Reading Notes W10: Ichiyo, Part B

• The story begins with someone tapping on "her" window (907)
• Okyo is the girl's name (907)
• Okyo lies and says she's going to bed, she tells them to come back in the morning (907)
• It was Kichizo from the umbrella shop who was knocking on the window (907)
• Okyo decided to let him in (907)
• Okyo is a stylish woman (907)
• Kichizo was referred to as a dwarf. 16 years old but looked 11 or 12. Small face. Short. (907)
• Okyo keeps teasing Kichizo about rice cakes (907)
• New Years is the most significant holiday in Japan (907)
• Okyo is working on a piece of clothing for the owner of the pawnshop on the corner (908)
• Kichizo says he should wear it first since it's a waste on the pawnshop owner (908)
• Okyo reminds Kichizo that anyone who wears another's clothes won't get anywhere in life (908)
• Okyo is doing this to support herself, not as a gift (908)
• They both try to get each other to promise they'll make each other happy if they become sucessful (908)
• Kichizo believes he's stuck in his position oiling umbrellas but he's okay with it. He believes Okyo has a better chance at succeeding in life. (908)
• Okyo believes she'll go to hell (908)
• Kichizo doesn't like his boss (908)
• Kichizo says Okyo seems like a sister to him and wonders if she's ever had a younger brother (909)
• Kichizo would be ok with dying if he could just find out who his sister is and meet her. He has no parents. (909)
• Okyo says it makes no difference who Kichizo's parents are. Okyo also believes she'd make something of herself no matter who her parents were (909)
• Kichizo says he doesn't have any "get-up-and-go." Maybe he's depressed? (909)
• Kichizo has been teased because he doesn't know about his identity (909)
• A woman named Omatsu picked up Kichizo 6 years prior to the conversation between Kichizo and Okyo. He was doing his tumbler act along the road (909)
• Okyo is going to live with a relative she hardly knows (912)
• Okyo says she doesn't want to but she has to. She won't be able to see Kichizo anymore (912)
• Okyo wants Kichizo to come inside to get warm but he declines. He says to leave him alone. Okyo says it worries her (912)
• Kichizo explains that everyone he's ever liked dies or goes away. He gets mad and wonders how he could have ever thought of her as a sister seeing how she's leaving. Okyo says she has to leave but she isn't abandoning him. She does think of him his a little brother. She tells him he's impatient and jumps to conclusions (913)
• Kichizo asks if she's going to be someone's mistress and she says it's not the kind of thing anyone wants to do but it's already been decided (913)
• Kichizo looks at her with tears in his eyes and says "Take your hands off me, Okyo" (913)

Ichiyo, Higuchi. "Separate Ways." The Norton Anthology World Literature, edited by Martin Puchner, Third Edition, vol. E, W. W. Norton 2012, pp. 905-913