Description

“Promise” from the Crane of Gratitude Series by Chicaco Ogawa. Tells the Japanese folktale of the Crane Wife. See the story below.Measures approximately 17″ h x 6″ d x 6″ w.

Chica was a Creative Glass Center of America Fellowship Recipient in 2010. After her fellowship ended Chica stayed on as an assistant in the WheatonArts Glass Studio and helped make production.

About the Artist

Chikako Ogawa was born and grew up in Aichi, Japan. After graduating from Aichi University of Education in 1998, she worked at a production studio and now she works at Toyama City Institute of Glass Art as a teaching assistant.She is interested in human expression and drawing lines. From an everyday affair, she finds something.

The flocks of Canadian Geese that roam the grounds at WheatonArts, led Chica to make a girl with hair in this bird shape. She relates it to the popular crane motif (symbolic of honor and loyalty) and to the Japanese folktale of the Crane Wife. When a farmer (sometimes described as Osamu, a sailmaker) helped an injured crane, it transformed into a woman, Yukio. She came to his house and they married but they were poor. To earn money, Yukio made clothing (or a sail) by weaving but she tells the farmer that he must not look at her while she is working because, of course, she had to become a crane again to weave. When the farmer inevitably peeks and sees that she really is a crane, she flies away. The story is a sad one.