In Japan, cranes have been thought a symbol of long life. An old phrase says "cranes live a thousand years". Here "a thousand" is not necessarily to designate the exact number, but a poetic expression of huge amounts. Historically well-wishers offered a picture of a crane to shrines and temples as well as paper cranes. Origami, specially crafted and patterned paper, was invented in the Edo period. In the late 17th century, books referring not only to "paper cranes" but also to "one thousand cranes" were published. In modern times, cranes are often given to a person who is seriously ill, to wish for their recovery. They are usually created by friends, classmates, or colleagues as a collective effort, offered to a shrine on the person's behalf or directly gifted to the person. Another common use is for sports teams or athletes, wishing them victories. Cranes are often seen at war memorials, symbolically representing wishes for both good health and peace. Several temples, including some in
Tokyo and
Hiroshima, have eternal flames for
world peace. At these temples, school groups or individuals often donate senbazuru to add to the prayer for peace. The cranes are left exposed to the elements, slowly becoming tattered and dissolving as symbolically, the wish is released. In this way, they are related to the
prayer flags of
India and
Tibet. The Japanese space agency
JAXA used the folding of one thousand cranes as one of the tests for candidates of its astronaut program. File:Peace flame in Tokyo.jpg|Eternal flame of peace, with cranes, in
Ueno Tōshō-gū shrine, Tokyo, Japan. File:Grus japonensis and chick -San Diego Zoo-8a.jpg|The
Japanese crane (丹頂) File:Cranes made by Origami paper.jpg|Traditional Japanese origami cranes
Sadako Sasaki The one thousand origami cranes were globally popularized through the story of
Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who was two years old when she was exposed to
radiation from the
atomic bombing of
Hiroshima during
World War II. Sasaki soon developed
leukemia and, at age 12 after spending a significant amount of time in a hospital, began making origami cranes with the goal of making one thousand, inspired by the senbazuru legend. In a fictionalized version of the story as told in the book
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, she folded only 644 before she became too weak to fold anymore, and died on 25 October 1955. To honor her memory, her classmates agreed to fold the remaining 356 cranes for her. According to her family, and especially her older brother Masahiro Sasaki, who speaks on his sister's life at events, Sadako not only exceeded 644 cranes, she exceeded her goal of 1,000 and died having folded approximately 1,400 paper cranes. In his book,
The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki, co-written with
Sue DiCicco, founder of the Peace Crane Project, Masahiro says Sadako exceeded her goal. The
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum states that she did complete the 1,000 cranes and continued past that when her wish failed to come true. There is a statue of Sadako holding a crane in
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, and every year on
Obon day, people leave cranes at the statue in memory of the departed spirits of their ancestors. ==Materials==