Aunt

January 1, 2024, 11:30 am. Harada's aunt Chiyoko died in Gunma.

Chiyoko was the only member of the conservative Harada family to study abroad in France, where she joined the anti-fascist volunteer army.
It can be inferred that Chiyoko was in the position of the "New Left".
Harada's conservative mother hated Chiyoko.
Japanese conservatives demand that young people strictly adhere to Japanese customs. They also demand unconditional gratitude and obedience to their elders.
However, Chiyoko was a completely free person who was not bound by old conventions.
Harada's mother felt that "the leftists lacked love''.
Harada's mother confused "left wing" and "new left wing" and insulted Chiyoko, calling her "Japanese Communist Party!"
Harada's mother said this to her child Harada.
She said, ''Don't meet Chiyoko!'' ''Don't come close to being a communist!'' ''If she becomes red, she will be arrested by the police''.
However, Harada liked Chiyoko.

Chiyoko was the only member of the Harada family who slept until noon.

In the 1980s, Chiyoko was asked by Harada to be an advisor for ''Death lullaby''. Chiyoko was in charge of providing English translation advice, supporting Kiryu's location scouting, and explaining Kiryu's history.
Chiyoko saw the ''kokeshi dolls'' that appear in ''Death lullaby'' and advised Harada, ''Know the history of kokeshi dolls before expressing them.''
In the past, in poor rural Japan, children were sometimes killed even when they were born.
In Terayama's ''Den-en ni shisu (Death in the Country)'', there is a scene in which a woman in a red kimono throws her newborn child into a river.
This is called "Mabiki".
Due to poverty, her parents killed their own child, and instead they made a wooden doll called a ''kokeshi doll'' to replace the child.
However, now many people are unaware of Japan's negative history. We can't find it even after searching on the internet.

When Harada was a lecturer at an art school, he gave the same advice that Chiyoko had given to a student who had used kokeshi dolls as a design motif.

The current actual place name is ''桐生(Kiryu)'', but Kiryukan is written as ''霧生(Kiryu)''.
Chiyoko explains, ''Due to its topographical conditions, Kiryu experiences fog(霧) in the morning and evening, so in the past, it was called ''霧生市(Kiryu City)'' for a short period of time.
Even if I look into this now, it is difficult to find any literature stating this fact. To begin with, many of Japan's official documents were burned during World War II.
''霧生館(Kiryukan)'' is actually quoted from Chiyoko's historical commentary.

“Aunty in her youth” (illustrated by Hiroshi Harada)

postscript:She was single all her life.