In the ninth century, a man named Kaya no Yoshifuji lived in the village of Ashimori in Bitchu province. He had grown rich trading Chinese coins, and owned a large home and kept many servants. He was used to getting what he wanted, and one of the things which he always wanted was sex.

This caused a problem one fall when his wife went to visit the Capital. Yoshifuji tried for a time to ignore the servant girls and think about something else. But one evening he was out walking and saw a lovely young woman.

Yoshifuji had never seen her before; he would certainly have remembered her face. He instantly desired her, and would have felt no less strongly had he just risen from his wife's bed.

The girl noticed him, and tried to back away demurely, but Yoshifuji caught her arm. "Who are you?"

She shrugged. "I am nobody."

Yoshifuji did not care much about her name. "You are so lovely. Come to my house."

"I couldn't possibly do that," she said, eyes widening.

"Then tell me where you live," Yoshifuji countered. "We could go there."

The young woman looked at him for a long moment. "I live over there," she said finally, and led Yoshifuji to a lovely house. He could hardly believe that such a place had been so close to his own home without his noticing. Servants streamed forth to greet the young woman, who was the daughter of the house.

That night, Yoshifuji and the young woman slept together, to their mutual enjoyment. In the morning, her father greeted Yoshifuji with a smile. "Stay with us," the older man said. "You were meant to be here."

Yoshifuji was inclined to agree. The young woman was kind and attentive, and he soon found that, as well as being in lust, he was in love with her. He forgot about his wife, children and house as if they had never existed, and pledged his eternal love to this new woman.

They grew closer over time, and she became pregnant and delivered a son. Yoshifuji loved her all the more for having provided him with an heir.

When the affair began, it took Yoshifuji's household some time to notice his disappearance. His appetites were well known, and no one wanted to embarass him. But as the hours passed, they wondered where he could have gone. By the time the sun rose, they were very worried and determined to find him.

Yoshifuji's brothers and son, Tadasada, thought it was possible that Yoshifuji had met with some fatal mischief. To that end, they called the Buddha's Name and read sutras, hoping to guide Yoshifuji's soul to the next life. Having cared for his soul, they wanted to find his body as well, so that it could be properly buried. Yoshifuji's relations carved an image of the Eleven-Headed Kannon and on the thirteenth night after Yoshifuji's disappearance prayed before it, hoping to be guided to his corpse.

That evening, Yoshifuji's household heard a scrabbling sound from under the storehouse, and a dirty, dazed Yoshifuji emerged. His clothes were those he had worn the night of his disappearance, and he looked thin and sick. "Someone hit me with a stick," he said. "He scared everyone...he pushed me out of bed...." It was only later that Tadasada realized that the man with a stick must have been a manifestation of the Kannon carved to find Yoshifuji.

"Where have you been?" the onlookers demanded. "You've been gone so long. What happened?"

"I was so lonely, with my wife gone," Yoshifuji said, still dazed and unfocused. "I met a beautiful girl. The daughter of a fine gentleman. She's my wife now." He smiled. "We have a son. A beautiful boy. He's my heir now, because I love his mother so much."

"Where is this woman, and this little boy?" Tadasada asked gently, unafraid that he would actually be disinherited.

"The house is over there," Yoshifuji said, and pointed at the storehouse.

Tadasada motioned for some of the men to check the area. "Father, you have only been gone for thirteen days."

Yoshifuji looked confused. "No, that can't be right. So much has happened. You'll have to meet her...such a wonderful woman. And he's the most darling boy. I hope you're not jealous. Maybe you can play with him, teach him to ride...."

One of the servants sent to investigate the storehouse stood up. "Foxes," he called, and suddenly at least a dozen foxes emerged, and ran off in all different directions.

"A fox tricked you," Tadasada said, speaking slowly and distinctly. "One of those animals, that was what you married."

Yoshifuji protested, but Tadasada eventually coaxed him back into the house. He called in a yin-yang diviner to purify his father, but for weeks Yoshifuji still wandered around outside, calling for his family.

As time passed, Yoshifuji seemed to come back to himself. "Foxes," he would sometimes say, as if trying to convince himself. "Only foxes. Only an illusion."

Yoshifuji eventually professed his embarassment over the whole affair. For the last decade of his life, most people agreed that he was sane and healthy; he'd simply had the bad luck to be enchanted, but the good luck to be cured.

So when Yoshifuji made comments like "Life is nothing without a loving family", most people assumed that he was talking about his brothers and Tadasada. It was their devotion that brought Yoshifuji back to his senses.

Only Tadasada interpreted those words differently. He always believed that the family Yoshifuji referred to was his fox family, and that Yoshifuji would have been happier if the fox's illusion had been left in place.

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