December 3, 2009 by Rok | Culture & Tradition | Add your comment »
What is the thousand paper cranes?
A thousand paper cranes or senbazuru (千羽鶴) is an old Japanese tradition that is still very common in present time and represents one thousand cranes made of colorful origami paper, held together by strings. In Japan you can often see them hanged near temples.
What’s the meaning of this? It is said that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish. Sometimes relatives or friends fold the cranes for someone who has an illness in hopes for recovery or a long life. In Japan, the crane is a holy or mystical creature (along with others like the dragon and the tortoise) and is said to live for 1000 years.
While rumors are flying that Obama wants to send 30,000 warriors to fight in Afghanistan, let’s talk about peace. The Thousand Origami Cranes has become a symbol of world peace through the story of Sadako Sasaki which was made into a book titled Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.
The story talks about Sadako who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Ten years later in 1995, she was diagnosed with leukemia as a result of the radiation and died later that year. Two months before her death, her best friend Chizuko came to the hospital for a visit and cut a golden piece of paper into a square and folded it into a paper crane. The legend also inspired Sadako to start folding the cranes in hopes that she would not die. She often lacked paper and used medicine wrappings and even visited other patients’ rooms to ask for paper they got left from their presents. Chizuko would also bring her paper from school. According to the story, Sadako made 644 cranes before she died and the rest were finished by her friends who buried her with all 1000 of them. Sadako’s last words were “it’s good” as she ate rice covered with tea.
Sadako became a leading symbol of the impact of nuclear war. Her statue with a golden crane in her hands has been standing in Hiroshima since 1958.
A 1000 paper cranes I found at a temple site in Tokyo. Sometimes they’ll add toys or dolls like this Stitch here.
Paper cranes near a temple in Fushimi Inari, Kyoto.
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