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Taeko (as a child) complains about not having a nice handbag and refuses to go
out to dinner with the rest of the family. When she realises that they are
willing to go without her, she bursts out the door after them - regretting the
tantrum she just had.

Once she leaves the front door, her father hits her for seeing her come out
the house with no shoes.

She recalls that this was the first time, and the only time, that her father
had hit her.

I realise that she was being bratty, but what was so bad about leaving the
house without shoes on (compared to having a selfish tantrum about handbags)?
Is it a cultural thing?


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2015-04-23T13:54:49.880
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question
only-yesterday
Why did Taeko's father hit her?


This is an impactful yet controversial scene that baffles even the Japanese
viewers. In chapter 22 of the original, semi-autobiographical manga that the
Ghibli film is based on, the author speculates that Taeko's father physically
punished Taeko because she was not acting in line with his principle of
raising a dignified (read of higher class) daughter. This is because in post-
war Japan, including the time of Taeko's childhood in 1966, barefootedness
(outside of house) was commonly associated with poverty. (Cf. the classic
manga _[Barefoot Gen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_Gen)_ by
Hiroshima survivor Keiji Nakazawa that is also a testimony to the living
conditions of the impoverished people.) Whether Taeko was acting selfish or
bratty probably was of no concern to her father.

> 原作コミック（岡本蛍・作 刀根夕子・画）の２２話「ワガママ」には
>
> 「ひょっとして父は・・・タエ子のワガママにいまさら腹を立てたのではなかったかもしれないはだしで飛び出すというそのみっともなさ
> あさましさに激怒したのではなかったろうか ワガママでもいい 凛々しく育ってほしい・・・それが父の美学だったのかもしれない」

Quoted from
<http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q13117211068>.

On a side note,
[はだし教育](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%AF%E3%81%A0%E3%81%97%E6%95%99%E8%82%B2)
(hadashi kyouiku, _Barefoot Education_ ) is generally well-received these
days, so I don't think that children leaving the house without shoes on would
incur that kind of penalty anymore.

Inspired by a post-viewing [reflection
article](http://blog.goo.ne.jp/ludic/e/578592a611a351a750302fb470625c1d) (in
Japanese, a good read), I think the scene of Taeko running out of the house in
barefoot prompted the recall of the original [inferiority
feeling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferiority_complex) by the father and
was treated as an attack on his [feeling of
superiority](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superiority_complex) that was his
defense mechanism. It is all based on assumptions really, but could it be that
the father was once poor and worked his way up to the middle-upper class? Was
his sumptuous lifestyle (e.g. buying the then rare and expensive pineapple and
not finish eating it) an overcompensation for his earlier days? The relevant
parts in the Wikipedia articles (emphasis by me):

> Superiority complex is a psychological defense mechanism in which a person's
> feelings of superiority counter or conceal his or her feelings of
> inferiority. [...] [I]f we inquire into a superiority complex and study its
> continuity, we can always find a more or less **hidden inferiority [feeling]
> complex**.

> [Inferiority complex] is often subconscious, and is thought to drive
> afflicted individuals to **overcompensate** , resulting either in
> **spectacular achievement or extreme asocial behavior.** [...] A secondary
> inferiority feeling relates to an adult's experience of being unable to
> reach a subconscious, fictional final goal of subjective security and
> success to compensate for the inferiority feelings. The perceived distance
> from that goal would lead to a negative/depressed feeling that could then
> **prompt the recall of the original inferiority feeling** ; this composite
> of inferiority feelings could be experienced as **overwhelming**.

The inner workings of human beings are really complex, as this example in the
film has shown, with many viewers, myself included, still begging for an
explanation of the motives behind the father's action. There may never be a
definitive answer.


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