Japanese Tale: The Crane Wife

image taken from Google

Long ago, a poor man found an injured crane and nursed it back to health. Not long after the crane took wing again, a beautiful young woman appeared at the man’s door,

‘Who are you?’ asked the man.

‘please accept me, I am your wife now.’ and she became his wife.
The woman wove beautiful cloth, which the man sold in the village, and they prospered. She asked only that he never watch her as she wove, and he agreed. Again and again she wove, and the man kept his promise never to watch her at work, and they were happy together.

But one night, curiosity got the better of the man, and he opened the door to take a peek. To his surprise, he saw a crane at the loom! The crane was woving her feather into a beautiful cloth. And she looked very tired, but kept woving.

The crane knew that she was peeked up, betrayed, she came out of the room and found the man.

‘My husband, I’m sorry for not telling you all this time who I am, because you have known me, I’m afraid we cannot be together anymore. Please accept this half-made cloth that I made.’ The crane-wife flew away. The man was sad and left alone with no livelihood, because he failed to keep his promise.