The Crane Wife
Adapted from a traditional Japanese folktale by Shinjo Takame
The Crane Wife is a traditional Japanese folk tale that has origins going as far back as the 8th Century. The story has similarities to western folk tales, especially with the motif of the swan maiden. However, the themes are more Buddhist in nature, such as impermanence.
Once there was a peasant man, he lived in the mountains in a small house with his elderly mother where he made a living making charcoal.
One day, just before the first snows of winter were to fall, he went to the nearby village to buy a futon bed for his mother. As he approached the village, he saw a beautiful white crane struggling in the cage that held it. The man’s heart was filled with pity and he tried to open the cage to free it.
The hunter that had caught the crane ran up to stop him. “What are you doing?” the hunter demanded.
“I am worry, but I was trying to free the crane from the cage,” said the man. “Will you sell it to me?”
The hunter agreed and took the money. The man then freed the crane. The great white bird stretched its wings and took off into the sky.
The man returned home to his mother and explained what he had done. His mother just nodded sadly.
“I suppose there is nothing to be done,” she said.
The next evening, snow began as the man and his mother ate their evening meal. There came a knock at the door. When the man opened it, a beautiful young woman was standing there. Her skin was pale but her hair was dark and her lips a deep red.
“You must be cold,” said the man. “Come in and warm yourself.”
He brought the woman inside and let her sit by the fire. He brought a blanket from his bed and covered her with it while his mother made her some tea. The woman said nothing at all.
“Do you live far from here?” The man asked her at last.
“No, not far,” said the woman.
“Then you must stay with us,” said the mother.
“Tomorrow, when the snow stops falling I will take you home,” promised the man.
But the snow continued for three days and three nights. And in those three days and nights he was charmed by her kindness towards him and his mother and how complete she made his home.
After three days, with his mother’s blessing, he asked the woman to be his wife. She agreed. And for a time they were happy. But as the winter continued, their meagre stores of food were stretched between the three of them. The man confessed to his wife that he feared they had not enough food to last the winter.
“Please, let me help, husband,” she said, she went into the other room of the hut. “You must not come in until I have finished.” And she closed the door.
For seven days the door remained closed, on the evening on the seventh day his wife emerged and in her arms she held a bolt of silken cloth of such radiant colours.
“Take this to town tomorrow and sell it for a good price,” she said.
As the man took the bolt of cloth from her, he noticed that his wife looked frail and thin. “My wife, are you ill?”
But she did not answer him.
The next day, the man took the garment his wife had made to market and sold to and sold it to the local lord for an immense amount of money.
“And please,” said the local lord. “If your wife were to weave another, I would buy it.”
“I will ask her,” said the man.
The man returned home and told his wife what the lord had said.
His wife once again retreated to the room and bid him to not look inside until she came out. And once again, seven days passed and she emerged again with a bolt of cloth even more splendid than the first. But was once again thin and sickly. And once again, he asked her why she looked so ill but his wife did not answer.
The man took the cloth to the local lord who paid him even more money and asked again is the man’s wife could weave another.
Once again, his wife retreated into the room and bade him not to enter for seven days. But before the seven days was over, the man was worried about his wife and she appeared sick and thin when she made the cloth. So he opened the door.
There was a giant loom, but in front of it was a great white crane who was beating its beak against its breast, tearing off feathers and weaving them into cloth with its great wings. The crane gave a cry when it saw him, turning back into the form of his wife.
“Husband, you know my secret,” she said, bursting into tears. “I was that crane you saved from the trap, and I do this for my love of you.”
“But my wife,” he said to her. “Love does not demand such sacrifice.”
His wife shook her head. “ I cannot stay with you,” she said.
She once again assumed her crane form, raised her wings to fly. Thousands of cranes appeared and they all took to the skies together.
Winter passed into spring, the man now lived a rich and comfortable life in a fine house with many servants and his mother wanted for nothing. But all he wanted was to see his beloved wife again. So he began to travel the land searching for her.
One day, he rested on a sea shore where he saw an old man approaching in a boat from the open ocean. The man thought it strange, as he knew no islands lay out that way. So he approached the old man when he came ashore and asked where he had been.
“I have been to the Island of the Robe of Crane Feathers,” said the old man.
“Please, can you take me there,” said the man.
So the old man took him out into the open ocean, to a small island. On the beach he saw the great crane that had been his wife, surrounded by many other cranes for she was their queen.
His wife saw him and once again assumed the form of a human. They embraced. “I have come to take you home, my wife,” he said to her.
His wife shook her head. “I cannot again leave this island,” she said. “And you cannot stay.”
So he stayed with her that evening, they talked all night and ate together. Then, when the sun began to rise over the great ocean, they embraced one last time, and the old man with the boat took him home.
Shinjo Takame is an artisan from Rowany, with a current focus on period Japanese clothing.