November 1857
Hide-chan walks carefully. Pretty kimono with long sleeves, pretty geta, and pretty hair! It’s like being a princess! I’m going to twirl!
Masa smiles at her daughter. Yesterday she had her first session with the hairdresser, who struggled to contain the wild hair that seemed to go with the Yagi family – that bit of a wave that defied being put into a proper hairstyle. But Hide-chan endured it all, and Masa gave her a new hairpin to celebrate Shichi-Go-San. And this morning she twirled and twirled in her new kimono, not minding that it was longer and she could no longer move like a child.
Other families walked with them to the temple, for today was an important day. It didn’t seem that long ago that Hide-chan was only three, still with a baby face with fat cheeks and a pouty expression. That year, her father carried her proudly and Masa had been expecting another child.
But in four years there had been three losses – two late, one early. And combined with the two before Hide… the chances that the Yagi family would have a son this generation dimmed. Masa tried to bear the weight gracefully, but she was alarmed at how people were already approaching her husband regarding adoptions, and setting a betrothal for Hide-chan.