The Sound of Waves

Two days after Hiroshi’s departure, the island of Uta-jima is struck by a roaring storm. Shinji awakes knowing that there will be no fishing today. The house is shaking and rattling with the wind’s fury, and the rain is coming down so hard that Shinji knows he won’t be able to accomplish any other tasks outside. Normally, Shinji hates an idle day off—but today, he is excited, and he quickly leaps from bed and puts on a black sweater full of holes. Later today, he is going to meet up with Hatsue in secret.

Shinji puts on a raincoat and goes down to the beach—he is so full of pent-up excitement that he feels that only the sea can “answer [the] wordless conversation” happening inside of him. As Shinji stands in front of the roaring sea and feels salt spray on his face, he is reminded of the taste of Hatsue’s lips. A wave washes a beautiful pink shell up near Shinji’s feet. He picks it up and decides to give it to Hatsue as a present.

Shinji returns home for lunch, then goes back out into the storm. After he goes, his mother is left to finish up the dishes. In the quiet house battered by rain, she considers her desire for a daughter whom she might understand—and who might help her with the housework. She knows she is young and healthy enough still that she could bear more children—but the thought of betraying her husband’s memory shames her. She goes over to his memorial tablet to say a prayer. 

Shinji walks through the storm up the mountain and toward the abandoned observation tower where he and Hatsue met before, when she was lost on her way to the lighthouse. At the highest point on the island, Shinji marvels at the storm’s “supreme dominion” over the island. On the ground floor of the tower, Shinji finds shelter from the storm. He takes off his raincoat and his trousers and reaches into his pocket for some matches. He lights a fire using some pine needles and driftwood, then lays his damp clothes near the flames to dry and sits down to wait for Hatsue. While Shinji waits, he grows so warm and comfortable that he falls asleep.

When Shinji opens his eyes, he is surprised to find that the figure of a naked girl is standing on the other side of the fire, drying herself and her clothes. Shinji wonders if he is dreaming—but then he recognizes the girl as Hatsue. He decides to pretend to be asleep so that he can watch her a while longer through half-closed eyes. Diving women such as Hatsue, Shinji knows, are accustomed to drying themselves by a large communal fire—albeit with other women—as soon as they emerge from the sea. Shinji knows that the thought of undressing before a man never entered Hatsue’s head—she came in, saw the fire, and began to dry herself in the way she has always been taught to.

Shinji blinks. Hatsue notices the movement. She screams out for him to shut his eyes, and, though he has been admiring Hatsue’s body, he does so. He realizes, however, that there’s no fault in what he or Hatsue has done—she is simply drying herself, and he woke up in the middle of that process. Shinji opens his eyes again and faces Hatsue directly. Shinji tries to approach Hatsue, but she scoots away from him. She tells him she’s embarrassed, and he asks what would ease her embarrassment. Hatsue says that if Shinji disrobed, too, she would feel less alone and ashamed. Shinji immediately begins to take his clothes off. The two stand before each other, naked except for their underwear. Hatsue remarks that Shinji hasn’t taken his off. He says that if she will, he will too. Hatsue smiles and removes her underwear. Shinji does so, too.

As the storm intensifies, Shinji and Hatsue leap toward one another and embrace. They sink to the floor by the fire and begin to kiss, but Hatsue insists that she will not sleep with Shinji before she’s married—it’s “bad” for a girl to do such a thing. Hatsue tells Shinji she wants to marry him—they should wait, she says, until after they are legally bound. Shinji and Hatsue continue holding one another quietly by the fire for some time, listening to the sounds of the storm. Shinji feels “pure and holy happiness” with Hatsue in his arms. After a while, he goes over to the pile of his clothes and retrieves the seashell for Hatsue. She accepts it happily and kisses him deeply.

When it is time for Shinji and Hatsue to head home, they walk the easiest path down the mountain—the path takes them directly past the lighthouse, where the lonely Chiyoko, who is sitting in the living room gazing out the window at the storm, catches sight of Hatsue and Shinji, snuggled together, walking by. Chiyoko is reminded of a rumor she heard at school about a classmate who was seduced by the man she was in love with. Chiyoko turns away from the window and returns to studying. Neither her mother nor her father has seen what she has seen.