A Girl's Voice Came Echoing Through the House (Auditory Imagery)
After a stilted father-son conversation punctuated by long silences, the narrator is relieved to hear "a girl's voice ... echoing through the house" because he knows the voice belongs to his sister, with whom he has an easier time talking. In this example of auditory imagery, Ishiguru immerses the reader in the narrator's perspective by emphasizing how Kikuko's cheery presence breaks through the awkward silence that has characterized the narrator's afternoon with his father.
Relaxed Quite Visibly (Visual Imagery)
Despite having a bubbly personality, the narrator’s sister Kikuko acts and speaks formally in the presence of her father. However, as soon as the father leaves the conversation to go to the kitchen, her body language transforms. The narrator remarks: "My sister relaxed quite visibly once he had left the room. Within a few minutes, she was chatting freely about her friends in Osaka and about her classes at university." In this example of visual imagery, Ishiguro shows how Kikuko is on edge around her strict father by emphasizing the physical change that occurs in her when he is out of the room.
Her Hair Had Come Undone (Visual Imagery)
In the garden, the narrator reminds his sister what the ghost he saw near the well had looked like, saying she had been wearing a white kimono and "some of her hair had come undone [and] was blowing around a little." In this example of visual imagery, Ishiguro enhances the realism of the narrator's description of the ghost by adding the detail of the woman's hair being tossed about by the wind, just as a living person's hair would be.
