twilight of a crane

 Junji Kinoshita  

Kinsohito was born in Tokyo on 2nd August 1914. He did his school in Tokyo till 1925. Then he moved to Kumamoto. 1936 Kinoshita returned to Tokyo to attend the imperial university of Tokyo. There he studied English literature. His early plays and some folktales were created at the time of militarism. Kinoshita did many plays and novels and theatre reviews, also translation of Shakespeare’s works. Kinsohito was elected as the member of The Japan Art Academy in 1984 and was selected as the honorary citizen of Tokyo. But he never accepted any national honors and awards and continued his

Left-wing political view till the end. Kinsohito died on October 30, 2006 from pneumonia. According to his will and wish no funeral was held. In fact his death was announced one month after his death.

 Summary of Twilight Crane

 This play is originated from the folktale “Tsuru no ongaeshi”. The play goes like this, one day Yohyo a kind farmer helps a wounded crane from its trap. Later a woman called Tsu visits Yohyo and tells him that she wants to marry him. So they marry and become husband and wife. Tsu weaves beautiful clothes so Yohyo makes money by selling it. But Tsu never allows anyone to look into her room. It is a promise between Tsu and Yohyo. But greedy money making people Sodo and Unzu tempt Yohyo to get more clothes from Tsu. So Yohyo asks Tsu to make more. One day Yohyo breaks the promise and look into the room. They could see Tsu is a crane and she has been weaving by using her own feathers. When Tsu realizes that her husband broke his promise, she turns into her original form as crane and flies away never to come back.

 Study plan

•  Author’s introduction
• Summary / review of the play
• Characters
• Incidents
• 
  Themes
• Literary Device
• Setting
• Language style
• Structure
• Images
• Irony
• Metaphors
• Similes

 Characters

•  Tsu
• Honorable wife
• Symbol of honor and honesty
• 
  Protagonist of the play
• Kinsohito portrays Tsu as independent and very intelligent woman
• Disciplined wife
• Calm and peace loving wife to her husband
• Tsu was a crane by birth but converted to human form to pay her gratitude to human, her husband
• Tsu is a god example for a peaceful calm loving wife
• She is indebted to him as he was the savior of her life
• She appears as a beautiful woman and shares her life with the poor villager

 Yohyo

•  Husband of Tsu
• Poor farmer of the village
• Very innocent farmer
• Kind to play with the small children
  
• He helps the wounded crane and the crane pays her gratitude as his wife transforming into human
• Yohyo loves his wife very much and was worried to see her becoming thin
• He becomes greedy after Sodo’s promise for more money for the fine clothes
• Yohyo persuades his wife to make more clothe is easily manipulated by Sodo and Unzu
• Compare to Tsu Yohyo is not intelligent as his wife
• Yohyo’s unsteady mind separates him from his loving wife Tsu

 Sodo and Unzu

• Greedy merchants
• Provokes Yohyo to persuade his wife to make more clothes
• They are greedy for money
• They disturb Yohyo’s pure mind
• 
  Sodo and Unzu are deceitful
• Tsu advises Yohyo to be away from these evil minded people
  
• They both doubt Tsu’s intelligent and skill in weaving fine clothes
• Sodo and Unzu brake the “no look” rule and looks into Tsu’s weaving room where he sees a crane weaving. After him Unzu and Yohyo peep into the room to find the truth.
• Sodo and Unzu appear to be villains and become the very cause for Tsu’s separation from Yohyo

 Literary Techniques

 Language

 Junji Kinsohito uses effective language to bring out social and emotional state and also the purpose of the characters. The simplicity allows the readers to understand the play. The simple language brings out the complex social difficulties and emotional concepts through all the characters.

 Themes

 Junji Kinsohito conveys the theme of love in a different, sensitive manner. Love could be between two human. But a crane becomes a female to pay her tribute and becomes a wife to a male. This romantic love is different and well expressed in the play.

 Honor and loyalty

 Tsu the main character of the play represents Honor and Loyalty. She reminds loyal to her husband till the end. She takes the human form to serve as wife to a kind poor farmer as he save her life when she is wounded in the crane form.

 Dual form

 The discussion between Tsu and Yohyo about Kyoto is an interesting to note. As a bird she visits many places including Kyoto. When they talk about it Yohyo shows more curiosity to know about Kyoto’s industrial sector. But Tsu could remember only her world of sky. In another incident she is called as “cross woman”

 Sense of gratitude

 She marries Yohyo only to pay her gratitude. Yohyo is a rare human with kindness, innocence and generosity and mercy. All these qualities save Tsu when she is wounded in crane form.  All these good qualities attract Tsu and she loves him. It is not his appearance but his character which attract him so much, so she marries him with loves and pays her gratitude in all possible ways.

 Symbol

 Crane is the symbol of honor and loyalty. Tsu the crane becomes human female and marries the poor farmer who saves her life. She is loyal to him, she is loving, kind, peace giving and intelligent woman.

 Good

 Yohyo is a symbol of good. His good qualities saves the crane his good nature attracts Tsu. They are loving husband and wife. He is innocent and believes the evil

 Evil

 Sodo and Unzu are portrayed as the power of evil. They are the villains. Greedy to make money. They provoke Yohyo to make more fine clothes. This separates Tsu from her husband Yohyo.

 Setting

 Village and few character say more about life. They say a lot about the practical difficulties of life in the big universe. The readers could enjoy the children playing with Tsu and Yohyo. The village background gives a smell and touch of the Japanese culture.

 Structure

 The play starts with a group of children arrive at the country hut of Yohyo a poor young farmer. They come every day to play with Yohyo and Tsu. The happy life style changes when Tsu’s fades away. This transformation in her appearance becomes the serious turning point in the play. Also the arrival of two greedy cloth merchants move the story to the climax. They provokes Yohyo persuaded his wife Tsu to

make more clothes. Also these two villains break the “no look” rule and peek into Tsu’s secret room and find the crane weaving the clothes.  It could changes the play into a fairy tale. But the author/writer gives serious climax. The conclusion part takes the readers to sadness as they separate from each other. Yohyo breaks the promise and Tsu changes into crane and flies away from him forever.

 Honor and Loyalty of Tsu could not last. Loyalty should not be one sided. It must be proved from both side to enjoy the meaning of life.

Thank you

Please like, comment and follow this blog.

visit my you tube channel for an interesting presentation