Chapter 33 Summary and Analysis: The City and Its Uncertain Walls
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
Every three or four days, Mr. Koyasu visits the narrator in the head librarian’s office. He arrives quietly, wearing his signature navy-blue beret with a wraparound skirt and form-fitting black tights. Their conversations last about half an hour, always alone. When the narrator finally asks about his attire, Mr. Koyasu replies cheerfully that wearing a skirt makes him feel like a few lines of a beautiful poem. The narrator accepts this explanation without surprise.
The narrator has settled into a steady routine: work at the library, simple dinners, reading with scotch in his armchair, bed by ten. He sleeps deeply. In his free time, he walks along a river path that eventually turns into a dirt trail and ends in a broad meadow. There, surrounded by tall weeds and red dragonflies under a clear blue sky, he feels a deep, inexplicable sadness he remembers from long ago—a sadness that cannot be explained, that does not fade, and that leaves invisible wounds he cannot see. He cannot even cry. He eventually turns back.
Though he sees Mr. Koyasu often, the narrator knows almost nothing about him. He learns that Mr. Koyasu is a bachelor, but that is all. The women who work at the library, generally chatty in the back rooms, become evasive whenever Mr. Koyasu is mentioned, as if the topic is taboo. The narrator does not press them. He decides it may be better not to know things he does not have to know.
Mrs. Soeda, the librarian who handles nearly all administrative tasks, is introduced in detail. Born in Nagano Prefecture, she moved to the town after marrying a local teacher about ten years ago. She has no children and is treated as an outsider despite her marriage. She is highly capable—Mr. Koyasu says the library would not last a week without her. She turned down the head librarian position, preferring to remain a supervisor. In her mid-thirties, she has clear features, excellent posture, and a graceful bearing. She wears knee-length skirts and low-heeled shoes, drinks black coffee from a mug decorated with a wild bird, and keeps a cautious but intelligent air about her.
Mrs. Soeda accepts the narrator as her boss naturally, and they grow comfortable with each other. She eventually asks why he is unmarried in his mid-forties. He explains that there is someone in his heart he cannot forget, though he has not seen her for a long time and does not know where she is. When she presses gently, he defuses the conversation by remarking that loving someone is like having a mental illness not covered by health insurance. Mrs. Soeda laughs quietly, pushes up her glasses, and returns to her work.
Key Events
- Mr. Koyasu visits the narrator at the library every three or four days, always wearing a beret, wraparound skirt, and black tights.
- When asked about his unusual clothing, Mr. Koyasu explains it makes him feel like a few lines from a beautiful poem.
- The narrator describes his daily routine: library work, simple dinners, reading with scotch, early bedtime, and evening walks.
- On his walks, the narrator follows a river path to a meadow where he experiences a profound, unexplainable sadness.
- The narrator realizes he knows almost nothing about Mr. Koyasu—the library staff avoids discussing him.
- Mrs. Soeda is portrayed as the library’s indispensable mainstay, who refused the head librarian role.
- Mrs. Soeda questions the narrator about his unmarried status, and he explains he loves someone he cannot forget.
Character Development
The Narrator: He has established a quiet, disciplined routine in the walled town, but his emotional life remains unresolved. The meadow scene reveals that he carries a deep, persistent sadness from his past that resists explanation or tears. He opens up slightly to Mrs. Soeda about having loved someone he cannot locate, though he maintains vagueness about the details.
Mr. Koyasu: The chapter deepens his mysteriousness. He is kind, cheerful, and generous with practical guidance, but his background is guarded by an unspoken taboo among the townspeople. His skirt-wearing is presented as a natural, poetic form of self-expression rather than a rebellion or statement.
Mrs. Soeda: She emerges as a significant new character—highly competent, humble, and perceptive. She handles the library’s operations with quiet efficiency and has refused promotion. As a fellow outsider in the town, she forms a natural bond with the narrator, though she remains cautious and reserved about her own story.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
The Unnamable Sadness: The meadow becomes a physical space where the narrator confronts a sadness he cannot explain, that does not dissolve over time, and that leaves invisible wounds. The inability to cry compounds the sense of emotional paralysis.
The Taboo of Knowing: The women’s evasiveness about Mr. Koyasu creates a deliberate gap in the narrator’s (and the reader’s) understanding. The novel suggests that some knowledge may be better left unexamined.
Outsider Status: Both the narrator and Mrs. Soeda are outsiders in the isolated mountain town. Their bond forms around this shared condition, yet neither fully reveals themselves.
Clothing as Self-Expression: Mr. Koyasu’s skirts are linked directly to poetry and feeling, presenting attire as a personal, aesthetic choice rather than a social statement.
Threshold Spaces: The river path that gives way to dirt trail and then disappears into the meadow functions as a liminal journey, leading the narrator to a place of raw emotional encounter.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter establishes the walled town’s social fabric and its unwritten rules. The taboo surrounding Mr. Koyasu introduces a layer of withheld knowledge that will likely carry narrative weight. Mrs. Soeda is introduced as a major supporting character—capable, perceptive, and potentially key to future developments. The meadow scene crystallizes the narrator’s unresolved sadness, giving emotional texture to his otherwise placid exterior. His guarded confession to Mrs. Soeda about a lost love links the walled town to the shadowy past he carries with him, deepening the novel’s central mystery.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why do the women at the library avoid discussing Mr. Koyasu when the narrator is present?
The women treat Mr. Koyasu as an unspoken taboo subject. Though they are otherwise talkative in the back rooms, any mention of him makes them hesitant and evasive. Mrs. Soeda’s use of the past tense when describing him (“that’s the kind of person he was”) hints at something unresolved or even troubling in his history. The narrator chooses not to press, sensing that some knowledge may be better left unknown.
2. What is significant about the meadow scene and the sadness the narrator feels there?
The meadow represents a place where the narrator is forced to confront a deep, persistent sadness that has followed him from long ago. This sadness is characterized as inexplicable, resistant to time, and productive of invisible wounds. The inability to cry suggests emotional blockage or incomplete mourning. The meadow itself is described as a “grass kingdom” where the narrator is merely an intruder, emphasizing his alienation and the inexpressible nature of his pain.
3. How does the narrator explain his unmarried status to Mrs. Soeda, and what does this reveal about him?
He explains that there is someone in his heart he cannot forget, though he has not seen her for a long time and does not know her current whereabouts. This explanation reveals that the narrator carries a past love that remains unresolved and shapes his present life. His deflection—comparing love to an uninsured mental illness—suggests both self-awareness and a reluctance to fully open up. The exchange deepens the mystery of what brought him to the walled town.