Murders committed by Kenkichi Kobayashi

The murders committed by Kenkichi Kobayashi are the criminal history that Makoto Hara inherits as a family fact, not as a crime of his own. Their delayed disclosure reshapes Rié’s understanding of her husband: she must confront the history attached to his birth while recognizing that Makoto himself was innocent of those acts.

Background and Family Consequences

Kido’s account of Makoto’s life begins with Kobayashi’s upbringing and the murders he committed. It then follows the consequences for Makoto: bullying, abandonment by his mother, and life in an orphanage. The criminal past thus enters the story through the childhood and social vulnerability of the killer’s son, rather than through a separate investigation of the crimes.

Makoto’s Fear of Inheritance

The murders remain consequential in Makoto’s later life because he agonized over his genetic inheritance. During his boxing years, testimony from people who knew him recorded this concern. The story distinguishes that fear from actual guilt: Makoto was Kobayashi’s son, but he had never committed the crimes himself.

Rié Learns the Connection

Rié had never heard of Kobayashi and could not remember seeing reports of his crimes when they occurred. Their details unsettled her because she had regarded murder as wholly remote from her own world; learning of the family connection made that past part of her household’s history. She also recalled Kyoichi’s suggestion that her late husband had committed a heinous crime, and imagined him claiming vindication. The revelation does not confirm that accusation: Makoto himself had committed no such acts.

Disclosure and Its Aftermath

Kido’s report gives Rié a new account of Makoto’s life, and she is moved by what she reads. She wonders whether Makoto had tried to convey his deep emotional wounds through the story he told about Daisuké, though she cannot know why he chose that particular way of speaking. For Rié, the murders therefore matter both as a terrible family history and as the source of a fear Makoto carried, without making him responsible for his father’s crimes.

Rié’s concern turns next to Hana. She is not troubled by the possibility that her daughter carries a murderer’s blood, but fears that Hana might one day despair if she learns the truth. Yuto, by contrast, has no biological link to Makoto; Rié recognizes that this distinction might have made her more cautious about showing him the report if he had been related by blood. The revelation leaves the family facing not inherited guilt, but the difficult question of how knowledge of the murders may affect the next generation.