Kindness to a crane leads to a wonderful gift – but watch out for greedy relatives!

Unable to find an appropriate master for his son to apprentice with, a man is thrilled to find someone willing to take him on – until the stranger flies off with the lad. Now the father must begin a quest to locate and try to rescue his son.

A weaver needing work takes a job as a shepherd – but wait until you hear how foolish he and some other weavers are!

An old peasant is tricked by a wicked tanuki into doing something terrible. Now the peasant and his friend, a hare, must work together to bring about the tanuki’s demise.

The filmed versions of this story that you’ve seen stay pretty close to this version of this tale. If you enjoyed the versions by Disney or Cocteau, you’ll like this too!