Forged In Fire: Stories of wartime Japan

Childhood (Part 3)

Aside from being a rebel, Auntie was smart and clever. Using little more than her imagination and a cloth tape, Auntie would take my measurements, sit down on the tatami and start drawing on a large piece of paper, designing her own clothing patterns.  When she was really concentrating, her leg would bounce around.  She had the amazing ability to replicate outfits that she had seen in movies and liked to make dresses for me in the style of the actress, Shirley Temple, with short skirts with puffy sleeves.  

With her Singer sewing machine, Auntie would spend hours making clothes for us.  The machine was mounted on a tabletop and was operated with foot pedals.  Many years later, I bought myself a sewing machine and taught myself how to sew using paper patterns just like Auntie.

Auntie once designed a sailor outfit for herself out of white, denim-like material.  The pants were flared with a flap in front and three buttons down each side of the flap.  The top had a v-neck with blue and white piping along the edges.  Auntie wore the outfit around town as she ran errands.  Other women would stare at her in shock because women did not wear trousers in those days.

Auntie also did embroidery and once created an outfit for me that earned me the nickname, kirin from my schoolmates:  a yellow blouse with red stars embroidered on it and a short skirt with a brown, spotted print and suspenders.  

Around Christmastime, Auntie would make cloth Santa Claus ornaments with flaps over the bellies.  She would tuck candies inside pockets that were hidden under the flaps and hang them from a tree.  She also wrote poetry that later inspired me to write poetry of my own, one of which I had illustrated with a drawing of blue iris flowers.

The arrival of the New Year is the biggest holiday event in Japan. During the first seven days of January, no one works and all stores are closed.  Families prepare months in advance and work hard so they can relax and enjoy seven days of leisure.

Grandmother was always in charge of cleaning our futon. I was amazed at how such a tiny woman could take on the task of undoing the stitches of every futon in the house and getting them cleaned inside and out.  Each person's futon had three layers: one that is placed on the floor; one that covers the body and one that is placed on top like a comforter.  Grandmother would wash, dry and iron the outer coverings and then take the inner cotton filling to the cleaners.  When she returned with the clean cotton fillings, she would place them back into their coverings and then stitch the futon back together.

Tatami workers were hired to replace the flooring. When tatami gets old, it becomes yellow.  New tatami are lime-green in color and smell like fresh straw.

Sadakazu's job was to remove the sliding shoji doors and take them outside to rinse them off with water.  He would remove the paper from the doors and replace them with new paper.  Sometimes he would attach dried leaves to the panels as decoration.

Auntie would knit winter leggings for us.  She once made a lined overcoat for me and attached a rabbit fur collar to keep my neck warm.  She also made beautiful paper flower balls that hung from the ceiling.  The balls were decorated with colorful tissue paper and filled with candy.  We would strike them with sticks until the candy fell out.

Every household would create a tiny shrine out of white paper and pine tree branches and tie it to the faucet with ribbon.  The shrine was a symbol of purification — new water for the New Year.  We would also take pine tree branches and stick them into a pot and place the pot outside our front door.

In addition to making a brand new kimono for me entirely by hand, Grandmother would spend days preparing the food that we would be eating during the first seven days of the New Year.  

Grandmother cooked and prepared a variety of dishes for us: gohan; clear shoyu-based broth with vegetables; small squares of hard mochi that would soften once added to soup; fire-roasted cod fish; sliced carrots and gobo root; thick pieces of konbu tied up into little bundles with thinly sliced strips of gourd; soup stock made with shoyu, konbu, bonito flakes and a little sugar; fresh spinach that had been steamed, cut and sprinkled with goma.  There was also plenty of mikan and senbei for snacking.  Using a seven-layered lacquered box, Grandmother would fill each layer with food.  Eating was definitely the best part of the New Year for all of us.