 
The fox did come. It came out from somewhere, 
barking softly in response to the call. 
Said the samurai to the fox: 
"You did not tell me a lie. I am very glad that you 
came, glad, indeed, to see that you are a reliable animal. I 
felt a chill creeping over me while I was passing here. 
I thought something is wrong. I hope you will go along 
with me for some distance." 
The fox seemed to understand what was said to it. It 
walked ahead of the samurai, turning back anxiously 
now and then. The road along which he was now being 
led by the fox, he found, was overgrown with low striped 
bambooes, a path he was not accustomed to walk before. 
He was tracing the path, following the fox proceeding at 
a trot. 
Occasionally the fox stopped and looked around and 
continued to walk stealthily with bent back. The man 
walked, following the example of the animal. 
Soon the young samurai was conscious of the fact that 
there were signs of some people lurking somewhere. 
They were armed with bow and arrow and swords and 
halberds, and were a band of robbers. They were, as he 
thought, planning to break into somebody's house. 
He could now understand well that the fox walking 
ahead of him had successfully passed the spot without 
being perceived by those rough men. 
The fox left the samurai, barking softly again at the 
end of the path. 
He came home safely. After that, it is said, the fox 
would act as his guardian angel, as it had promised, on 
several occasions. He found that Kitsuné was an animal 
very grateful, repaying the kindness of man.
The Story of a Fox who Got Killed 
Assuming the Form of a Cedar Tree 
NAKADAYU, nephew to the chief Shinto priest of the 
Kasuga shrine at Nara, was once roaming about with 
his servant towards evening in a lonely mountain when 
they espied a gigantic cedar tree standing ahead of 
them, about 200 feet high. 
Said Nakadayu to his servant: 
"I never saw such a big cedar tree standing near 
here in this mountain before. Can you see the tree 
yonder?" 
"Yes, master," answered the servant, "I can see a 
big cedar tree over there." 
"I don't think we have such a gigantic cedar tree 
even in other parts of this province," said Nakadayu. 
"We have cedar trees in this province. However I 
have never seen such a big one before," agreed the 
servant. 
"In that case," observed Nakadayu, "we might have 
been bewitched by a fox. We had better go home now." 
They had been walking about the mountain to cut 
plenty of grass for the horse kept at Nakadayu's house. 
They were unaware of the passing of time. In the 
gathering dusk, they saw the moon rise and cast a 
weird light on the gigantic cedar tree. A nocturnal 
bird screeched somewhere. A bush hard by rustled in 
the stillness of the mountain as if a bandit lurking 
behind it were coming out. 
Master and servant exchanged glances, and each of 
them fixed an arrow to the string of the bow they were
carrying for self-defence. A squirrel appeared and quickly 
vanished across the path. 
"Before we go home," said the servant, "let us shoot the 
cedar tree and come here again tomorrow morning to see 
it." 
They notched an arrow upon their bows. 
"We had better shoot the cedar tree from a shorter 
distance," advised the servant. 
They proceeded a little farther drew their bows to 
their fu l l extent and both shot at the giant tree at the 
same time. 
"Whiz!" went the arrows and the next moment they 
saw the huge tree disappear! 
They were afraid that it might be the act of some 
uncanny hand, so they left the spot without delay. 
The following morning they found an old fox shot dead 
with two arrows stuck in its body at the very spot where 
the gigantic cedar tree had been observed standing by 
Nakadayu and his servant. 
The prank of the fox cost it its life.