Sep 30, 2024
Author's Commentary #45:
Time to discuss Chapter 45: The Inoue household.
This originally served as the introduction chapter for Mimoko's family, but I felt it was better to introduce them in Chapter 1 since their presence there helped the chapter, and by extension the story, flow better.
This chapter however does finally reveal the names of Mimoko's parents so I'll give some brief bios on them after I do Kotora's.
Kotora is 12 years old and was born on February 29th. On non leap years, his birthday is celebrated on February 28th. Believe it or not, his mother Daria's birthday is actually February 27th. She even thought they'd be sharing a a birthday, but Kotora ended up being born 2 days later.
井之上 小虎 (Inoue Kotora) is his full name in kanji. His first name, 小虎, ends up translating to "little tiger".
Since Mimoko's the only member of her family that plays chess, none of her family members have a favorite piece. Kotora has played chess though, and developed a distaste for it thanks in no small part to Mimoko always destroying him in it. Now onto Daria and Ichimitsu.
Daria's full name in kanji is 井之上 堕美闇 (Inoue Daria). Her first name,
堕美闇, can translate to "lazy", "beautiful", and "ignorant".
Now on to Ichimitsu. 井之上 一光 (Inoue Ichimitsu) is how his full name is spelled in kanji.
His first name, 一光, can translate to "one" and "radiance".
Ichimitsu's birthday falls on November 30th and he's 45 years old. He tends to stay at home and makes a living trading stocks. He also enjoys reading the paper, or rather holding the paper like he's reading it.
This chapter was originally Chapter 43, but got pushed back a bit due to the revisions. However, Okisato's family still appears at the end of it, so I'll give their bios too. First up is his sister, Otona.
Her full name in kanji is 田辺 乙那 (Tanabe Otona). Her first name, 乙那, means "second" and "beautiful".
Her birthday is November 23rd, which is Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan.
Thanks to Okisato, she's actually a 600 rated chess player, and as such has a favorite piece; the queen.
Now onto Okisato and Otona's father, Yojiro. At first, he was adamant about Okisato learning shogi as a pastime, but once Okisato became good at chess and showed him the financial benefits of the chess world, he allowed Okisato to pursue chess and even teach all his men to play the game. He himself ended up becoming second only to Okisato in terms of skill and has a rating of 1868. There actually is significance behind his rating since 1868 is actually the first year of the Meiji era.
田辺 与次郎 (Tanabe Yojiro) is how his name is written in kanji.
His first name, 与次郎, means "to give", "next", and "man".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
Intriguingly enough, Yojiro's birthday is October 23rd which was the first day of the Meiji era back in 1868.
Like his son, he believes the pawn is the most useful piece on and off the board.
Okisato's family won't play as large a role in the greater story as compared to Mimoko's family, but they will become relevant when the history of Okisato's mother is discussed in a future arc.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
