The Crane Wife
Classical Stories · No. 60 — The most beautiful cloth in Japan, woven behind a door that must not open.
- Classical Stories
- 44 min
- Ages 8–13
- 6 chapters
About this audiobook
A kind, poor man frees a crane caught in a snare and lets it fly away. That evening a young woman arrives at his lonely house in the snow and, with quiet grace, becomes his wife. She offers to weave, but makes him promise never to watch her at the loom. The cloth she produces is so exquisite it sells for a fortune, and their life eases — but each weaving leaves her thinner and paler, and the more the cloth earns, the more it is wanted. At last, driven by curiosity and by others' greed for more, the husband slides open the forbidden door — and sees not his wife but a crane, plucking its own feathers to weave, nearly bare. The secret seen, the spell breaks: the crane, revealed, must fly away forever.
Why it's worth a listen
A poor man frees a wounded crane from a trap; that night a gentle woman appears at his door and becomes his wife, and weaves cloth of impossible beauty on the one condition that he never watch her work. Their fortune grows — and so does his curiosity. One of Japan's most beloved and heartbreaking tales, about gratitude, greed, and the door we are asked not to open.
A question to keep
Can love survive the need to know a secret it was asked to leave alone?
Chapters
- The Feather in the Snow
- The Knock at the Door
- The Secret of the Loom
- The Shadow of Gold
- The Sliding Door
- A Question to Keep