after the quake

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content. 

Komura is a high-end electronics salesman in his early thirties and lives in Tokyo with his wife of five years. He considers his marriage fulfilling, but his wife is often sullen. Komura frequently comes home to find a note from her that she has gone to visit her family in Yamagata. She often leaves for over a week and returns home in a better mood. Komura’s friends find his wife dull and ill-fitted for their good-looking friend, but Komura is content that his wife relaxes him. Since his marriage, he no longer has disturbing dreams from his past or worries about the future.

The story begins during the first week of the Kobe earthquake. For five days after the disaster, Komura’s wife is absorbed in the news reports of the destruction and neglects eating and sleeping. She does not respond to her husband, and Komura gives up trying to talk to her. On the sixth day, Komura returns home from work to discover that she has left him for good. In her note, she explains that he is a good man but empty like a “chunk of air” (4).