Once upon a time, there was a poor hunter. One day, he came across a
trapped crane. He took pity on the crane and released it. A few days later, a lovely
woman visited his house, and asked him to shelter for the night. She didn't go next day,
then the two got married.
The bride was good disposed as well as buautiful, so they lived
happily. But the hunter couldn't afford to support his new wife. One day, she said that
she would weave cloth so that he would sell it to make money (weaving was common for a
woman's side job those days). But she told him never to see her weaving.
She kept in a weaving hut during three days. When the weaving sound
stopped, she came out with a beautiful fabric. He brought the fabric to a town, where
Merchants was surprised and paid gold for it. The fabric was very rare one called Tsuru-no-senba-ori
(thousand feathers of crane).
Since then, the wife weaved the valuable fabric several times. The hunter came to live in
comfort. However, his wife got thiner little by litte.
One day, she said that she could weave the fabric no longer. She was so
consumed. Though, her husband had learned greed, and asked her to weave once more. At last
she was persuaded and started to weave again.
That time, she didn't came out on the third day. And more three days
passed. He got worried, and finally broke their promise, peeping her weaving. To his
surprise, it was not a woman but a crane that was weaving.
On the next morning, his wife came out from the weaving hut, with the
last fabric in her hands. She said "you have seen my true form, so I can stay with
you any no longer." And then, she turned into a crane and flew away, leaving the
hunter's criyng.
