Saori Lin Sumisu

Saori at 16 years old, standing at her home's garden gate.

Saori as a bride

Saori and Hidetarō after their wedding

Saori as a married woman

Saori Lin Sumisu (Japanese: スミス 咲織リン, Sumisu Saoririn) is an American girl, a pure-blood descendant of American tourists stranded in the small Shikoku resort area of Nishiiya (formerly the village of Nishiiyayama, a part of the current city of Miyoshi in Tokushima Prefecture, and located in the Iya Valley) during the 2020 "Plague", in Timeline 1287 Left Sub 6. She is a principal character in the sequel to The Tale of the Crane Princess, An American in Iya; she is the first person to meet an investigating squad of Japanese troops because she is encountered while picking flowers outside the town gate on the road into town.

She was born in June 2205, third of (eventually) five siblings (three sisters -- two older, one younger -- and one brother, younger). She is 16 years old when an advance unit of the Imabari Battalion pushes into Nishiiya in 2221, and discovers about 1,500 people still living there -- Japanese, Americans, and some American-Japanese. The total population of Americans and American/Japanese is somewhere around 10%, or between 120 and 150. (The population growth rate was about 1% per year, and they count either eight or nine generations since the Plague.)

Saori speaks fluent Japanese (Awa dialect), pretty good English, and a little Russian and Korean.

She is 165cm (5'5") tall and weighs about 55kg (121lbs). She is slender and has a medium bust.

Before going to Purdue University in Timeline Zero for a year in 2223, she marries her childhood friend Kaneshiro Hidetarō (see below).

General information about Nishiiya and the plot that needs its own page

Because I have not yet written an entry for Nishiiya, the permanent population in 2020 was probably less than 1,500 prior to the Plague, and probably less than 200 afterwards. (A census of the Nishiiyayamamura, or Nishiiya Mountain Village -- a part of Miyoshi City in Tokushima Prefecture -- taken on 1 Oct 2005 counted only 1,605 individuals, and the Japanese Wikipedia page for the village states, 「高齢化率が高く、将来の大幅人口減が予測されている。根本的な対策が早急に望まれる」,"The aging rate is high, and a significant population decline is predicted in the future. Fundamental measures are urgently needed.")

There were perhaps 15-20 surviving American tourists (all adults, and all under 50 years old) after the worst of the Plague burned out. Perhaps half of the women were young enough to bear children. Typically the "mixed" children in the town 200 years later were the offspring of the other women's husbands or domestic partners. And yes, that was a problem until it was sorted out. The bottom line is that Nishiiya was a very small area in a difficult-to-access region of Shikoku and its inhabitants were able to avoid detection as long as they did due to their isolation.

The consensus seems to be that there is no way in Japanese to say "real Japanese" or "real American", so like as not I will use アメリカ人 amerikajin, to refer to the "pure" Americans and some other nomenclature for the mixed American-Japanese -- probably ハーフ, hāfu, for the first generation, クォーター, kwōtā, for the second generation where only one grandparent is American (or Japanese), and ダブル, daburu (double), for any other mixture. In fairness daburu could be used for any of them, and is considered a more positive term to begin with.

In 2221 there are once again about 1,500 inhabitants of the district, and about 100 of them are "pure" amerikajin. Despite that, the "pure" amerikajin are coming close to being dangerously inbred, and it is thought the days of the "pure" marrying the "pure" are coming to an end.

The town proper is small but there are a lot of "Nishiiyamamura" districts surrounding it, including Nishiiyayamamura Ichiu (西祖谷山村一宇) where the town proper is located; "Nishiiyayamamura" itself means "Nishiiya Mountain Village" and comprises the "village" that was absorbed into Miyoshi City as a district in 2006. The local municipal branch office is named the Miyoshi City [Hall] Nishiiya Branch (三好市 西祖谷支所) and from that I infer that the little town where Saori and her family live is at least nominally called, simply, "Nishiiya".

