The green moss
The narrator uses a simile in which they compare the feeling of the green moss near the pond to a blanket. The use of the simile enables the conception of the comfortable feeling associated with seating on the moss: “The green moss was like a soft blanket.”
Matsu’s strength
The narrator asks how Matsu was at his age. His father answers using a simile where he compares Matsu to a bull. In this way, the extra-ordinary strength that Matsu had at that age is comprehensible: “Matsu was like a bull, his energy pent up as if he was ready to break out at any moment.”
The leprosy epidemic
The narrator becomes increasingly interested in how Sachi-san had caught leprosy. In his answer, Matsu uses a simile to bring out how quickly and rapidly the disease had been spreading at that time by comparing it to wildfire: “The leprosy? […] It was like a wildfire back then. It couldn’t be stopped once it began.”
The origin of leprosy
The origins of leprosy remain quite a mystery to Matsu as he is unable to place exactly where the disease had begun spreading from. Matsu is of the idea that perhaps the disease had always been there “always incubating, waiting like a smoldering fire to spread out.” The use of the simile facilitates a more predominant understanding of the pre-infectious period of the disease using the imagery of the smoldering fire.
Savouring the last few strokes of the paint
Painting is central to the narrator’s life. The narrator uses a simile to bring out how he wanted to savor the last few strokes of the painting as if they were prized droplets of water: “The painting’s almost complete and part of me wants to save it, savour the last few strokes like precious drops of water.” In this way, the reader is able to understand how much the narrator enjoyed working on this painting.
