Responses
It's a very popular folktale ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden) A lot of countries have their own variants: Korea has the Fairy and Woodcutter, Japan has Amafuri Otome (and was popularised by Ayashi No Ceres to an extent).
riiiightt, ayashi no ceres! i watched that anime a long time ago though i didn't finish it :( thank u for the info ❣
why is this tale familiar to me?? something about a man stealing clothes from a woman taking a bath im a river therefore hindering her from returning to heaven. i feel like i've reas this somewhere before hmmm...