Kiyoba

Kiyoba is remembered as kind, generous and fond of children. When she was more active, youngsters regularly came to her for help making toys, and she was particularly skilled at making simple spool-powered toy tanks.

She also possesses a playful sense of humor despite her advanced age and declining health. Her familiarity with generations of village residents reflects the unusually close social relationships that characterize the community.

Kiyoba's kindness has a lasting effect on Iku. Their connection began when Iku was a child seeking comfort and help from an older neighbor, eventually becoming one of the deepest relationships in either woman's life.

Kiyoba is particularly skilled at making spool tanks, simple handmade toys constructed for the village children. Her ability is remembered by people who visited her as children and forms part of the practical, homemade culture of play on the island.

Her importance to the community comes less from any formal occupation than from decades of accumulated relationships. She represents an older generation whose knowledge, small acts of care and presence have shaped the people who grew up around her.

Kiyoba appears in manga material beyond the television anime, when Handa has already become much more familiar with the rhythms of village life. Her advanced age and poor health introduce him to another aspect of a small community: generations of residents know one another closely, and events affecting one household spread emotionally across the village.

Kiyoba dies at the age of 99 shortly after the harvest-moon festival. Her wake and funeral expose Handa to the village's mourning customs and reveal the depth of the relationships that had formed around her over decades.

During the funeral, Handa learns that Iku is not actually Kiyoba's daughter or other close relative. She had been Kiyoba's neighbor since childhood and eventually became her devoted caregiver, looking after the elderly woman so closely that Kiyoba's own children acknowledge how much she has done for their mother.

Iku shares Kiyoba's closest established relationship in the story. [Although Iku is not biologically related to Kiyoba, she knew her from childhood, when she regularly visited the older woman's home. Their relationship developed into a mother-and-daughter-like bond, and Iku later becomes Kiyoba's primary caregiver.](#spoiler)

Kiyoba has three adult children who live away from the island. One lives in France, while the others live elsewhere in Japan, including Osaka and Kyoto. Their return around their mother's funeral emphasizes how far the family has dispersed from the community where Kiyoba spent her life.

Sei Handa encounters Kiyoba as part of his growing involvement with village life. [Her death and the community's response give Sei Handa direct experience of how the islanders collectively handle loss and remembrance.](#spoiler)