The story of the grateful crane begins with a crane, one of the most beautiful and graceful birds. Known as an auspicious bird in Japan, this story starts in Japan with a simple farmer. The farmer had little to nothing until he received a fortune after saving a crane. The crane was wounded and the farmer, out of his kindness had helped the crane.
During winter, the fields were covered with thick snow. The river was also frozen so you could walk on it. One day, as a farmer was returning home, he passed the riverbank when he suddenly heard a noise.
The noise was coming from inside the forest and the farmer could tell that the noise was from an injured bird. The farmer thought to himself that this was an easy target and he would take it home to cook and eat. As he approached, he found an injured beautiful bird.
The farmer didn’t have the heart to kill the bird and so he thought of helping it. The bird whose side was injured by an arrow received help from the farmer.. He gently pulled the arrow out and applied some balm to the injured spot.
After being treated, the bird spread its wings and flew high into the sky. After saving the bird, the farmer returned to his home, ate rice, and went to bed early. The next morning, the farmer heard a tap on the door.
He pondered whether it was the wind before concluding it was a ghost. However, the farmer went to see who was at the door because he wouldn’t go back to sleep if he didn’t check. Scared for his life, the farmer was expecting a ghostly figure or some thieves.
jThe lady’s beauty astonished the man and he couldn’t believe his eyes. Someone’s beauty surprised him, and he stood outside his house.
The farmer welcomed the young lady into his house and he even let her lay on his bed while he slept on the floor. After spending three days with the farmer, he dared to ask her to be his bride. The young lady said that he came all the way to the farmer’s house in hopes that he would ask her that question.
The young lady agreed to marry the farmer. He told her that before her arrival, he was just a lonely and poor farmer. Yet, even then, the gods blessed him. However, one can’t survive on just love.
The winter season was long and both the farmer and his wife ran out of rice to eat. The farmer asked himself what they would do because he had no money or food and he also had nothing valuable that he could sell. was on the verge of tears when he said this.
The farmer was expecting his wife to be angry at him for not providing for the family, instead, all she did was smile. The young lady reassured her husband that everything would be okay. She told her husband that she knew how to weave clothes and they would use this to get by.
She would weave the clothes while her husband took them to the market to sell. The lack of thread caused worry for the farmer as he couldn’t weave the clothes. However, his wife went into their room and she instructed her husband not to come into the room.
Moments later the lady returned with a gorgeous cloth. Birds and flowers embroidered on the cloth, making it a dress fit for royalty. The following day, the farmer took the clothes to the market to sell and he sold it for a great price.
The money they got from selling the clothes was enough for them to get by. After a while, the couple ran out of money and they were poor again. The farmer’s wife told him that everything would be alright when he became anxious once more.
She went into the room and told him not to in or even peep. As his wife wove cloths, the farmer sat and pondered over how he had been fortunate enough to find such a beautiful wife. She not only loved him but she also knew how to weave clothes.
While he was thinking to himself, the farmer thought that he knew nothing about his beautiful wife. He only knew that she had arrived at his house. Driven by his curiosity, the farmer peeped through the door his wife was in and he saw that the person weaving the cloth was human but a crane.
The farmer saw that it was not his wife but a crane that he had previously saved. This was the same crane that he had saved in the forest. The crane collected feathers from its chest and used them to weave clothes. This hurt her; however, she was ready to sacrifice for the man.
The crane saw that the man was peeping and so she shed a single tear and flew out of the house through the chimney. He didn’t see his wife again after this. The poor farmer lived the rest of his days in loneliness.
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