Nutmeg Character Analysis in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Nutmeg is a former fashion designer who now works as a spiritual healer. She helps wealthy women who feel emptiness in their hearts find a way to experience happiness. She started this business after her husband was brutally and mysteriously murdered. Nutmeg recruits Toru to help her with her business after she notices the mysterious mark on his face. Nutmeg is kind to Toru, and the two of them become good friends for the time that they work together.

Nutmeg Quotes in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle quotes below are all either spoken by Nutmeg or refer to Nutmeg. 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:

Reality and Subjective Experience Theme Icon

Part of my consciousness is still there as an empty house. At the same time, I am still here, on this sofa, as me. I think, What should I do now? I can’t decide which one is reality. Little by little, the word ‘here’ seems to split in two inside me. I am here, but I am also here. Both seem equally real to me.

Related Characters: Toru Okada (speaker), Nutmeg

Page Number and Citation: 369

Explanation and Analysis:

Whether by chance conjunction or not, the ‘wind-up bird’ was a powerful presence in Cinnamon’s story. The cry of this bird was audible only to certain special people, who were guided by it toward inescapable ruin.

Related Characters: Toru Okada (speaker), Cinnamon, Noboru Wataya, Creta Kano, Malta Kano, Nutmeg

Related Symbols: The Wind-Up Bird

Page Number and Citation: 525

Explanation and Analysis:

It took me a while to absorb these facts. The images from the TV news I had seen in the hotel lobby were still too vividly burned into my brain—Noboru Wataya’s office in Akasaka, the police all over the place […]. Little by little, though, I was able to convince myself that what I had seen was news that existed only in the other world. I had not, in actuality, in this world, beaten Noboru Wataya with a baseball bat.

Related Characters: Toru Okada (speaker), Noboru Wataya, Cinnamon, Nutmeg

Page Number and Citation: 598

Explanation and Analysis:

Nutmeg Character Timeline in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The timeline below shows where the character Nutmeg appears in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

On the eighth day of Toru’s people-watching routine, a woman (later revealed to be Nutmeg) who previously stopped and conversed with Toru months ago sits down to talk with him.... (full context)

Toru successfully locates the workplace of the women (Nutmeg) he encountered while people-watching the other day. The workplace is called Akasaka Fashion Design. A... (full context)

...his usual people-watching spot. The woman who directed him to the office the previous day (Nutmeg) shows up again. Curious, Toru follows her into a taxi. They stop at a boutique,... (full context)

...does not say why. Then, the woman properly introduces herself to Toru. Her name is Nutmeg Akasaka. Her son, she says, is called Cinnamon Akasaka. (full context)

Nutmeg and Toru eat dinner together. During dinner, Nutmeg begins recounting harrowing tales from her childhood... (full context)

In this second recollection, Nutmeg describes Japanese soldiers traversing a zoo in Manchukuo, executing animals before the impending Soviet takeover.... (full context)

In Nutmeg’s memory, the soldiers start shooting the most dangerous animals, beginning with the tigers. After shooting... (full context)

As Nutmeg concludes her story, she acknowledges that the memory feels almost unreal. However, she is confident... (full context)

Nutmeg continues her story of the zoo massacre. The massacre ends with the Chinese assuming control... (full context)

Over the following weeks, Nutmeg and Toru continue having regular dinner meetings. Every time they meet, they engage in open... (full context)

At one dinner, Nutmeg returns to talking about her transport ship. She recalls sleeping deeply as the American Navy... (full context)

Nutmeg discloses to Toru that her son, Cinnamon, stopped speaking shortly before his sixth birthday. Despite... (full context)

At one of their meals together, Nutmeg tells Toru that she decided to educate Cinnamon herself. Although Cinnamon didn’t speak, he excelled... (full context)

Nutmeg suspects that Cinnamon’s loss of speech may be because he became too obsessed with the... (full context)

Before meeting Toru, Nutmeg had an unusual job that involved providing services to affluent women who felt like something... (full context)

Nutmeg and her mother fled from Manchuria to Japan at the end of World War II... (full context)

At the age of 27, Nutmeg encountered her future husband, who was also a fashion designer. They got married in 1963... (full context)

In 1975, tragedy struck when someone brutally murdered Nutmeg’s husband in a hotel room. The killer mutilated his body and removed his organs. The... (full context)

During her mourning period, Nutmeg discovered an unusual ability, which manifested when she was conversing with the wife of a... (full context)

Astonishingly, the massage alleviated the woman’s headache. A month later, the woman contacted Nutmeg and invited her to lunch, specifically requesting another temple massage. While massaging the woman, Nutmeg... (full context)

...specifically ones about Manchukuo. He wants to know more about the history that Mamiya and Nutmeg started to reveal to him. He learns that, in the 1920s, Japan initiated research and... (full context)

Nutmeg visits Toru at the Residence and informs him about the second article in the ongoing... (full context)

Nutmeg raises a valid point about the potential violation of privacy for their clients due to... (full context)

...to suspect that the chronicle is a collection of stories that Cinnamon created. Recognizing that Nutmeg couldn’t have known all the details about her father’s experiences, Toru concludes that the stories... (full context)

Toru thinks about the striking similarities between himself and Nutmeg’s father in chronicle eight. Both characters bear a mark on their faces, have encountered or... (full context)

Toru waits for several days but never hears from Cinnamon or Nutmeg. Without them in his life, Toru’s motivation to venture into the well diminishes. The lack... (full context)

Toru awakens to the soothing sound of Nutmeg’s voice. She explains that Cinnamon managed to rescue him from the well and treat his... (full context)

When Toru wakes up, Nutmeg informs him that she will likely sell the Residence within the next month. However, she... (full context)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Nutmeg Character Analysis

Nutmeg Quotes in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Book 3, Chapter 4 Quotes

Book 3, Chapter 27 Quotes

Book 3, Chapter 36 Quotes

Nutmeg Character Timeline in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle