Tokoyo Kurosaki

**Tokoyo Kurosaki** (黒咲 常世, *Kurosaki Tokoyo*) is the titular maiden of *Shōwa Otome Otogi Banashi* and the childhood friend of Jintaro Shima. Suffering under an abusive stepmother, reuniting with her first love after three years apart moves her to run away and move in with Jintaro, hoping to become his wife one day.

## Appearance

Tokoyo is a short, fair-skinned teenage girl with dark eyes. As a child, her purplish black hair was kept in a hime-cut style front bangs that reached slightly below her shoulders. As a teenager, she grows her hair out to waist length with her bangs reaching out even further to knee length. After moving in with Jintaro, Tokoyo decides to cut her hair to a similar length as when she was a child.

## Personality

As a child, Tokoyo was devoted to Jintaro, as he was the only person besides her father to show any kindness growing up. She repeatedly says that her sole reason for living was for his sake. To cope with the abuse at home, Tokoyo is emotionally dependent on her relationship with Jintaro, repeatedly insisting that she lives and dies for him, and she can never live without him. Because of the abuse of her stepmother and its effect on her bond with her father, Tokoyo essentially shut down and lost hope in life after Jintaro moved away. For three years she put on a facade: pretending to be happy in public and stoically enduring abuse while in private. While she would often tell herself that she is strong, Tokoyo was actually heartbroken inside from being separated from Jintaro. When reconnecting with Jintaro, Tokoyo's devotion to him is as strong as it was when they parted. Despite his best efforts to cut ties with her, she persisted in trying to stay close to him.

While trying to reconnect with Jintaro, she runs away from home, making genuine friends - such as Tamako and Yuzuki, and Tsukihiko - along the way. Although she and Liselotte quarrel over their shared feelings for Jintaro, they manage to get along for the most part.

## Background

Tokoyo was born into a wealthy and powerful family in Kobe, rarely ever wanting for anything. Things changed for her when her mother died from tuberculosis when she was 9 and her father remarried later. However, her stepmother never expressed any affection towards her: only disdain. Growing up, Tokoyo was pushed by her to be perfect at everything: while her father would praise her successes, Tokoyo was still scolded, beaten, and otherwise punished by her unsatisfied stepmother. Despite being brought up in such a way, Tokoyo was always able to find comfort in her best friend and neighbor, Jintaro Shima. Whenever she was locked out of the house, Jintaro would bring her over to eat and play: his kindness was the only defense she had against her stepmother's awful treatment. As a child, Tokoyo’s dream was to not only be Jintaro’s bride but open a guest and parlor house so she could eat lots of cake.

At age 11, Tokoyo and Jintaro planned their first suicide pact. They went to an amusement park to have fun before the deed but were undecided how to commit suicide. During a boat ride, Tokoyo revealed her desire to kiss him and have a baby with him. Because of their curiosity over how babies are made, their suicide pact was canceled.

One day, Tokoyo made second place at a piano recital, impressing her father, but her stepmother chose to ruin the day by beating her bloody and forcing her to stand outside during in the rain. When Jintaro found her like this, he was enraged at the way his friend was being treated. Armed with a sword, he tried to take revenge for the affront, only for his target to use Tokoyo as a shield. This enraged Jintaro further, but Tokoyo calmed him down and fled with him to his grandfather's cinema. There, he confessed his feelings for her, and Tokoyo responds by kissing him. Sadly, the police found them and - thanks to exaggerated details from her stepmother - arrested Jintaro and sent Tokoyo home without giving them a chance to explain. After the incident, Jintaro was sent to Tokyo to live with distant relatives. Before leaving, Jintaro promised to contact her by letter, and to wait for it before writing to him.

## Plot

### *Shōwa Otome Otogi Banashi*

In the three years after Jintaro's departure, 14-year-old Tokoyo never heard from him, but resolved to move forward and become more resilient. However, she merely learned to hide her true feelings from her friends and neighbors. To make matters worse, her stepmother bore a son, renewing her desire to get rid of Tokoyo so her child would be the only heir to the estate. Following his mother's example, he began abusing her too, and Tokoyo lacks the will to tell her father the truth. Using the pretext of grooming her for marriage, her stepmother would abuse her even more viciously in secret. One day, while washing off blood from her brother's abuse, his mother decides to "help" her wash up. While she does so, Tokoyo is berated for never reaching out to Jintaro and told that he likely found another girl in Tokyo. The mention of him moves Tokoyo to defend herself, and father grounds her without hearing her side. Confined to the house while the rest of the family goes out for dinner, Tokoyo decides to run away. She makes it as far as to the Trifoliate shrubs, the spot where she would meet with Jintaro before breaking down in tears, unable to do anything but call out for him. Ironically, Jintaro - who just arrived in town - shows up at that exact moment, remarking that *Karatachi-hime* hasn't changed.

