Previous
Shinji’s Mother
Terukichi Miyata, often called “Uncle Teru,” is the confident, imposing, self-made owner of two large lumber freighters. Though he is one of the wealthiest men on the island, Terukichi is only recently accustomed to having money and social clout, having built himself up from nothing into a magnate over the course of his career. Mishima describes the proud and prickly Miyata as “the personification of all of Uta-jima’s toil and determination and ambition and strength.” He is not just a successful businessman, but also a skilled fisherman and navigator and a great predictor of the weather. Mishima implies that though Terukichi Miyata has learned the lessons of nature throughout his youth, he has lost sight of some of them in his old age, often acting as “a bronze statue erected to his own memory.” After the widowed Terukichi loses his only son, he calls his youngest daughter Hatsue home from a pearl-diving apprenticeship on a neighboring island and announces plans to adopt a young man into the family to marry her and carry on the family name. When Hatsue falls in love with Shinji Kubo, the two are seen together in public—and after rumors fly about their having slept together, the rageful Terukichi forbids his daughter from seeing Shinji and threatens to marry her off to the brash, cruel Yasuo Kawamoto. Though Terukichi is insulated and classist, toward the end of the novel, his daughter’s sadness penetrates his armor and he devises a test to see whether Shinji or Yasuo is worthier of Hatsue’s hand. Ultimately, after Shinji risks his own life while journeying to Okinawa with the crew of Terukichi’s freighter the Utajima-maru, Terukichi decides that Shinji has the most “get-up-and-go” of anyone on the island. He agrees to let Shinji marry Hatsue, and he offers to take Shinji’s mother and younger brother Hiroshi in, as well. Though salty, judgmental, and occasionally narrow-minded, Terukichi ultimately proves himself to be a wise, generous, level-headed man.
Terukichi Miyata Quotes in The Sound of Waves
The The Sound of Waves quotes below are all either spoken by Terukichi Miyata or refer to Terukichi Miyata. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
“God, let the seas be calm, the fish plentiful, and our village […] prosperous. […] Let me have much knowledge in the ways of the sea, in the ways of fish, in the ways of boats, in the ways of the weather . . . […] Please protect my gentle mother and my brother, who is still a child. […] Then there's a different sort of request I'd like to make. . . . Some day let even such a person as me be granted a good-natured, beautiful bride . . . say someone like Terukichi Miyata's returned daughter. . . .” […]
Shinji looked up at the star-filled sky and breathed deeply. Then he thought:
“But mightn't the gods punish me for such a selfish prayer?”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
It might be better to say that Terukichi was the personification of all Uta-jima’s toil and determination and ambition and strength. […] The uncanny accuracy of his weather predictions, his matchless experience in the matters of fishing and navigation, and the great pride he took in knowing all the history and traditions of the island were often offset by his uncompromising stubbornness, his ludicrous pretensions, and his pugnacity…
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12
Quotes
Shinji’s mother hesitated a moment as she was about to enter the house. Just the fact that she had come calling at the Miyata house, where she was not on intimate terms, would be enough to set the villagers’ tongues to wagging.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15
Quotes
“When Shinji did that great thing at Okinawa—well, I changed my mind too and decided he was the one for my girl. The only thing that really counts . . .”
Here Terukichi raised his voice emphatically.
“The only thing that really counts in a man is his get-up-and-go. If he’s got get-up-and-go he’s a real man, and those are the kind of men we need here on Uta-jima.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Sound of Waves LitChart as a printable PDF.
Terukichi Miyata Quotes in The Sound of Waves
The The Sound of Waves quotes below are all either spoken by Terukichi Miyata or refer to Terukichi Miyata. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
“God, let the seas be calm, the fish plentiful, and our village […] prosperous. […] Let me have much knowledge in the ways of the sea, in the ways of fish, in the ways of boats, in the ways of the weather . . . […] Please protect my gentle mother and my brother, who is still a child. […] Then there's a different sort of request I'd like to make. . . . Some day let even such a person as me be granted a good-natured, beautiful bride . . . say someone like Terukichi Miyata's returned daughter. . . .” […]
Shinji looked up at the star-filled sky and breathed deeply. Then he thought:
“But mightn't the gods punish me for such a selfish prayer?”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
It might be better to say that Terukichi was the personification of all Uta-jima’s toil and determination and ambition and strength. […] The uncanny accuracy of his weather predictions, his matchless experience in the matters of fishing and navigation, and the great pride he took in knowing all the history and traditions of the island were often offset by his uncompromising stubbornness, his ludicrous pretensions, and his pugnacity…
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12
Quotes
Shinji’s mother hesitated a moment as she was about to enter the house. Just the fact that she had come calling at the Miyata house, where she was not on intimate terms, would be enough to set the villagers’ tongues to wagging.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15
Quotes
“When Shinji did that great thing at Okinawa—well, I changed my mind too and decided he was the one for my girl. The only thing that really counts . . .”
Here Terukichi raised his voice emphatically.
“The only thing that really counts in a man is his get-up-and-go. If he’s got get-up-and-go he’s a real man, and those are the kind of men we need here on Uta-jima.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
