The Crane Wife - Retold by Sumiko Yagawa - ★★★

AUTHOR: Sumiko Yagawa

ILLUSTRATOR: Suekichi Akaba

TRANSLATOR: Katherine Paterson

GENRE: Japanese Folktale

PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1981

RATING: 3 stars.

In a Nutshell: An English translation of a beloved Japanese folktale. A good story, as long as you keep in mind that it’s an old folktale and doesn’t necessarily fit into modern standards of propriety.

Plot Preview:

A poor peasant named Yohei lives in a faraway mountain village. One day, he comes across an injured crane and pulls out the arrow stuck in her wing. That night, a beautiful young woman knocks on his door, asking to be his wife. Yohei is overwhelmed by her beauty and welcomes her. They live a simple but impoverished life. One day, she asks Yohei for a loom, and making him promise not to take a peek, she weaves something behind closed doors. After three days, she comes out very skinny but holding a magnificent piece of cloth that Yohei is able to sell for a good price. This cycle continues two times more, each time resulting in the young woman’s losing more weight but creating an even finer material. Finally, when Yohei cannot control his curiosity anymore, he takes a peek in the room, thereby leading to a surprise discovery.

If you see the title, you can take a good guess at what surprise awaits Yohei. I wish the title weren’t such a major spoiler. We can anyway make a correlation between his saving a crane and the young woman’s arriving at his doorstep. With a different title, the lead-up to the end could have been better.

This is supposedly Japan’s most popular folktale. Its title, “Tsuru no Ongaeshi” (Crane’s Return of a Favour), suits this story better. There is an alternative version of the folktale titled “Tsuru Nyōbō” (Crane Wife), where the ending is more bittersweet than sad and the man is more sensible. I’d have loved to read that version more as a sensible man who cares for his wife is a relative rarity in folktales. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find an English translation of Tsuru Nyōbō. English translations usually contain the first story but use the second title.

The folktale has quite a lot to offer to the reader. Be it the depiction of women in traditional stories, the evergreen love vs. money debate, the keeping of promises even in difficult circumstances, and the choice of using one’s own brains instead of listening to evil troublemakers, the story offers a lot to ponder upon. While it isn't exactly a children’s tale, it can still work for grade 3-5 if read with an eye out for learning opportunities on human behaviour.

The edition I read is an English translation of the retelling originally written in Japanese by Sumiko Yagawa. Translator Katherine Paterson does a commendable job. I found the story quite faithful to the original feel. It retains the Japanese names without anglicising the story or the situations. One good choice the translator made was to retain some of the onomatopoeic sounds from the original Japanese text. The parting note indicates how these words are to be pronounced, and if we follow this instruction, the words actually resemble the sound they are supposed to indicate. Amazing!

This edition is an illustrated book with beautiful water-colour artwork. To modern eyes, the graphics might seem a bit understated, but it matches the traditional Japanese water painting technique. Of course, we also need to remember that the book was published in 1981 when the prevalent artistic choices could have been different.

I came upon the name of this folktale while perusing the blurb of ‘The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill, supposedly a gender-swapped retelling of this story. Given how thought-provoking her debut novel ‘The Girl Who Drank the Moon' was, I can't wait to see her twisty take on this folktale.

Overall, while the story might sound a bit sad and misogynistic to modern eyes and ears, it still delivers on what matters most in folktales: the moral. This might not be a story worth purchasing for home libraries unless it is a part of a larger collection of Japanese folktales. However, it is a good option for public libraries and schools.