Introduction
month. Thus early she was deprived of the usual youthful amusements and found her only consolation in reading. The family, however, were not at all sympathetic with her aspirations.
“Late at night when all my duties were done, I stole a few hours and read books.”
The books she refers to belonged to her great grandmother on her mother’s side, whose personality pervaded the household long after her death. This grand old lady had had an excellent taste in literature; loved beautiful objects such as ancient brocade and prayer beads made of crystal and sapphire; in fact she enjoyed all that pomp and gayety that went with the decadent feudal régime. At the rear of the confectionery shop, in a store-room filled with the great grandmother’s excellent library, Akiko nightly retired to read in secret. Intellectually and aesthetically Akiko’s debt to her was great.
As I read a book
Sitting on a closed chest,
Blows the autumn wind
Through the store-room window.
Perhaps this was the same chest behind which a
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