Interesting that they do not grow rice in the Iya Valley. "Since rice can’t be grown on the steep hillsides of Iya and its surrounding region, a unique, sustainable form of organic agriculture was developed using wild grass as mulch. In place of rice, various grains and tubers are grown, and they still form a delicious part of the local diet. Sweet river fish, and wild meats such as venison and boar are also on the menu." There is more information about foods grown and available in the Iya Valley in its Wikipedia article, and this series of slides about steep-slope cultivation in Nishi-Awa is also interesting, if discussing an area farther to the north-east on Shikoku. I imagine similar techniques must be used in the Iya Valley, for the same reason of it being nearly impossible to terrace the steep mountainsides for rice paddies.

A map of the general area around Nishiiya is here: https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8924476,133.8166739,722m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

Another, official GSI map, is here: https://maps.gsi.go.jp/#17/33.893159/133.816738/&base=std&ls=std&disp=1&vs=c1g1j0h0k0l0u0t0z0r0s0m0f1

There is a cemetery on the SW side of the town that appears to belong to the Kamikita Family (上北家, kamikita-ka). There are a bunch of cemeteries on the mountain west of town behind the car dealership across the road from the hot springs hotel, too. And looking at the photomap, it's clear there are cemeteries all over the town; you just have to know what you're looking at from above. Japanese cemeteries are rather distinctive in their layout.

Name

Her name is an attempt to reconcile "Sally Lynn Smith" into something Japanese people can write and pronounce. Saori is a legitimate Japanese name that sounds close to "Sally" (see https://japanese-names.info/first-name/saori/). The two kanji making up the name are listed in Henshall's A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters as follows:

咲 1303 "general use" (Henshall) or "secondary school" (Jōyō kanji list) saku, bloom or blossom (p. 416)

織 720 "fifth grade" SHOKU, SHIKI, oru, weave (p. 224)

(In The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary, 咲 is index 310, and 織 is index 1295. See also 咲 at https://www.japandict.com/kanji/%E5%92%B2 and 織 at https://www.japandict.com/kanji/%E7%B9%94)

According to Japanese-Names.info (see link above), 咲 means "to blossom, bloom, or flourish" and 織 means "to weave, fabricate, or knit". The first character can also have the meaning "To reveal or expand something that was previously hidden or closed," which is appropriate since the American descendants in this town have been in hiding for nearly two centuries; and their desire is to "knit" themselves with the community that saved them, as well as expressing their wish someday to be reunited with their relatives back home.

"Smith" is her original family name, of course. Her parents names are 波梁, Harī (father) and 苑香, Sonoko (mother). This was as close as their parents could come to "Harry" and "Sonya".

Even though the Americans tend to remain pure blooded and want to name their children using American names, they still wish to respect their hosts and name their children such that at least the first given names can be written in kanji.

And because of the way Japanese names are entered on family registers, Saori's "official" name becomes 咲織リン, Saoririn, since Japanese don't use middle names. But she goes by and is known generally as simply, "Saori". Some of her school friends who call her by her given name may use the nickname "Saorin" (咲おりん, or さおりん if they don't know the kanji). Otherwise she is either Sumisu-san or Sumisu-chan, depending on who is talking. The usual "-senpai", "-kohai", "-chan", and "-san" suffixes are used following "Saori" by the usual suspects (except see Kaneshiro Hidetarō, below). Her younger sister and brother call her "onēsan," same as they do their other two older sisters.

Other Family Tidbits

The Sumisu (Smith) family is originally from "a town called 'Uesutofaretto'". Or something like that. Somewhere in the United States. Saori doesn't know the actual name because she only knows it in katakana, plus, the pronunciation has slipped in 200 years. Her progenitors "were supposedly both teachers at a college. Or one was a teacher and the other worked for an engineering firm.  It's hazy that far back, because nobody really started writing any of it down until about a hundred years ago."

