Yuichi’s Biological Mother Character Analysis in Kitchen

Eriko’s late wife, who was Eriko’s foster sister. Yuichi’s biological mother ran off with Eriko when they were teenagers, and she gave birth to Yuichi soon after. Yuichi’s biological mother died of cancer when Yuichi was a baby, which accounts for Eriko’s profound understanding of bereavement. Eriko begins her transition to a woman after Yuichi’s biological mother dies.

Yuichi’s Biological Mother Quotes in Kitchen

The Kitchen quotes below are all either spoken by Yuichi’s Biological Mother or refer to Yuichi’s Biological Mother . 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:

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Grove Press edition of Kitchen published in 2006.

I realized that the world did not exist for my benefit. It followed that the ratio of pleasant to unpleasant things around me would not change. It wasn’t up to me. It was clear that the best thing to do was to adopt a sort of muddled cheerfulness.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 81

Explanation and Analysis:

Yuichi’s Biological Mother Character Timeline in Kitchen

The timeline below shows where the character Yuichi’s Biological Mother appears in Kitchen. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Yuichi explains that Eriko eloped with Yuichi’s biological mother —a strange-looking woman with short hair—when they were young. Before that, they had grown up... (full context)

...watering the plants, looking “thrillingly beautiful” in the light. She talked about the time when Yuichi’s biological mother was dying of cancer and wanted a plant to connect her with light and the... (full context)