Character: Nohara Misae

The mother of the Nohara family from Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu. She is 29 years old and a typical housewife of post-war Japan, she cleans, launders, cooks, sews, mothers, and lazes all to varying degrees of success. While at heart a caring and nurturing individual, her positive aspects are often offset by her many shortcomings. A paragon of hypocrisy, after handing out irrevocable edicts to her husband and children, she will not hesitate to immediately break them once they are out of sight. She administers brutal punishment to her husband, son, and on rare occasions her year-old daughter whenever they disobey her. While she spends as little as possible on the less-essential needs of her husband and son, she loves to splurge on Himawari and herself, though she is noted to have instances of great generosity. She is the source of boundless diet and savings plans, all of which fail within the first week. For example, she is prone to immediately partake in bargain sales when she sees them, thinking she is saving the family money. However, she buys in extreme quantities, which defeats the purpose. Additionally, she secretly hoardes money for her own personal use.