Asa Hagiwara born May 13 1912 into country samurai family in Kamiyama Village in the mountains of Niigata Prefecture. Married Kishiro Hagiwara, company director (known by his associates and colleagues as ‘the last samurai’) in 1938 in Tokyo. Gave birth to: First son, Kiyotada; daughter, Masako; second son, Koki; third son, Toshichika (deceased). Now living in old folks’ home in Tokyo.
from son-in-law poet & writer Malcolm Ritchie from Arran Islands, Scotland:
"I enclose a photo of okasan (mother), my mother-in-law, with her children scattered like chicks around her."
"I enclose a photo of okasan (mother), my mother-in-law, with her children scattered like chicks around her."
after one hundred years of earthquakes, wars, and tsunami,
and bearing the lives of four beings –
okasan is still here
so is Mount Fuji!
~
how do one hundred years sleep
in such a small bed
photo & poems © c/o malcolm ritchie
