The Lust of the White Serpent

Once upon a time, though it matters not exactly when, ⁴⁰⁰ in the province of Kii, by the cape of Miwa, ⁴⁰¹ there lived a fisherman named Ōya ⁴⁰² no Takesuke. He was rich in the luck of the sea ⁴⁰³ and took care of many other fishermen who caught all sorts of things, broad of fin and narrow of fin, thus enabling his house to prosper. Takesuke had two sons and one daughter. His first son, Tarō, was a simple but hard-working man, and his second child, a girl, had married someone from the province of Yamato, where she now lived. The third child, named Toyoo, grew to be a gentle young lad, especially fond of polite accomplishments but with little practical sense.