<Begin Segment 10>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: There were classes that students participated in voluntarily such as handicraft, ikebana, and cooking at Shintoku Jikka Girls' High School, weren't there? That was also...

AT: Cooking was a regular course.

TY: Oh, it was a regular course?

AT: A regular course. It was a regular course after school.

TY: Oh, I see. That was because they focused on raising the good wives and wise mothers at the girls' school, wasn't it?

AT: Yes, that's right.

TY: So back then, after graduating from girls' school, everybody, their goal was to get married after all, wasn't it?

AT: Yes, they would get married, right. If we were asked to sew at home, we sewed. In my town, there was a big kimono material and goods store called the Oshimo. The lady there liked me very much. After I graduated from school, she asked me what I was doing, so I said, "Oh, I am just sewing various things." Then she asked me if I could sew items to sell at her store. I said, "But, I can't receive money for what I do yet." "I'll pay you if it turns out nice, and I won't pay you if it doesn't turn out nice. Why don't you start for us?" At that time, I didn't know what to do. For the brides, when they had daughters married, they bought kimono from that kind of places -- everybody -- they would order one from the kimono materials and goods store, right? When she told me about that, I said, "No, Obachan, I can't do it. I can't make kimono that well," but she told me that I should give it a try regardless of the result since I had learned the basics. So I said that maybe I could try just once, and I tried. Then she liked it. I sewed it by hand. It was a layered one. Since my teacher taught me to wear two layers and lay one upon the other, and to sew little by little while holding them together, so I sewed it that way, then they told me that a customer was very happy with it. It was a tailor store called the Oshimo. The customer was happy. The store lady's name was Ms. Onao. Although she was the daughter of the family, she was adopted, an adopted daughter. She repeated that it would be nice if I could sew for their store. My mother, she said this and that to me, explaining that Ms. Onao asked me to sew their items. She said, "Why don't you sew for them? You are just playing at home and that doesn't take you anywhere," so I thought, "Maybe it is good for me," so "All right, why don't I," -- well, in English, it is the word 'try' -- "try?" I said. And, that was a one, two, a two-layered, and the customer liked it very much.

TY: So you got money.

AT: Yes, then they paid me all at once.

TY: I see.

AT: This way, I had allowance, right? Then I started wanting more and I didn't have to get from my mother any more.

TY: That's when you were in the girls' school.

AT: No, after I graduated.

TY: Oh, after you graduated.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.