Chiyo and Satsu plan their escape

Chiyo and Satsu plan their escape in a hurried, secret meeting that turns a shared wish to leave into a specific but precarious arrangement. Satsu has a hidden train schedule and money for the woman she says must be paid before she can go; the sisters set a night and a meeting place, but their separation and the threat of discovery leave the plan exposed even before it begins.

The Secret Meeting

Satsu tells Chiyo that she cannot remain in Miyagawa-cho any longer. She has wanted to get a message to Chiyo for months, but says the woman Chiyo spoke with there withheld it for a long time. The sisters’ meeting is therefore not a casual reunion: Satsu arrives with a plan already in motion, and Chiyo’s presence gives her a chance to share it before she must return upstairs.

Satsu explains that she has hidden a train schedule under the tatami mats upstairs and has been stealing money whenever she can. She says she has enough to pay Mrs. Kishino, the old woman at the front door, because girls who escape are beaten and Mrs. Kishino will not let her leave until she is paid. Satsu’s account makes escape depend not only on getting away but also on satisfying the person who controls her immediate departure. Chiyo does not know who Mrs. Kishino is at first; Satsu identifies her and adds that the old woman is going away, making the possibility of a change in authority another reason she cannot wait.

Setting a Time and Place

Chiyo immediately offers to go with Satsu. When she presses for the timing, Satsu says they will run away on Tuesday late at night, five days later. The plan is concrete enough to give Chiyo a deadline, but its urgency is shaped by Satsu’s circumstances: she says she has waited as long as she can and has only one chance.

The sisters still have to decide where to meet. Chiyo suggests the area near the Minamiza Theater, but Satsu considers it too easy for people to find them. They settle instead on a spot directly across the river from the theater, preserving a recognizable landmark while moving their rendezvous away from an obvious gathering place. They tentatively choose one in the morning, though Satsu admits she does not know the exact location. The arrangement is thus both deliberate and incomplete: the sisters agree on a night, an approximate hour, and a safer direction, without resolving every practical detail.

Interruption and Separation

The meeting is repeatedly threatened by the demands of Satsu’s life there. While Chiyo waits in a corner, she hears the old woman greet a man, hears his heavy footsteps go upstairs, and then hears someone hurry back down. Satsu returns looking very pale and tells Chiyo that a man has come for her. She must go upstairs, and their conversation ends under pressure rather than at a moment of choice.

Chiyo asks what will happen if she cannot get away or if the sisters fail to meet. Satsu does not offer reassurance or an alternate arrangement; she insists that Chiyo must be there because she will have only one chance. Then she takes Chiyo into the hallway and shuts the door behind them. Chiyo is left with the urgency of the appointment but none of the ordinary security of a confirmed escape: no backup meeting place, no stated route, and no assurance that either sister can reach the other.

The Plan’s Immediate Risk

An old woman from the doorway takes Chiyo by the arm and pulls her into the dark street before she can watch Satsu go upstairs. Chiyo runs back from Miyagawa-cho and is relieved that the Nitta okiya is as quiet as she left it. Her immediate success is only that she has returned without being caught; it does not mean that the escape plan is safe.

In the dim entrance hall, Chiyo notices that the maids’ room door is slightly open, though it is usually shut except in hot weather. She hears what may be rustling inside and fears that Hatsumomo and her boyfriend may be there again. The scene ends with Chiyo wishing she had not gone to see Satsu, even imagining that time might have stopped if such a thing were possible. That closing apprehension shifts the episode from the sisters’ hopeful coordination to the danger of carrying a secret back into the household they hope to leave.

Narrative Significance

The plan creates a brief alliance around escape, but its terms reveal how unequal and fragile the sisters’ options are. Satsu has concealed money and a train schedule and must account for Mrs. Kishino’s demand; Chiyo, by contrast, can offer companionship but has no established means of getting away. Their shared deadline binds them together without removing the constraints surrounding either one.

The episode also builds suspense through practical gaps rather than through a completed escape: the meeting point is described only in relation to the river and the theater, the hour is tentative, and Satsu must leave because a man has come for her. Chiyo returns to the Nitta okiya carrying the knowledge of the plan, then confronts the suspiciously open door. Escape is not yet an event but a promise whose first consequence is heightened exposure: the sisters have named a way out, while the narrative leaves Chiyo waiting amid signs that someone may be near.