Time Within Memory
(Seigen-ki)

As he left the country thirty years ago, Minoru only has vague memories of his mother who died at a very young age on the island of Okinoerabu, in Japan’s extreme south. He goes there looking for memories. He meets an old man who was once very much in love with his mother. He can still hear the music he played the day he proposed to the young woman, upon which she strongly rejected him. Minoru suddenly remembers those days: how beautiful and young his mother was! He then remembers his childhood with her: their arrivai on the island, their harsh life in poverty and sickness, their peaceful happiness and the affection of the villagers in the mild climate of the island. Finally, he remembers that winter day when his mother took him to the coral reef so that they played in the waves and the fishing party when she drowned. Minoru stands by his mother’s tomb. He takes her ashes in his hands and carresses them, as if to catch up with everything that time and memory erase.