Of course, I know her progenitors were

professors at Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Indiana, and one of them had come to Purdue from NASA

...but I'm not going to say so right out, at least not at the point in the story where Saori is first talking about it.

Siblings

桜愛, Hana (eldest sister) (Hannah); 19 years old. She graduated from the local high school at 18 and immediately began working at the local junior high school as a Japanese-language instructor.

栄実, Ema (2nd sister) (Emma); 17 years old. A third-year at the local high school. Is interested in cooking (is an excellent cook) and serving food. Works part time as a waitress at a local cafe. Is going to start learning the kitchen side after she graduates.

暁藍, Aran (brother) (Aaron); 13 years old. A first-year at the local junior high school. Is something of a delinquent who needs guidance. He may get it if a unit of the Mishikubu is instituted in Nishiiya.

真夜, Maya (3rd sister, youngest) (Maya); 12 years old. A sixth-grader at the local elementary school. Is learning piano.

Other Relationships

Hidetarō and Saori, at some point

Hidetarō Kaneshiro (Japanese: 兼城 秀多朗, Kaneshiro Hidetarō) is a childhood friend who was also friends with Hana and Ema in school. He is Hana's age. Though technically he is Saori's senpai, and not her boyfriend, she calls him familiarly by his given name with the honorific -kun, because they have been friends ever since they can remember. (Hana and Ema do so as well, for the same reason). The Kaneshiro family live "a couple of doors down" from the Sumisus. And he calls her Saori-chan, again, for the same reason, though most of the time both of them omit the honorifics. Hidetarō, like Hana, has graduated from high school, and works with the municipal forestry crew which is responsible for keeping bamboo from growing out of the roads and keeping kudzu off the power lines, power poles, and cellular tower maintained by the town. The forestry crew also is responsible for maintaining any other plant growth around the town and at the hydroelectric dams that encroaches on the public right of way. So he keeps busy.

Hideyoshi Kaneshiro (Japanese: 兼城 秀良, Kaneshiro Hideyoshi) is Hidetarō's father. He is Director of the Nishiiya Hydropower Commission, and in charge of the two nearby dams that, along with their hydropower generating stations, electrify Nishiiya -- the Wakamiyatani Dam just north of town, and the Deai Intake Dam in the Iya River, about half a kilometer north of where the Wakamiyatani River empties into the Iya River. He also has some control over the waterworks, since they are in part fed by the reservoir behind the Wakamiyatani Dam. He is a talented, locally-trained civil engineer, and is quite fond of Saori, whom he believes would make a good wife/partner for his eldest son, Hidetarō.

Akako Kitagawa, at Purdue University in Timeline Zero, in 2224.

Akako Kitagawa (Japanese: 喜多川 紅子, Kitagawa Akako) is a year older than Saori. She comes from a broken family, living with her father, younger sister, and younger brother, in an older but palatial home in the hills west of Nishiiya proper. Her father comes from a long line of fruit farmers and distillery operators, and sadly is an alcoholic who made life for his much younger wife hell until she fled, leaving the children behind. When we meet Akako, she is a junior (2nd year) in the local high school, and she is a known delinquent. Which is unfortunate, because she is very, very smart. Before she and Saori meet up, she is the aspiring sukeban onna-banchō (delinquent girl boss) of the local girl gang. After she is defeated in a hand-to-hand demonstration fight with Captain Mase of the JIDF, at the first organizational meeting of the mishikubu group at the school, and has a meeting with Higashikuni Tsurue, wife of the JIDF colonel in charge of pacifying Shikoku, she decides to reform herself, and becomes friends with Saori not long after. Her abusive father winds up arrested and removed from his parental role by the local town council, and Akako is deemed his heir, becoming (much to her chagrin) the owner of the distillery. She becomes a tutorial student of Yukiko Yamaguchi, along with Saori, as the two girls prepare for graduation and application to Kyoto University's engineering program.