Half-Senbazuru (#2)

I folded 1,000 cranes over nine months in 2013, completing the final crane just before the new year and our flight to Japan. I wished for good health and a long life.

I strung the cranes and hung them in my home in 2015, where they have been on display ever since. I have indeed had good health the entire time I’ve been here in Japan.

Once we decided it was time to look west again, I started folding another Senbazuru, which I completed in 2021.

And thus, I’m ready to part with these. 

This is a half-Senbazuru: it is 500 cranes, all lovingly folded by me and my MS hands as both a form of hand exercise and a practice in meditation. Hang this in a room with an open window and watch the cranes turn on their strings in the breeze. It’s quite entrancing. It always receives comments, kids and cats love it, and it’s a perfect photo or video background.

Bamboo pole not included.

Cranes ship on their strings in a box via EMS from Tokyo, Japan.

Construction:

• 500 sheets of paper, chiyogami and otherwise printed from the USA and Japan
• Cotton thread
• Irregular hematite beads to weight the strands
• Glue