“Nothing to be ashamed of”

Sachiko’s insistence that she is not ashamed is a recurring expression of openness that also puts pressure on Etsuko. Repeated as Sachiko invites questions about her departure and Frank, the claim contrasts with Etsuko’s hesitations and the social scrutiny Sachiko says she disregards. Its force lies in that tension: Sachiko presents herself as answerable to no one’s judgment, yet repeatedly asks Etsuko to question her.

A claim made repeatedly

The expression appears in several closely related forms: Sachiko has “nothing I’m ashamed of,” “nothing I want to hide,” and “nothing to be ashamed of.” Its repetition makes it more than a passing reassurance. Sachiko returns to the same point when Etsuko does not ask what she expects her to ask, restating openness as if the obstacle were not a lack of information but Etsuko’s unwillingness to approach it.

The claim is directed specifically at Etsuko, though Sachiko also widens its audience. She says she has nothing to hide from “anyone,” then specifies Etsuko and the women in the neighborhood. The repeated formula thus answers two kinds of anticipated judgment: intimate curiosity from a friend and public opinion from neighbors. Sachiko insists that neither should make her ashamed, and that both may ask.

Departure and the missing question

When Sachiko catches up with Etsuko, she asks whether Etsuko will ask why she is going and who she is going with. Etsuko replies that she is glad if Sachiko wants to go, but redirects their attention to finding Sachiko’s daughter. Sachiko answers that she is not ashamed and invites Etsuko to ask anything. Etsuko again puts the search first, saying they can talk later. The exchange establishes the expression’s characteristic setting: Sachiko offers disclosure, while Etsuko postpones the conversation in favor of an immediate concern.

The pattern persists when the two stop walking and Etsuko looks toward the apartment windows, wondering where the daughter could be. Sachiko again denies having anything to hide, now mentioning both Etsuko and the neighborhood women. When Etsuko suggests searching by the river, Sachiko says she has already looked there. Her assertion of openness therefore accompanies a conversation that keeps returning to the daughter’s whereabouts; it does not itself settle the practical problem or make Etsuko ask about the departure.

Frank, embarrassment, and insistence

The expression becomes more pointed in the living room, where Sachiko is refilling her teacup. Etsuko has brought a folded silk scarf containing money from a hidden envelope. Sachiko does not look up as Etsuko lays it beside her; only once does she glance sideways at the bundle. Sachiko then says that Etsuko seems not to understand that she is not ashamed or embarrassed, and that she may ask whatever she likes. The material gesture and the verbal invitation occur together, but the passage does not equate them or explain what will happen to the money.

Sachiko makes the invitation specific by asking why Etsuko never asks about the man Etsuko calls her friend. She predicts that Etsuko will blush at the mention of Frank, and Etsuko denies being embarrassed or having assumed anything. Sachiko laughs, claps her hands, and presses the point: Etsuko is blushing, she says, simply because Frank has been mentioned. She then asks again why Etsuko never asks about him, noting that everyone else in the neighborhood seems interested and insisting that Etsuko should feel free to ask.

The scene gives the expression an unresolved double edge. Sachiko describes herself as unembarrassed and open, yet her repeated requests show how much she wants Etsuko to engage with the subject. Etsuko’s denials and hesitations do not confirm what she thinks about Frank; they demonstrate only that the invitation has not produced the conversation Sachiko seeks. Sachiko’s refrain therefore works both as reassurance and as insistence, making Etsuko’s silence newly conspicuous.

Openness under scrutiny

Across these encounters, Sachiko’s words oppose shame to concealment and private embarrassment to public judgment. She says other people’s opinions have never concerned her and matter even less now, while also naming the neighborhood’s interest in Frank. The contradiction is productive rather than conclusive: Sachiko rejects the authority of gossip, but she repeatedly invokes the people who gossip as part of her case for speaking freely.

The expression does not prove that Sachiko has disclosed everything or resolve what Etsuko believes. Instead, its recurrence marks the distance between an offered account and a question left unasked. Each repetition renews Sachiko’s invitation, while Etsuko’s redirection, denial, or pause leaves it hanging. The refrain’s significance lies in that unfinished exchange: openness is asserted aloud, but the response Sachiko solicits never fully arrives.