Ueno Zoo is the setting for Hiromi’s clandestine reunions with her father, Tadao, and the place where her emerging public identity as an actress eventually threatens their fragile arrangement. Its monkey mountain offers a fixed point for a relationship otherwise interrupted by distance, secrecy, and the demands of Tadao’s work.

Setting and First Reunion

After Hiromi began working in the theater, she and Tadao arranged by letter to meet in front of the monkey mountain at Ueno Zoo. On a crowded Sunday, Hiromi wore a pink hat as their agreed signal and pretended to watch the monkeys while keeping alert to the people around her. Tadao approached from her right and spoke softly; she recognized his voice at once and struggled to hold back tears.

The location made their meeting possible without making it easy. Hiromi had kept her relationship with Seizo Naemura from her father, partly because she did not want to worry him, and their reunion carried the weight of what had remained unspoken. For her, the important thing was not what they said but simply being together again.

A Recurring Place of Contact

The first meeting became a pattern: Hiromi and Tadao returned to the monkey mountain every few months. Finding a day that suited them both could be difficult, and Tadao’s work sometimes took him too far away. The repeated destination gave their limited contact continuity, even as practical obstacles kept the visits intermittent.

During those years, Hiromi’s acting career began to advance. She won increasingly theatrical parts, appeared in bit roles on television dramas, and occasionally worked in commercials. Her growing visibility changed the conditions of the secret meetings: the zoo was still familiar, but it was no longer reliably anonymous.

Recognition and Risk

When Hiromi was twenty-two, a woman she had never met approached her in Ueno Park and recognized her by her stage name, Hiromi Kadokura. The woman said she was a fan and asked to shake Hiromi’s hand. The exchange was brief, but Tadao witnessed it nearby and immediately understood what it could mean for their secrecy.

Tadao concluded that they could not safely keep meeting there and told Hiromi that the zoo was too risky now that she was becoming recognizable. Hiromi did not fully understand his alarm: although she was getting more acting work, she still could not support herself from it and held a daytime receptionist job at a small company, where no visitor had recognized her. The contrast reveals how public recognition could reach their private arrangement before Hiromi herself felt famous. Ueno Zoo had served as their dependable meeting point; the very routine that sustained their reunion now exposed it to chance encounters.