After their reunion, Tokoyo is devastated the kind Jintaro she loved has turned into a demonic Jintaro who treats her coldly. She tries to move on from Jintaro by focusing on getting a job and saving money to move out of her house. While standing by a bridge, Tokoyo falls off the bridge to catch a photo of her and Jintaro, and almost drowns until Jintaro, who witnessed this, jumps in to save her. His adoptive aunt, Tamako, appears and resuscitates her. After this, Tokoyo and Tamako become fast friends. When she returns home, her stepmother and half brother resume abusing her. She takes her brother for a walk but he begins attacking her when Jintaro witnesses this and locks him in a cabinet closet as punishment. Her stepmother intervenes and begins insulting Jintaro. This prompts Tokoyo to finally stand up to her stepmother and she runs away from home for good. Jintaro invites her to live at the Shima Cinema with him, which she accepts. When Jintaro falls ill with a fever, Tokoyo tries to take care of him with the help of Tamako and Liselotte, the daughter of Jintaro’s sponsor who is infatuated with him. After he recovers from his fever, Tokoyo manages to get Jintaro tell him what happened to him after he was taken away by the authorities and how he intended to commit suicide when he returned to Kobe and got to see her again. She offers to commit suicide with him, saying she would have no reason to live if he died and couldn't bear going to his funeral if he died before her but he stops her from hurting herself. He feigns disinterest in her feelings but she says she still cares for him and refers to him as her 'kind demon', hugging him in comfort.

Later, Tokoyo cuts her hair. After running into Tamako, Tokoyo tells her that her parents are planning to have her marry a man old enough to be her father but she wants to marry Jintaro. She also tells Tamako about Jintaro's hardships and Tamayo's abuse. Tokoyo is determined to make a space where Jintaro can heal, so Tamako introduces Tokoyo to Yuzuki and Tsukihiko, both of whom treat her kindly. Yuzuki teaches Tokoyo how to cook and clean in order to make a warm home for Jintaro, who appreciates this and makes her a Karatachi flower hair pin as a gift, which she wears every day. When Jintaro finally accepts he never stopped loving Tokoyo, Tokoyo tells him, as she is 15, she is legally old enough to be his wife. He expresses his own desire to marry her, but her parents will never approve. Unknown to Tokoyo, Tamayo made a marriage arrangement with her parents, who eagerly traded her to cover their debts, and her marriage prospect was Tamayo's older brother, who had died after the Great Kanto Earthquake eight years prior. When Tokoyo returns home, she is told by her stepmother that her father collapsed and Tokoyo is knocked unconscious. While she is unconscious, her parents abandon her to Tamayo. When she wakes up, she is scared as Tamayo tells Tokoyo of her plan to force Jintaro to marry Tamako and restore the Shima family. Tamayo also entertains the idea of killing her. Armed with a sword, Jintaro saves Tokoyo and decides to kill Tamayo for good, although Tokoyo stops him. Tamayo takes his sword and tries to kill them, forcing them to flee. However, Tamayo puts a bounty on them, causing poor locals to chase the pair. After Tamayo burns down Shima Cinema to further hurt Jintaro, the two talk about committing suicide together. However, Tokoyo is initially unaware that Jintaro had already concocted a plot with his aunt and her brothers to fake his and Tokoyo's death to help them escape from Tamayo.

After their 'suicide' from jumping off a bridge, Tokoyo and Jintaro are given shelter at the Arima Onsen, where they work at an inn. Tokoyo also does extra work by working at a shrine with its miko, Ritsu, who is secretly in love with her. Although they want to get married, Tokoyo and Jintaro are unable to register without revealing they are alive to Tamayo, so they live together and consider themselves married. However, she is disappointed that he is reluctant to be intimate with her. They are offered an old lodge house from an elderly, dying former employee, which Tokoyo and Jintaro decide to turn into their own parlor and guest house. They end up having their first major fight over their differences on how to operate the guest and parlor house before the fights becomes more about their lack of intimacy, and Tokoyo storms out to go stay with Ritsu. However, she begins to miss Jintaro and goes to see him, and they quickly reconcile. Because she rain back home in the middle of a rainstorm, she comes down with a fever.

As she seems to recover from her fever, Tokoyo begins coughing up blood and Hakaru and the doctor who is his mentor are brought in to exams in. She is diagnosed with tuberculosis, which terrifies her as her mother died from it and Hakaru corrects her misunderstanding that tuberculosis is hereditary but that she needs to have a robust nourishment and get plenty of rest to combat the disease. To take another step at moving forward, they continue with their plan to open their parlor and guest house. Hakaru and Tamako step in to become Tokoyo’s caregivers. However, two years pass and Tokoyo’s condition deteriorates, causing her to lose her will to live and accept she is going to die. She also begins having dreams about her funeral. After reading Romeo & Juliet with Jintaro, Tokoyo tells him to not die if she does because she doesn’t have much time left to live and there are people who need him. After he leaves, she violently begins coughing blood and attempts to commit suicide by overdosing on mercuric chloride but falls unconscious before she can drink it. Jintaro, having a bad feeling, rushes back to find her. She breaks down, saying she has accepted she is going to die and asks Jintaro to let her die so she won’t have to suffer anymore. He cries and insists he can't be happy without her and would rather die with her; crying and embracing, they vow to continue living together. Jintaro then surprises her with a row of Trifoliate shrubs he planted for her at their guest and parlor house.

