Once upon a time,there lived a handsome young man. He was not a person of note, merely serving as an attendant to the nobility.
One day, as he was walking near Nijo Avenue and Suzaku Avenue, passing in front of Suzakumon, a young woman suddenly appeared on the avenue. She appeared to be around seventeen or eighteen years old, elegant and beautiful, wearing exquisite layered robes. The young man, upon seeing her, found himself unable to simply walk past. He approached her and began to court her. He led her to a secluded spot inside the gate where people wouldn’t notice them, and there they conversed about various matters.
The man said to the woman:
“It must be fate that we’ve met like this. Please think the same and listen to what I say. I am not speaking with casual intentions.”
She replied, “I do not refuse. I wish to follow your words, but if I were to go with you, I would likely lose my life.”
The man thought this was merely a way of playing hard to get, and wouldn’t listen no matter what she said. He forcefully tried to embrace her. With tears, she said:
“You live in society and likely have a wife and children at home. This is just a chance encounter. But unlike you, I will lose my life in this dalliance. It makes me very sad.”
Despite this disagreement, in the end, the woman yielded to the man.
As the sun set and night fell, they borrowed a small hut nearby and stayed there. They spent the entire night in intimate relations, and when dawn came, the woman said as she was leaving:
“I will surely lose my life. Please copy the Lotus Sutra as an offering for me and pray for my afterlife.”
“The union of man and woman is the way of the world. How could you die from this? However, if you do die, I will certainly copy the Lotus Sutra as an offering.”
“If you doubt my death, come to the area near Butokuden Hall tomorrow morning. As proof, I’ll take this with me.”
The woman took the man’s fan and departed in tears. The man did not believe her words and returned home.
The next day, curious about what she had said, he went to Butokuden Hall. An elderly woman with white hair appeared and wept profusely before him. The man asked her:
“Why are you crying so?”
“I am the mother of the woman you met last night near Suzakumon. My daughter has already passed away. I was waiting here to tell you this. The deceased lies over there.”
She pointed and then vanished as if dissolving into air. The man approached with suspicion and saw that inside the hall lay a dead young fox, its face covered with a fan. The fan was indeed the one the man had been carrying the previous night.
“Ah, so yesterday’s woman was this fox. I slept with a fox.”
Realizing this, he returned home, feeling both pity and wonder.
From that day on, every seven days he made offerings of one complete copy of the Lotus Sutra and prayed for her afterlife. Before even forty-nine days(Bardo) had passed, the woman appeared in the man’s dream. She was adorned like a heavenly maiden, surrounded by hundreds and thousands of similarly adorned women. She said:
“Because you offered the Lotus Sutra and saved me, I was able to erase sins that would have continued for tens of thousands of years, and I have been reborn in Tushita Heaven. This debt of gratitude is immeasurable. Even through many lifetimes, I will never forget it.”
The woman ascended to the sky. Wonderful music resonated as the man awoke from his dream. He deeply felt the preciousness of what had happened and developed even stronger faith, continuing to make offerings of the Lotus Sutra.
This is a commendable heart. Even if there was the woman’s dying wish, it is difficult to keep one’s promise and earnestly pray for someone’s afterlife. Perhaps they had been good friends in a previous life.
This story has been passed down as it was heard from the man’s own telling.
[Translation]
Siro Inuzuka
This text was created by using ChatGPT and Claude to translate a modern Japanese translation into English, and then making some modifications. There may be errors in the English expressions. Please correct any mistakes.
[Explanation]
Shinichi Kusano / Siro Inuzuka
In the Heian period, “falling in love” meant having sexual relations. Being unable to have sex signified a failed romance. This is a story of a sad female fox who allowed herself to be embraced despite knowing it would lead to her death.
In Buddhism, the six realms divide the world of suffering into six categories: God realm, Human realm, Demi-god realm, Animal realm, Hungry Ghost realm, and Hell realm. The cycle of repeatedly being born, dying, and being reborn in these worlds of suffering is called reincarnation. Animals live in the Animal Realm, which was considered to be more painful than the Human Realm (a perspective that might upset animal rights activists today, but this concept has existed since ancient times, long before the Common Era).
The female fox in this story had fallen into the Animal Realm due to sins from her past lives.
After death, thanks to the man’s devoted offerings, the woman was able to be reborn in Tushita Heaven. This is a far better state of existence than the Human Realm. However, since death still exists even there, it is still considered a world of suffering.
[Cooperation]
Shinichi Kusano
●Japanese
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