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Etsuko is Mozasu’s girlfriend after Yumi’s death, when Solomon is a teenager. Etsuko, a native of Hokkaido, is divorced and owns a restaurant in Yokohama. Before meeting Mozasu, Etsuko engaged in a series of affairs and fears that her three children, especially Hana, will never escape the shame she’s brought on them. At the same time, she repeatedly turns down marriage proposals from Mozasu because she doesn’t want to further shame her family with ties to Korean pachinko. Nevertheless, Solomon loves her as a maternal figure, and she stays faithful to Mozasu. Hana, who struggles with drinking and engages in degrading sex work, has a stormy relationship with Etsuko and runs away for several years, but Etsuko hires an investigator to track her down, and they are reconciled before Hana dies of AIDS.
Etsuko Nagatomi Quotes in Pachinko
The Pachinko quotes below are all either spoken by Etsuko Nagatomi or refer to Etsuko Nagatomi. 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:
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Book 3, Chapter 9 Quotes
“It is hopeless. I cannot change his fate. He is Korean. He has to get those papers, and he has to follow all the steps of the law perfectly. Once, at a ward office, a clerk told me that I was a guest in his country.”
“You and Solomon were born here.”
“Yes, my brother, Noa, was born here, too. And now he is dead.” Mozasu covered his face with his hands.
Etsuko sighed.
“Anyway, the clerk was not wrong. And this is something Solomon must understand. We can be deported. We have no motherland. Life is full of things he cannot control so he must adapt. My boy has to survive.”
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Book 3, Chapter 11 Quotes
Why did her family think pachinko was so terrible? Her father, a traveling salesman, had sold expensive life insurance policies to isolated housewives who couldn’t afford them, and Mozasu created spaces where grown men and women could play pinball for money. Both men had made money from chance and fear and loneliness. Every morning, Mozasu and his men tinkered with the machines to fix the outcomes—there could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. How could you get angry at the ones who wanted to be in the game? Etsuko had failed in this important way—she had not taught her children to hope, to believe in the perhaps absurd possibility that they might win. Pachinko was a foolish game, but life was not.
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Etsuko Nagatomi Character Timeline in Pachinko
The timeline below shows where the character Etsuko Nagatomi appears in Pachinko. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 3, Chapter 9
In 1979, Mozasu’s girlfriend, Etsuko, a 42-year-old divorcee and restaurant owner, is preparing for Solomon’s birthday party. She returns a...
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In her native Hokkaido, while her children were in school, Etsuko had begun a series of affairs with men she’d dated in high school. Eventually, her...
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Mozasu picks up Etsuko so that they can take Solomon to get his alien registration card. Like all Koreans...
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...to the clerk. The clerk just smirks that “Koreans don’t have kings anymore.” This riles Etsuko’s temper, but Mozasu restrains her. While Solomon gets his papers, Mozasu sadly reflects that he...
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Book 3, Chapter 10
On the way home, Solomon and Hana meet for the first time at Etsuko’s restaurant, and Solomon invites Hana to his birthday party. When Hana comments on the luxurious...
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Etsuko and Hana have an argument. Etsuko tells Hana about the scheduled abortion and says that...
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Book 3, Chapter 11
As they watch the children enjoying Solomon’s birthday concert, Etsuko wonders why her family looks down on pachinko so much. Her father had sold pricy...
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Late that night, as Etsuko and Solomon talk about the party, Etsuko washes the ink out from under Solomon’s fingernails;...
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Book 3, Chapter 13
...martyrdom, but many Japanese think of Christianity as a cult. Hana has been staying with Etsuko, but she doesn’t have much to do except follow Solomon around. Solomon feels both excited...
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Book 3, Chapter 15
...New York, where he’s attending Columbia University. She works as a hostess and prostitute, and Etsuko hasn’t been able to track her down. Solomon loves his current girlfriend, Phoebe, but it’s...
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Eventually, Etsuko’s investigator tracks down Hana working at a toruko, a place where women bathe men for...
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Book 3, Chapter 18
...was filled with American furniture when he was a kid, has now been redecorated by Etsuko to look like a “glamorous Buddhist temple.” When they visit Solomon’s family, Phoebe speaks Korean...
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Book 3, Chapter 21
...with Japan’s historical evils. Many of the most significant people in Solomon’s life have been Japanese—Etsuko, Hana, and Haruki. In a way, he feels Japanese himself; there’s “more to being something...
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