Sojiro’s Mother

  Age: 40s

  The landlady of Tsukinoya Inn.

  She married the owner of Tsukinoya and gave birth to Sojiro before the start of the Meiji era.

  She deeply loves her only son, Sojiro, and has always worried about him—especially after he clashed with his father over his fascination with foreign cultures and left home. However, she herself was never able to leave for the city.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  She and her husband were born and raised during the era of the Tokugawa shogunate, when Japan’s samurai-led government rejected cultural exchange with foreign nations and strictly prohibited the entry of foreigners.

  Even receiving treatment from Western doctors was forbidden.

  Growing up with these values, the couple could not easily accept their son’s longing for Western culture.

  Eventually, after the turbulent years of the Bakumatsu, when the Shinsengumi and the pro-imperial Ishin Shishi clashed, Japan transitioned into the Meiji era and was flooded with Western influences.

  But for those living in the countryside, changing long-held beliefs was no simple matter, and time simply passed them by.

  but rather from the rigid education and societal beliefs imposed on them by the era they were born into.

  She, as a mother, has never disliked her son, Sojiro.

  But no matter the outcome, maintaining the bond as family and accepting one another,

  I believe that is what it truly means to live as a human being.