“The important thing would be whether or not there was milk, not whether or not there was a birthmark.”
There is an episode at the beginning of the novel when Kikuji’s parents discuss Chikako’s giant birthmark on her left breast. Kikuji’s mother feels sorry for her, as it seems to her that this birthmark is a purpose of Chikako being unmarried. Moreover, “the hardest thing would be having a child to nurse” as “the husband might be alright, but the child”. Though father’s opinion is different. According to him, “it’s hardly a problem worth worrying about”.
“I’m different from from Mrs. Ota. As things went with your father, I was a very light case. I see no reason to hide the truth – I was unfortunately not his favorite game. Just when it started, it was over.”
As Chikako is the former mistress of Kikuji’s father, she hates Mrs. Ota. Though, she admits that he was really happy with this woman. Chikako has a conversation with Kikuji in the temple and tells him that she was “unfortunately not his favorite game”.
“The hair seemed luminous. The light was really too bright for a tea cottage, but it made the girl’s youth glow. The tea napkin, as became a young girl, was red, and it impressed one less with its softness than with its freshness, as if the girl’s hands were bringing a red flower into bloom. And one saw a thousand cranes, small and white, start up in flight around her.”
This is the description of Yukiko performing the Tea Ceremony. She is a pretty woman with a kerchief with a symbolic thousand-crane pattern. Kikuji was invited in order to meet Yukiko and he is really amused by this woman. “The light was really too bright for a tea cottage, but it made the girl’s youth glow.” Yukiko is the embodiment of purity and innocence and she is really meant to perform the Tea Ceremony. She performs it with such a pleasure and lightness, that everyone in the temple admires her. The thousand cranes on her kerchief symbolize happiness and prosperity for her in the future.
“Now, even more than the evening before, he could think of no one with whom to compare her. She had become absolute, beyond comparison. She had become decision and fate.”
These are Kikuji’s thoughts about Fumiko. After Mrs. Ota’s death he switches to her daughter. Fumiko becomes her mother’s substitute for Kikuji as he is attracted to her only because he loved Mrs. Ota. But later Kikuji “could think of no one with whom to compare her”, as she becomes only Fumiko for him. Kikuji understands that everything he needs in nearby. Fumiko “had become absolute, beyond comparison”.
