#17 Chitose, Of A Thousand Years

| November 26, 2010 | 0 Comments

17 鶴

Chitose • Of A Thousand Years

People all over the world invoke Chitose when they embark on a thousand-crane-folding project, but not everyone is who Chitose chooses. Chitose is finicky and lazy, the immense amount of power in the thousand-feathered wings often inducing lethargy and, frankly, Chitose has little patience for people who do not believe in what they are doing.

One is actually folding away one’s life, one crane at a time, in a way shedding; for every wish, a crane, and for every crane, a piece of mortality is lifted away. It is not successfully lifted if one does not believe that one has lost something in exchange for what one wishes, and to Chitose, this is like being served stale wine or a half-baked rice cake. When a successful devotee has folded the last crane, thereby activating the completed wish, Chitose is there to meet them along with a Fire or a Snow to point them to the Parade.

The difference is that, as a reward for their strong belief, Chitose gives them a feather from the Thousand-Feathered plumage, to “make your travels henceforth lighter.” Nobody knows if Chitose is a male or a female, as cranes can be hermaphrodites and can’t be bothered with limited human imagination.

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for Hanebi

Cranes were generally shapeshifters, often amongst the ranks of bakeneko and tanuki, although they were less malevolent, I suppose. Chitose is a bit indulgent, a break away from the more reserved image of cranes, although like the very process s/he is invoked with, s/he gives her all once s/he determines that the devotee is serious about essentially giving away their life in exchange for that one wish.

Mostly those who die of this self-imposed exchange die regretful, unaware that sometimes, what you wish your whole life for is exactly what you give  in exchange for it. Those who die happy are those whose wishes involve other people, that the mortal energy ‘exchanged’ continues beyond their own.

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Category: Fantasy, Horror, Manga

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Communications officer by day, writer and superhero by night.

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