The Actors Sawamura Sōjurō III and Arashi Murajirō as Kusunoki Masatsura and the Fox Chieda Disguised as Ben no Naishi

In this complex story, Ben no Naishi was a lady of the imperial court, a poet, and the lover of Kusunoki Masatsura, a warrior and aristocrat. She dies tragically, and Masatsura keeps her small drum as a keepsake. Later, he is visited by a woman claiming to be Ben no Naishi and a court nobleman named Matagorō. Suspicious, Masatsura watches them closely and sees that their footprints in the snow are the foxes’. Confronting them with this, the pair reveals why they have come. The skins used to make Ben no Naishi’s drum came from the male fox’s parents, and when it is played it is as if they are crying out! Hearing this, Masatsura gives the drum to the foxes, and they return to the forest.