Tohma—Ohma

Tohma—Ohma is the father-son relationship that places Tohma within the Oki clan and makes his welcome to Van more than a private favor: he offers to bring Van and the child Yuna into his family’s precarious household. The evidence identifies Tohma as Ohma’s son, while Tohma’s own invitation reveals a family short of both people and resources, and a young man prepared to argue that Van’s knowledge could help them endure.

Identity and Family

Tohma is a young man from the Oki clan, and Ohma is his father. Their relationship is stated directly; the scene in which Tohma offers Van a place with the family supplies its practical context. Tohma cannot promise that his father will agree to the arrangement, making clear that Ohma’s authority matters to the household decision even as Tohma takes the initiative in asking.

Tohma’s account of the family’s circumstances explains why he is away from home: a sickness killed his elder brother, while his father has a bad back. Tohma therefore had to carry the clan’s furs and meat to market on his own. The brother’s death and Ohma’s injury have left responsibilities concentrated on Tohma, who speaks not as someone making a casual offer but as a son trying to secure help for a strained family.

The Invitation to Van

The offer follows Van’s recovery of Tsupi, the pyuika Tohma had been seeking. Tohma first says he can introduce Van to a fur trader or try to find him work, but then hastens to qualify the offer: any job depends on his father’s decision. His eagerness outruns his authority, and he admits that he speaks too quickly when worked up. Beneath that embarrassed qualification is a direct wish that Van come back with him.

Tohma includes Yuna in the invitation. He says that the clan is small and not well off, but that they will find a way to feed Van and the child. The offer thus extends beyond gratitude for the return of Tsupi: Tohma proposes shelter and a place in the family’s life, even though he cannot guarantee that Ohma will approve. His appeal makes the household’s dependence on collective effort visible, while also showing Tohma taking responsibility before he has secured his father’s consent.

The Clan’s Need for Pyuika

Tohma connects the household’s hardship to a wider economic problem. To leave enough after taxes for the clan to survive, he says, they need to breed more pyuika, but the animals are not mating and producing young. Tsupi’s possible pregnancy therefore matters to the clan, not just to Tohma as her owner or caretaker.

Van has indicated that Tsupi may be carrying a young one and that a pyuika pregnancy is harder when the animal has mated with an elk. Tohma responds by focusing on the immediate danger: Tsupi must deliver safely, and none of the people in the clan has ever seen a pyuika give birth. His invitation is grounded in this specific need. Van’s experience could help protect Tsupi and, through the survival of her offspring, support the breeding on which the family hopes to rely.

Relationship and Significance

Tohma’s relationship with Ohma is presented through a small but consequential tension between initiative and authority. Tohma makes the offer, names the need, and promises to persuade his father and the others, yet acknowledges that the final decision is not his alone. The scene gives the father-son bond a practical dimension: Ohma’s condition and position shape the household’s options, while Tohma assumes the work of asking for help on the family’s behalf.

The appeal ends in a gesture of trust. Tohma begs Van to come, says he will try to convince the family, and offers his hand, identifying himself as Tohma yu Oki, Tohma of the Oki clan. Van accepts the hand and gives his own name in return. Their exchange turns Tohma’s family connection into a threshold for Van and Yuna: through Ohma’s son, the possibility of joining the Oki household opens, though its final acceptance remains unresolved in this scene.