What would you do if you found your soulmate, but you already had a family?
Today on Yokai Lullaby, I bring you a story about how having a foxy wife can go wrong.
First off, let’s talk about some things that’ll make the story more understandable.
Kitsune means fox.
The fox in Japanese folklore is a trickster.
There are a lot of stories about kitsune using their powers to trick people.
One type of story is the fox wife tales where the kitsune would use its powerful shapeshifting
abilities to transform into a foxy lady and get some unsuspecting man to marry her.
Nowadays, we just call that makeup.
Fox-wives may even give birth to kids who gain their foxy powers.
Now kitsune are not all the same, they may be anywhere on the morality spectrum from
good to neutral to clowns.
They may trick you to suck your life energy and kill you,
or they may just do it for the lolz.
Alright, A Man and His Foxy Wife.
Long ago, there lived a man named Yoshifuji (吉藤).
He had a wife and son, but he was a big spender and liked to have a lot of romantic affairs.
One autumn, his wife was out of town, and that meant daddy got to play.
He saw a beautiful young woman on the street.
He had never seen her before, and he wanted to see more.
He said to her, “May I ask who you are?”
She said, “I am no one” and looked around for an escape.
“Would you like to come to my place?”
“That wouldn’t be proper.”
Then he simpily said, “Then where is your house?
I will escort you there.”
“I suppose,” she said,
and he walked alongside her to her place.
And what a place it was.
The house turned out to be a lavish mansion full of those two things mansions always had,
servants and a bowling alley.
They walked in to a servant saying, “Welcome home, young miss!”
Yoshifuji was impressed.
He was rich, but this was beyond even him.
He assumed she was the daughter of the household.
Later, they spent the night together.
That was surprisingly easy, maybe she was just playing hard-to-get before?
The next morning, Yoshifuji woke up feeling what you always felt after spending the night
with a new lover, shame and regret no-- he felt great.
So great that he decided to stay.
He even met the head of the household, who seemed to be overjoyed that he was staying.
The new couple was head over sandals in love and Yoshifuji forgot all about
his wife and kids.
It was like he was in a fantasy.
Meanwhile there was alarm back at home.
At first, Yoshifuji’s servants thought, “Oh the guy must be thirsting again.”
But when night came and he still didn’t come home, they went out looking for him the
whole night, but no luck.
Yoshifuji stayed with his new wife for years.
They even had a baby son together.
The years went by fast, but they were the most wonderful years for the man.
Yoshifuji’s household and his old son continued their search for him,
but they feared the worst.
They made a statue of the Buddhist deity Kannon (観音), the Goddess of Mercy and Compassion.
Everyone prayed to the statue that they would find Yoshifuji or at least find his body.
This is common with a lot of old Japanese stories.
They liked to weave Buddhist themes and gods into the story.
Still Yoshifuji never left his new home and family, he just stayed indoors, enjoying time
with his new wife and kid.
But one day, a man suddenly appeared at the mansion.
Everyone in the mansion ran away from the man.
They were frightened for some reason.
The man walked in like he owned the place and pushed Yoshifuji out of the mansion that
he had been living in for 13 years.
At that moment, right outside, Yoshifuji’s old son, who was named Tadasada (忠貞),
was talking to some servants.
“It’s strange how father just disappeared,” he said.
“It has been 13 days.
He must be dead by now.”
Then everybody turned and saw this hideous creature crawl up from underneath the storehouse.
They were like, “Wtf??”
“It’s me!” the creature said in Yoshifuji’s voice.
The creature crawled on all fours and looked like a weird monkey, but he spoke like a man.
He was thin and his clothing was dirty and tattered.
Several servants remarked that it was the same outfit Yoshifuji had on before he disappeared.
Tadasada recognized his father’s voice, and asked what happened.
The Yoshifuji creature, who obviously still thought he was a normal man,
told them the whole story.
How he met a young woman, fell in love, and lived with her for years.
How he had a new son.
He even annoyingly informed Tadasada that the new son would inherit the family fortune
instead of Tadasada.
Everyone was suspicious.
They searched under the storehouse and, sure enough, they found foxes, a bunch of them!
They all ran away when they saw the humans.
Tadasada realized that his father had been tricked by kitsune and had lost his mind.
He tried to get help.
He invited a Buddhist priest over to recite prayers.
He invited a sorcerer over to do a ritual.
And he invited a lawyer over because c’mon no fox baby is gonna take his inheritance
without a fight.
The prayers and rituals worked, kind of.
Yoshifuji’s body was still hideous, but his mind returned.
He was bewildered and ashamed of what had happened.
He had been living under the storehouse for 13 days, but it seemed like 13 years.
His lust had steered him wrong this time, and lust never does that.
Now that he was out of Kitsune Narnia, he realized that the big mansion was a little
six-foot tall space underneath the storehouse.
The strange man who rescued him was probably the deity Kannon in disguise.
She saved him.
And then the story goes on to encourage you to worship Kannon for a good life.
Alright here’s today’s quiz question.
What is the name of that buzzing sound that a shamisen makes?
In 24 hours, I’ll use a secret random process to pick a winner from among the right answers.
Winner gets one of these things.
This is for US and Canada only.
Good luck!
Do you want more Japanese tales?
Click here.
Alright, we have a new emperor this week, he’s actually a returning emperor,
Tyler Jeffrey Condon.
Thanks Tyler and welcome back!
Okay I love you much and spread the knowledge!