Many
years ago the song of a Prince hunted the forest of Shimoda. He had the
rare fortune to catch a show white female fox. He wanted to kill and
skin the animals but Yasuna the sone of a temple warden who was taking
part in the hunt asked to give the fox to him. FO Yasuna knew that
foxes with white fur have magical powers, being able to change shape
and are several thousand years old. But the princes wanted the animals
beautiful skin for himself so the prince ordered his men to kill the
fox. So Yasuna attacked the hunters and managed to free the fox who he
ran off with will bleeding from many wounds. After he had escaped he
let the fox go who quickly disappeared into the forest. Now
Yasuna had a fiancée who was in the far of province of Kumamoto, yet
somehow she found him in the woods, treated his wounds and led him
home. Being surprised to see her Yasuna asked at last how she had
managed to find him in the forest. “Don’t ask me now for it is not yet time for me to explain this to you. In time you’ll learn everything,” Kuzunoha replied. Reassured
and realizing how fortunate he was to have his fiancée with him Yasuna
married her a few days later. They lived together happily for some
years and after some time Kuzunoha bore Yasuna a son she named Dokyo. One
day Yasuna was returning home late from the forest and when he arrived
he was surprised to see his parents with his wife who was talking to
them. He greeted them and asked them why they wouldn’t go into the
house. His father turned angrily towards him, and scolded him for having abandoned his fiancée to live with some other woman. Yasuna was struck speechless for a moment and then was even more surprised whih is bride made the same allegations. “We
cant continue to talk about it in here,” Yasuna told them as he opened
the door. “The street is no place for such a conversation.” Yasuna
started to lead them inside but took a shocked step back when he saw
that his bride was also inside the house sewing. He looked back at his
bride who was standing on the porch with shock as he realized that one
of the two wasn’t really Kuzunoha. “Wait here a moment, I’ll be right back,” Yasuna told his parents before slipping into his house. “Your parents have arrived, please make ready for them as we’ll be back in an hour,” Yasuna told her. After
his wife agreed to prepare for his parents visit Yasuna went back
outside and asked them to walk with him for an hour at which time he’d
lead them into his house. As
they walked Yasuna told his in-laws that he had thought their daughter
Kuzunoha had in fact been his bride. And that he was heartbroken that
they’d had to undertake such a long journey with such great stress.
Yasuna then proceeded to explain how he’d come to be married and how
he’d lived over the last few years in wedlock. After
an hour had passed they all returned and went into the house but his
wife wasn’t there. Only the weeping child lay in his bed. However when
Kuzunoha entered the room with her parents and Yasuna the child cheered
up and took her arm. The boy then told her he’d had a strange dream,
and she asked what he meant. “You
came to my bedside as I was sleeping and told me that you weren’t human
but an magical vixen and that father had saved your life so you’d
assumed human form and appeared as his bride to thank him,” the boy
told her. “But now his real bride has arrived so you had to depart. You
told me to tell father all of this, and that I should continue to be a
well behaved child. Weird dream, huh?” They
all looked at the child in amazement but the mystery of Yasuna’s wife
was solved and so the real Kuzuhoha remained behind as Yusana’s wife
and helped him to rays Kokyo to an able, wise and brave young man. And they never heard from the white vixen again.
