Kafka on the Shore
by Haruki Murakami
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Setsuko Okamochi teaches elementary school. During the war, children from Tokyo were temporarily relocated into Setsuko’s class in the countryside, where it was safer. Nakata was one of those students. Setsuko remains shaken by the accident that rendered Nakata unconscious, known as the “Rice Bowl Hill Incident.” She reveals in a letter to Dr. Nakazawa that she feels guilty because she believes that the strange incident was somehow related to a sexual dream she had had the night before.

Setsuko Okamochi Quotes in Kafka on the Shore

The Kafka on the Shore quotes below are all either spoken by Setsuko Okamochi or refer to Setsuko Okamochi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Mind vs. The Body Theme Icon
).

Chapter 12 Quotes

I didn’t cry at all. I already knew that somewhere, on some distant battlefield, my husband would lose his life. Ever since the year before, when all those things I just wrote about took place—that erotic dream my period starting ahead of time, hitting Nakata, the children falling into that mysterious coma—I’d accepted my husband’s death as inevitable, as something fated to be. So news of his death merely confirmed what I already knew.

Related Characters: Setsuko Okamochi (speaker)
Page Number and Citation: 103-104
Explanation and Analysis:
Setsuko writes a letter to a psychology professor, amending her previous statements about the Rice Bowl Hill incident. In fact, Setsuko is wracked with guilt about what happened that day, as well as her failure to tell the whole story afterwards. Setsuko believes that she is somehow responsible for the mysterious coma-like condition that befell the children because of an intense erotic dream she had about her husband the night before. Like many characters in the novel, Setsuko feels responsible for the contents of her dreams. Furthermore, Setsuko connects her sense of guilt about the erotic dream to her husband’s Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut
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Setsuko Okamochi Character Timeline in Kafka on the Shore

The timeline below shows where the character Setsuko Okamochi appears in Kafka on the Shore. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
The Mind vs. The Body Theme Icon
...“Rice Bowl Hill Incident” of 1944. Lt. O’Connor notes that his interview subject, the schoolteacher Setsuko Okamochi, seems intelligent and responsible, but also still traumatized by the incident. (full context)
Fate and Prophecy Theme Icon
In the interview, Setsuko recalls that on the morning of the incident she and her students observed a bright... (full context)
The Virtues of Self-Sufficiency Theme Icon
At Lt. O’Connor’s request, Setsuko then tells the story of the day of the incident. On the morning of the... (full context)
The Mind vs. The Body Theme Icon
Soon after Setsuko and the children stopped to pick mushrooms, the children began to collapse. They seemed to... (full context)
Chapter 12
The Mind vs. The Body Theme Icon
In a letter dated October 19, 1972, Setsuko Okamochi makes a confession to a psychology professor who participated in the military investigation into... (full context)
The Mind vs. The Body Theme Icon
Just as Setsuko reached the top of the hill with the children, she realized that her period had... (full context)
The Mind vs. The Body Theme Icon
One of the children, Nakata, approached Setsuko with something in his hands: one of the bloody towels Setsuko had used to clean... (full context)
The Mind vs. The Body Theme Icon
Fate and Prophecy Theme Icon
Setsuko writes that she never found out what happened to Nakata after the incident. Previously, Nakata... (full context)