My annual Hokkaido Photo Workshop is a bonanza of avian wildlife.  Steller’s Sea Eagles, White-tailed Eagles, Glaucous Gulls, Whooper Swans, and Blakiston’s Fish Owls represent only some of the fantastic birding photo ops that I indulge in while leading that photo workshop.  However, the Red-crowned Crane perhaps carries the most symbolism of all of Hokkaido’s winged wildlife.

Red-crowned Cranes are thought to represent long life due to, in some part, their species' mythology.  Some folklore states that in ancient times the Red-crowned Crane could live for thousands of years.  Part of their mythos is tied to their monogamous relationships.  Once they have created their union as partners, they bond with those mates throughout their entire lifetime thereafter.  Their fealty was known to the samurais, and many crests were emblazoned with a Red-crowned Crane to denote a similar lifetime devotion to their devotion to their daimyo or lord.  The Red-crowned Crane's cultural importance still resonates today.  Look no further than the Japan Airlines  (JAL) crest, and you’ll see the Red-crowned Crane spreading its wings as if about to take flight.  This is a sight I enjoy every winter in Hokkaido, as I see the flocks distributed among the marshlands at just the right time to see these graceful ballerinas leave the earth and take their grandeur to the air.

The First Nations People of Japan, the Ainu, honor the Red-crowned Crane as one of their kamuy, or spiritual creatures.  During my Hokkaido Photo Tour, I visit the Akanko Ainu Kotan, where they perform a dance in tribute to the Red-crowned Crane called the ‘sarorunkamuy rimse.’  The dance simulates the chirping, singing, and mating dance between two Red-crowned Cranes who are betrothing themselves to each other.  I visit them with clients, and we photograph their museum-quality arts and crafts. We then experience the Ikor theatre, the Ainu performance of spiritual, cultural awakening, during the evening’s lomante fire performance where we have press box seats, followed by fireworks by the lakeside.

The Red-Crowned Crane, Tancho in Japanese, stands at 150 to 158 cm (4ft to 5 ft) tall, weighing 8 to 11 kg (17 to 25) pounds with an amazingly large wingspan measuring 200 to 260 cm (6.5 ft to 8.5 ft) and lives more than 60 years. The Red-Crowned Cranes ritual courtship dance is a masterpiece of impassioned choreography; they bow to one another, then raise their heads towards the sky and call in unison, and as they call, they begin to dance.  Their call is so majestic that the Japanese Ministry of the Environment has identified it as one of Japan’s 100 most important soundscapes, an important intangible cultural asset.  When you hear the cranes call to each other, you are both photographing a rare and majestic bird and listening to their calls that are so prized that they are being preserved for posterity.  One pair of Red-crowned Cranes or the entire flock will leap into the air, at the same time commencing the mating ritual ballet/dance.  It’s a visual and aural symphony so breathtaking that I have been brought to tears while photographing them.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified the Red-crowned Cranes as endangered, and climate change and other manufactured interferences are reducing the Red-crowned Cranes natural habitats in Hokkaido and the other migratory regions, but my years of experience in the bush and over two decades photographing in Japan mean that I am a Japanese local, and I make sure that my participants and I leave as little a footprint as possible when viewing and photographing wildlife.  My goal is to preserve their beauty for as many people as possible to behold so they, too, can appreciate the Red-crowned Crane's natural beauty.