Photographs of deceased parents with 写真
Kogoro takes a client to the home of someone she’d be communicating with via pagers. They show the household family a music box that was left to the client by her correspondence partner. The music it plays reminds the homeowner of the koto his mother used to play.
- 小五郎:
- 「母さんってもしかしてあのお写真の…」
- “By "Mom", could that be the one in that photo…?”
- 常雄:
- 「ええ… 父の横の写真が三年前に他界した母の春菜です…」
- “Yes... The photo beside my father's is my mother, Haruna, who passed away three years ago...”
Key Points
写真 = photograph, a copied image
The kanji 写 points to copying or reproducing an image, so 写真 is a “true copy” in the sense of a photograph.
あのお写真の… leaves the person implied
Kogoro starts to ask whether “Mom” is the person in that photo, but trails off after の.
A fuller version would be あのお写真の人, “the person in that photo”.
父の横の写真
This stacks two の phrases: 父の横 means “beside my father”, and the second の links that location to 写真.
The phrase identifies which photo he means: the photo beside his father’s photo.
他界した is a respectful “passed away”
三年前に他界した modifies 母, giving “my mother, who passed away three years ago”.
他界 is more formal and softened than simply saying 死んだ.
See Also
- Kanji: Boundaries and worlds with 界