By a strange twist of fate Tomizo lost his mother. The small child was cast out into a motherless quagmire. He was forced to endure the upcoming destiny.
The living apart from his father was his first predicament. Soon after his father Shozo went into bankruptcy he started Kamoji-ya (a store selling a tress of false hair) at Minami-Senjyu (downtown Tokyo), but the business was slow. Then he got a job as a caretaker of footgear at a hospital.
The job he got required irregular working hours including the late-night shift. Shozo asked his father-in-law Hikoichi Yamaguchi, or grandfather in-law of Tomizo, to take care of the infant boy as his new job precluded taking care of the small boy by himself.
As the saying goes, Nature was a good mother. Tomizo grew well, taken care by his grandpa and spent his days of 5- year-old and 6-year-old.
His father Shozo then boarded at his elder brother's home at Shitaya, from where he commuted to the hospital. The chance of meeting his father was for Tomizo only several times a year. From Shitaya to Itabashi was such a remote location at that time when the transportation was limited.
Tomizo was embarrassed when he heard his rarely-appearing-father say "It's me, your papa". He was unable to answer "Papa" like any other child. He used to sneak away from his father not knowing how to deal with him.
Soon he entered a school. He was doing very well at school, though he was a naughty boy. He was particularly good at arithmetic. This might be a burgeoning sign that he later invented by himself the Kohara system of bookkeeping and showed remarkable ability in running a business.
Though his grandfather Hikoichi was strict about manners, Tomizo used to play tricks behind the gradpa's back.
There is an interesting story about him. It was about his tricks on a girl of the house next door.
The girl was around sixteen years of age, much older than Tomizo himself. He dared to do naughty things many times on her. On one occasion the girl got angry and hit him with a stick.
He moaned with pain. Out of frustration, late in that evening, he threw a fist-sized rock into the girl's house through the front door. The light in the room flashed on followed by shrill voices "Who is it?" "What's happening?" Soon detected was a small figure of Tomizo fleeing from behind something. The house was in an uproar.
He got a good scolding from his grandfather after the detection of mischief. You may easily imagine warped minds that Tomizo had at that time.
Had he a mother's love, or were his father by his side he would not do such a mischievous thing. He probably saw his mother's shadow in the girl next door.
He probably had desire deep in his mind to attract attention from people in his neighborhood.