Fifty Words for Rain

It is autumn of 1951, and Akira is furious when he learns that Yuko has sent Nori away to a brothel. Yuko refuses to tell him Nori’s location. Akiko doesn’t know where Nori is, either.

Yuko sold Nori to a brothel connected to the Kamizas. Kiyomi, one of the strangers who took Nori from the estate, is in charge of running the business and training the girls. Kiyomi wishes that she felt no sympathy for Nori, but she does. When she tells Nori that her grandmother sold her to them, Nori is impassive; she says she will obey the rules and do what Kiyomi asks. Nori doesn’t know that her grandfather owns the establishment. Due to Nori’s relatively privileged upbringing, she is given special status—she doesn’t have to sleep with the clients. She is purely an entertainer and plays the violin for the men who come to the brothel.

Kiyomi meets with Nori regularly to educate her in the skills she will need at the brothel. Nori studies poetry and practices tea ceremonies. In her free time, she seeks solace in the garden by the brothel; here, she meets Miyuki, another girl from the brothel, and the two become fast friends.