When Jintaro is drafted in the army for the Second Sino-Japanese War, Tokoyo encourages him to go to the war and do his duties while she stays with Tamako and Hakaru. He later asks her to officially marry him and she says yes. On Tokoyo's 18th birthday, they have a wedding ceremony. Rather than consummating their marriage, they fall asleep in each other's arms. Shortly after, Jintaro leaves and they try to stay in touch via letters, though he isn't able to write very often.

Five years later, Tokoyo’s tuberculosis doesn’t improve though she revels in Tamako and Hakaru’s care. When Ritsu comes to visit and brings up on when Tokoyo will have children, Tokoyo says she wants to have children but doubts she can sue to her illness. She secretly rummages through Jintaro’s old clothes to remember him. One day, Tamako informs Tokoyo that Jintaro was killed in action, devastating her so much that, after his funeral, she goes to the Trifoliate flowers and attempts suicide by overdosing on mercuric chloride but after drinking the substance, she discovers Jintaro had switched the poison with sugary water because he anticipated she would attempt suicide should he die. Although she doubts she won’t survive much longer, she decides against suicide, as she believes Jintaro would've wanted her to keep living.

Five more years pass and the Pacific War comes to an end. Tokoyo is relieved the war is over but is saddened that many cities, including Kobe and Tokyo, were devastated by bombings. She goes to the row of Trifoliate shrubs and begins mourning Jintaro again when he suddenly appears in front him. After getting over the initial shock, Tokoyo is overjoyed that he's alive and happily embraces him.

Shortly after, Tokoyo has made a full recovery from tuberculosis. She helps Jintaro readjust to a normal life, as he lost his left eye and arm, and is haunted by what he experienced in the war. They host Tamako and Hakaru at their parlor and guest house. While bathing, Tokoyo drunkenly tries to kiss him but he lies that he has a cold and leaves to go to bed.

Shortly after, they finally consummate their marriage and Tokoyo is overjoyed when she learns she is pregnant with his child. She later gives birth to their son and they are shown living happily as a family.

## Relationships

### Jintaro Shima

Jintaro is the love of Tokoyo's life. Having grown up together and him being there for her when she was being abused, Tokoyo made him the center of her life and her reason for living. Tokoyo repeatedly has stated that if Jintaro dies, she will gladly die as well so they can be together in the afterlife. Once they reunite after a three year separation, her feelings for him don't change despite him trying to cut her off, and her unchanging feelings only make him realize he can't stop loving her. Their love is so strong to where they almost attempt suicide, he devotedly stays by her side when she becomes ill, and she waits for him for years as he goes off to war. She also almost committed suicide after he was presumed dead but felt that Jintaro would've wanted her to live. Once he is found to be alive although disfigured, she happily reunited with him. Shortly after, they have their first child together.

### Liselotte Meggendorfer

Tokoyo and Liselotte have a complicated relationship due to that both have feelings for Jintaro. Despite this, they seem to have some degree of concern for one another.

### Tamako Shima

Tokoyo and Tamako became fast friends after meeting and learning Tamako is Jintaro's adoptive aunt. Tamako becomes a firm supporter for the two after they escape from Tamayo, and she becomes Tokoyo's primary caregiver when she contracts turberculosis.

### Yuzuki Tachibana

Tokoyo was immediately charmed by Yuzuki and the two became close friends right away. Tokoyo is fond of Yuzuki's cooking and is taught many household chores by her. Yuzuki even less Tokoyo the kimono she received from her husband, showing how close Yuzuki feels to the girl.

### Tsukihiko Tachibana

Tokoyo is fond of Tsukihiko, who is the same age as her younger brother but nothing like him in personality.

## Etymology

* The name **Tokoyo** means "Eternal world, everlasting, distant" (常世).
	+ Her name comes from a figure in Japanese mythology; in the mythology, Tokoyo was the daughter of a samurai named Oribe Shima, with whom she was separated after being banished by the emperor. She began a journey to find her father and saved a young girl intended to be a sacrifice for the god Okuninushi by offering her life to the presiding priest in place of the girl. Tokoyo was then sacrificed and thrown off a cliff, begrieved and hopeless from not finding her father.
* Tokoyo's surname **Kurosaki** means "black" (黒) (**kuro**) and "blossom" (咲) (**saki**).

## Trivia

* Tokoyo’s nickname *Karatachi Princess* is from the Trifoliate orange flowers, which are part of the Rutaceae family that associate with citrus. In Asian culture, citrus fruits symbolize purification and cleansing. Oranges in particular represent joy, happiness, good health and courage.
* Tokoyo loves sweets, especially cake.
* Tokoyo and Jintaro had their wedding ceremony on November 11, 1934.
* Due to Jintaro's influence, Tokoyo develops an interest in Shakespeare and even compares her and Jintaro's situation to that of Romeo and Juliet.
* Tokoyo can't swim.
* According to Sana Kirioka's Twitter:
	+ She is born in the year of the Dragon.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 39
2. ↑ Chapter 42
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/sana\_kirioka/status/1477189313532153857