In the village of Niise in Kaya district, in the province of Kibi, there was a wealthy farming family, that of Isawa Shodayu. His only son, Shotaro, was sunk in wine and women and paid no mind to the family business. Thinking that a wife might reform him, his father arranged a match with Isora, daughter of Kasada Miki, chief priest of Kibitsu Shrine.
To divine whether the match would be lucky, Kasada performed the "cauldron rite" handed down at Kibitsu Shrine. Water is boiled in a cauldron, and the sound the cauldron makes tells good fortune from bad: if it roars like an ox, it is lucky; if it makes no sound, unlucky. But the cauldron made no sound at all.
Kasada's wife said, "Our daughter is already looking forward to this match. Never mind the god's oracle," and the marriage went ahead.
Isora rose early and went to bed late, serving her husband and his parents with all her heart. But Shotaro's roving eye was not cured. He became deeply involved with Sode, a courtesan of Tomo no Tsu, and at last tricked Isora into handing over money and ran off with Sode.
Betrayed, Isora fell gravely ill from grief and bitterness.
Meanwhile Shotaro and Sode reached the village of Arai in the province of Harima and began living there, but soon Sode seemed to be possessed by some evil spirit and died seven days later.
As Shotaro was sunk in grief, a beautiful woman appeared and said, "The mistress of my house has also lost her husband and is grieving," and led him to a certain house. The face of the mistress who appeared from behind a folding screen was that of Isora, utterly wasted. Isora's vengeful spirit had killed Sode and meant to kill Shotaro too.
A yin-yang master told him, "For forty-two days, keep a strict abstinence and shut yourself up in the house," and pasted charms on every door. Every night Isora's ghost came, crying, "Ah, how hateful. A charm here too." On the forty-second night, thinking day had broken, Shotaro opened the door, but outside it was still dark. When the man next door came running, only Shotaro's topknot was hanging from the eaves. Of Shotaro himself, it is said, there was no trace anywhere.