Thousand Cranes

Kikuji attends Miss Kurimoto's tea ceremony lesson, alongside Yukiko Inamura and the widow Mrs. Ota with her daughter Fumiko. He remembers his father's affair with Miss Kurimoto and the large naevus he once saw on her chest. Miss Kurimoto disparages Mrs. Ota while quietly trying to awaken Kikuji's interest in Miss Inamura.

Kikuji and Mrs. Ota share a passionate night, and he wonders if she sees his father in him. The aftermath deepens his ambivalence toward both women and their intertwined histories. The encounter leaves him unsettled and reflective.

Mrs. Ota visits again after a long pause, and Kikuji learns that Fumiko had tried to keep her from meeting him. The revelation reveals the protective lengths Fumiko goes to for her mother's reputation. The episode further entangles their relationships.

Despite a deep sense of shame, Mrs. Ota sleeps with Kikuji again. The liaison further complicates his feelings toward both women and their fragile moral codes.

Late that night, Fumiko calls to tell him that her mother has committed suicide. Kikuji agrees to help Fumiko cover up the death to protect her reputation.

Miss Kurimoto keeps intruding on Kikuji's life, speaking badly of Mrs. Ota while prompting thoughts of Miss Inamura. Kikuji rebuffs her, saying he is not interested in the young pupil.

Fumiko leaves two gifts for Kikuji: a shino ware jar from her mother and, later, a shino tea bowl bearing an unremovable trace of lipstick. The items force Kikuji to confront the memory of the women and the power of objects to carry memory.

Kikuji begins to develop an interest in Fumiko, wondering if he can see her mother in her. The lingering tokens and the history between them pull him toward a dangerous attachment.

Returning from a trip to Lake Nojiri, Miss Kurimoto informs him that Miss Inamura and Fumiko have allegedly married other men. Fumiko soon rings to reveal that this was a lie and that she will start a job and move into a flat farther away. The false report unsettles Kikuji's sense of reality.

That evening, Fumiko visits and insists that her mother's tea bowl is of little value and should be destroyed. Kikuji places his father's tea bowl next to Mrs. Ota's, and both recognize these vessels as the ones their parents drank from during the affair.

Later, Fumiko shatters her mother's bowl on a stone plate, an act charged with guilt and upheaval. The moment intensifies the rift between Kikuji and Fumiko.

Kikuji and Fumiko spend the night together again, deepening their complicated bond. The night underscores the inescapable link between desire, memory, and the shadows of the past.

The next day, Kikuji tries to ring Fumiko at her workplace but she hasn't appeared. He goes to her new flat and learns that she has announced a holiday with a friend.

Kikuji contemplates whether Fumiko has followed her mother's fate and may have committed suicide. The question hovers over their affair as the story ends with uncertainty.