The protagonist is the young master of a large merchant house in Osaka. Because he spent far too much time womanizing, his family decided that taking a wife would settle him down. They chose a bride named Kikue—a beautiful woman with impeccable manners and a faultless character, against whom no one could find a single flaw.
At first, the young master was completely devoted to his new bride. However, after a month or two, he went right back to visiting prostitutes. Blaming herself, Kikue grew deeply depressed, wondering, "Perhaps I haven't been a good enough wife to him?" Her condition worsened until she took to her bed, falling seriously ill.
Even with his wife in such a state, the young master continued to spend all his time in the pleasure quarters. When his father demanded to know why he hadn't gone to visit the sick Kikue, the young master gave a frivolous reply: "Oh, seeing her just makes me feel pathetic. Besides, I hate sickbeds and gloomy atmospheres like that."
Furious, the father ordered the head clerk, "Lock the scoundrel inside the house so he can't go womanizing! And under no circumstances are you to let him out!" With that, the father left to visit Kikue himself.
However, the head clerk—who had a reputation for being an honest man—had been embezzling from the shop's ledgers to support a mistress. The young master had discovered this, making the clerk completely compliant to his will.
"Since the young master can't go outside," the clerk suggested, "why don't we just call his favorite geisha right here?"
They had the top geisha of the pleasure quarters carried to the house in a palanquin, dressed only in light summer clothing that resembled a white death shroud. To keep the household staff quiet, they served them a lavish feast they would never normally eat, and the servants joyfully held a wild drinking party while Kikue lay dying in the next room.
Suddenly, the father returned home. Panicking, the young master shoved the geisha into a family Buddhist altar—one large enough for a person to fit inside—and sat in front of it with an innocent face, hoping to ride it out.
The father walked in and said, "Son, Kikue has passed away before you even bothered to visit her once! I honestly don't know how I'm going to face her family. I need to get the sutra scroll from the altar to take to their house, so open the butsudan!"
When the father swung open the doors of the altar, there stood the geisha in her white shroud.
Mistaking her for the deceased, the father said, "Oh, Kikue, you've come back as a ghost. I understand how you feel, but... Namu Amida Butsu. Please, vanish."
The terrified geisha replied, "Yes, I would very much like to vanish too."
And that is the punchline.
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