Sandman: The Dream Hunters is a novella by Neil Gaiman, lavishly illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano. The story is tangential the Sandman comic book series, and can be read without prior knowledge of the main sequence. The story deals with a love affair between a Buddhist priest and a fox spirit or kitsune. Gaiman initially claimed it was based on an old Japanese folk tale, retooled to fit in the world of the Sandman, but eventually admitted it was entirely invented.