The Meiji Era Without Literacy—Yoshitaro 4: Family Structure ① Certified Copy of Removed Family Register

　Set in a farming village in Kagoshima during the mid-Showa period, I have been chronicling the lives of ordinary people, focusing on the life story of Miyo (my mother), who was born in Showa 5 (1930). However, under the new title "The Meiji Era Without Literacy—Yoshitaro," I have begun writing about Yoshitaro (my grandfather), Miyo's father-in-law.

　In the previous section and the section before that of the Yoshitaro series (?), I wrote about the theme of Yoshitaro's date of birth—February 13, Meiji 13 (1880).

　People are born alone (though twins or multiple births do occur occasionally), but it is only through the chain of life—parents, and their parents before them—that we receive life in this world. Who were Yoshitaro's parents, and what was his family structure?

　In truth, as his granddaughter, I (Fumiyo) had never thought about this question very deeply. In family conversations, names like "Grandpa So-and-so" or "Uncle Such-and-such" would come up occasionally—or rather, frequently. Many of these names were known to us children as real people living in our village or nearby, but some were people we recognized, even as children, as "relatives who had already passed away."

　However, I did not clearly understand the specific relationships (kinship) between them, and I never felt inclined to ask my father in detail about his own grandfather's parents or siblings. It wasn't so much that I wasn't interested, but rather that, with a child's sensibility, "there were too many people to keep track of." Or perhaps I just had a premonition that it would be overwhelming.

　Rather than asking about such troublesome (?) matters, I had plenty of things I wanted to do and learn that were appropriate for my age, and even in a small village, there were more than enough adults I knew. Moreover, a significant number of them were also relatives.

　However, I did grow up with a strong awareness of my great-grandmother, Yoshitaro's mother. This is because she lived to be over 100, which was rare at the time, and she was often a topic of conversation among family, relatives, and neighbors. Above all, there was a photograph of her from her 100th birthday celebration <233>.

　As for my relationships with other relatives, I had only recognized them to the extent that it didn't interfere with my daily life. But after I started writing Miyo's life story, I wanted to confirm their birth and death dates and the relationships between relatives, so I decided to obtain the old family registers. Thus, during my visit home in February of last year (2023), I applied for and received several certified copies of removed family registers for both my mother's (Miyo) side and my father's (Tsugio) side at the local municipal office.

　The "family structure" I am about to write about is based on those documents.

<233> Regarding this long-lived grandmother, who was affectionately known in the neighborhood as "Hyaku-baba" (Grandma Hundred), I wrote about her in the episode around the time Miyo gave birth to me in "Eighty-six (Hyaku-baba)."