Representative's Column・Reference Column/Shoto International Pre Scool in Shibuya

■My Origins

My parents divorced when I was three years old, and my new mother came when I was five.　However, life with my new mother was not a pleasant  one for me. You might imagine me as the Cinderella of the old tales (maybe a little too cool?). I remember being forced to skip meals if I failed yo do what I was told, bing tied to a tree in the backyard until nightfall, and waking up in the morning to babysit my newborn sister, then washing my face in the well outside and going to elementary school, where my homeroom teacher would brush my hair and greet me with a smile and a "good morning, good luck! I remember being greeted with a smile.

I was six years old in the first year of elementary school when the lady next door gently brought me onigiri (rice balls) after I had been skipped meals, and I was very scared as a child when my father and stepmother had a quarrel about me, because she brought out a kitchen knife saying she would commit a suicide.

My father was hospitalized with tuberculosis in the summer of my first year of elementary school, and in the fall of that year I was sent to live with my grandmother in a foster home, and I did not live with my father, my stepmother, nor of course my sister until I was 21.

There was one thing that made me happy about living with my stepmother. The smile on her face when she gave me one of her potatoes to taste the tempura for dinner made me happy. It was nothing special, but I still remember it vividly because I think it is a very nice thing to be cared about.

Life with my grandmother and my aunt, my father's sister, was oddly poor. I was told by the teacher that I did not have to pay for school lunches, but I didn't think it was uncool, and the kids around me didn't tease me or torment me for it. Was it just the nature of the times? I wonder.

When I was in elementary school, there was no bullying or anything like that, although there were boss of kids around. There was no bullying of the weak, whether it related to the boss's respect for the face or not.

In elementary and middle school, I was the fastest runner in school and was the star of the athletic festival. I had scored the top in the subject of physical education from elementary school to college I was also third in the 100-meter run in the national broadcast track and field when I was in middle school. I am still grateful to my parents for all these, as my athletic ability supported me.

My grandmother made her living as a boarding house for students. (literally speaking she was "the grandmother" owner of a boarding house.) From junior high school, I spent my time helping out at home, cooking, tidying up, cleaning (communal latrines, baths) when I wasn't at school and nor at club activities. Thanks for that, I am still good at cooking and cleaning. (It is true that not being able to hang out with my friends was a bit of boring.) ) The older brothers at the boarding house took good care of me and helped me a lot with my studies, which was a bonus. Although we were not a family, it was fun to have so many roommates under one roof. Having someone watching and caring about you gives you the strength to do your best.

They say, 'Raise a person with praise,' and praise means to care and watch, and that alone gives you the strength to do your best.I was separated from my mother at the age of 3, separated from my father at the age of 6, and could only see him once a year until I was 20. I think it was because my father was so full of his desire to protect our life that he had no room to think about me. I learned then that if you are patient, patient, patient, you can forget things. It was also a big reason why I could put up with anything rather than live that life with my step-mother."

■Why life with my grandmothers is strangely impoverished

My grandmother was a genuine Edokko, a beautiful woman much like the actress Isuzu Yamada, and she was a little proud of her career of being chosen as a signboard for a photo studio.

When she was young, my grandmother was married into a big store that had bookbinders next to Mitsukoshi in Ginza and Nihonbashi, and she was married in a car, which was rare in those days in the early Taisho period. My grandfather was a gourmand and a clotheshorse and spent a lot of money. When my father came of age, his bookbindery, which was said to be his great store, was pressured by the release of paperback books (Iwanami Shoten), and then my grandfather died of illness and the bookbindery disappeared.

There is a place called Naito Shinjuku in Tokyo, where Viscount Naito's house used to be, and I heard that my grandfather's sister married here, although they later divorced.

I only know about this place through pictures and my grandmother's stories, but it seems that her old boasts were her life's support. Thanks to my grandmother, I was forced to stand guard at the pawnshop at the change of seasons, as if it was a yearly event.

I was a bit tense as a watchman.

Maybe I found my reason for existence as a child by being useful (?) to others. 

She died in her mid-90s, but until the day she passed away, she dressed comfortably in rosé or gauze In the summer, they wore gauze or gauze, and in the winter, she wore kimono such as meisen and omeshi in a relaxed manner, and pretended to be a retired person in spite of their poor living conditions. That was a great thing and she was interesting but also she was an annoying and was hard for me to understand at that time.

Her most treasured possession was a traditional nukadoko," which she brought with her when she married into the family. Kibisho...kyusu, otesho...kozara... Nowadays, we don't have such words flying around in our daily lives."

All adults had a childhood once upon a time, but we forget about it, stop recalling it, nor don't need to recall it anymore. As I recall my childhood once again, I am reminded of the many experiences that have become the starting point and made me who I am today. I believe that childhood is the foundation on which we build our lives, and that we become adults by accumulating many things on top of it.