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.