It was one evening in August, 1915.  His mounting longing for family or yearning for living with his father came to the boil.

At the ticket gate at Shimoitabashi Station there was a figure of a boy, asking a ticket clipper, "Which platform does the train for Tokyo leave from?"  The ticket clipper asked the boy whether he had money to buy a ticket.  He replied, "I have nine Sen." That very boy was Tomizo who followed his father left him a while ago.  His grandfather Hikoichi, who noticed the disappearance of Tomizo, caught him at last and brought him back home.
Tomizo pleaded, "I want live with my daddy", and cried all night. Hikoichi decided that it was no longer possible to keep him in his custody.

Tomizo's wish came true. He was allowed to live with his father in his uncle's house at Shitaya.  He was then a third grader.  Though his dream was realized, life was not easy for him. The room assigned to Tomizo and his father was very small (a three-tatami-mat room), and the circumstances did not allow to live off his uncle simply.  His uncle ran both a rice store and a yakiimo-ya (a baked sweet potato store).  As the profit from the stores was scarce, it was not much of a living that his family could make, let alone Tomizo and his father.   The country's economy was in a deep recession in those days.

After school Tomizo worked very hard as a delivery person for rice, washing the potatoes, or babysitting his cousin.  He thought in his own way that he would be able to continue living with his father if he worked in earnest.

Tomizo's cousin Kaneo Kohara (former managing director of Kohara Gear Industry Co., Ltd.) reminisced about those days saying:
"Tomizo-san worked like a beaver when he was with us.  He just worked and worked.
He told me later that what he experienced - the separation from his mother by death and the living apart from his father - gave him ample food for thought. One of them was that money was important in life. The philosophy of life he acquired through his experience later helped him when he started a company and managed it."

So to speak, a small gear named Tomizo started to mesh with a giant gear called the world.  Though his grade in class dipped slightly because of change of schools, his unyielding spirit and sense of justice remained the same. Here's an interesting story about him:

There was a temple called Anrakuji in the neighborhood.  A junior high school student, who was the son of Anrakuji priest, often made fun of Tomizo always strapping a baby on his back.  One day the two got into a quarrel and then turned into a fistfight.  Small and baby-carrying Tomizo was not a match for the priest's son. He planned to get back at him after returning home crying. His strong sense of justice precluded him from yielding to unreasonable tormenting. He went to the temple that day when dusk was gathering, carrying a heavy stick, to ambush the priest's son.  Fortunately or unfortunately, fighting did not take place as the priest's son did not come home that night as he was a boarder.

There is another story that exemplifies Tomizo's unyielding spirit.  Kaneo Kohara looked back the day when Tomizo was a schoolboy-rice-deliveryman:   
"Tomizo-san once delivered a bag of rice that was as heavy as his own weight from Shitaya to Oji," said Kaneo, "following his uncle who was also carrying a bag of rice. Tomizo-san trudged such a long distance (about two miles).  He needed help from his uncle when lifting the bag on his shoulder, as the bag was so heavy."    

As a schoolboy Tomizo wanted to get a small pocket money to buy stationery.  So he begged some pocket money from his father coming home late at night.  Tomizo felt warmth of his dad when he was allowed small money.