Yaeko Nishimiya (西宮 八重子, Nishimiya Yaeko?) is a supporting character. She is featured as the Tritagonist in the Koe no Katachi series. She is the daughter of Ito Nishimiya and the single mother of Shōko and Yuzuru Nishimiya.
Personality[]
Yaeko appears to be very strict and aloof, even to her own daughters, not helped by the nearly emotionless expression she adopts during a lot of her appearances. In truth, Yaeko is a woman who hides her emotions behind a wall, much like her daughter Yuzuru.
For a decent portion of the series, Yaeko is only capable of openly expressing her anger and resentment, tending to shout at or even physically retaliate against people she dislikes. However, Yaeko does have a kinder, motherly side, something that resurfaces after her mother passes away and she begins to reconnect with her daughters.
Yaeko is somewhat honorable, though it can sometimes contradict her resentful feelings. A key example of this is when she offers Shōya Ishida an umbrella for helping her find Shōko in the rain, only to immediately tell him that he can't erase the pain he’s caused her.
Physical appearance[]
Yaeko has dusty rose hair that is a similar color to that of Shōko's, grayish blue eyes, and she looks fairly similar to her older daughter, though much older and with a much less welcoming look on her face, most often frowning due to her stoic nature.
History[]
Yaeko and her husband had been together for some time when they had Shōko. When Shōko was three years old, the family discovered that she was deaf. Yaeko's husband then declared that he wanted a divorce, with his mother adding that Shōko or Yaeko must have accumulated bad karma from a previous life. Yaeko protests this, claiming that her husband had gotten her sick during her pregnancy, which caused Shōko's deafness, though her husband refused to take responsibility.
After her husband left her, Yaeko realized that she was pregnant with a second child and decided to work at the hospital, resolving to be strong for the sake of her children. Overwhelmed by her work, Yaeko rarely sees her daughters, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Likely because of this, Yaeko does not know how to show affection and is cold and distant in her daughters' presence.
Faced with Shōko's harassment by her schoolmates, Yaeko doesn't know how to react and transfers her from school to school. In the meantime, she wants her to get strong and wants to cut her hair so that she looks more like a strong boy. She goes with her daughter to Miyako Ishida's hair salon, but the latter does not realize her wish and prefers to follow Shōko who preferred a simple bob cut. Furious, Yaeko leaves and takes it upon herself to cut Shōko's hair on the way home. Yuzuru and Ito are left speechless.
It is then that Yuzuru makes the decision to cut her own hair herself in order to ensure her sister's protection. At her new school, Suimon Elementary, Shōko is always bullied and in the five months of school, eight of her hearing aids are lost or broken. Yaeko complains to the school administration, which leads to an intervention in Shōko's class on the day she is absent, which leads to the outcome of this discussion to declare Shōya Ishida solely responsible for the bullying inflicted on Shōko.
At that time, Miyako wants to repay Yaeko. During their discussion, Yaeko, annoyed, inflicts a blow on Miyako who tears off her earring and the lobe of her right ear begins to bleed. Years later, Yaeko sees Shōya again after he saw Shōko again. She slaps him violently, unable to bear it. She forbids her two daughters to go see him, but Yuzuru retorts that they do what they want. They continue to visit him. Subsequently, circumstances cause them to see each other again, directly or indirectly, as is the case during the death of Ito when he sees her crying out of sight. In the manga, Shōya takes care to help Yuzuru and read her grandmother's letter to her; Yaeko then thanks him.
Sometime later, Shōya is invited by Yaeko's daughters to prepare her birthday cake. Yaeko is beside herself, but she tastes their cake and calms down, telling herself that it's worth enjoying their little party in her honor anyway. She gradually begins to accept Shōya, so much so that when he is invited to come with the Nishimiya family to watch the fireworks, she does not object. Learning that he sacrificed himself in order to save Shōko from her suicide attempt, Yaeko blames herself and is sincerely grateful to him.
She apologizes to Miyako, which embarrasses the latter who assumes that she should stay happy as long as Shōko is well. Shortly after, Yaeko fights against Naoka Ueno who assaults her daughter. In the evening, seeing that Yuzuru has in fact taken pictures of dead animals to prevent her sister from thinking about killing herself and that she cries to herself that it was useless, Yaeko is overwhelmed by the emotions and no longer holds back her tears in front of her daughters. Thereafter, everything works out between Yaeko and the Ishida family: she genuinely accepts Shōya and is closer to Miyako whom she now considers her friend, knowing that they have in fact experienced the same pains in the past concerning ex-husbands.
List of appearances[]
Volume 01[]
- Side Story — "7 Months Earlier"
- Chapter 03 — "Hahahahaha"
Volume 02[]
- Chapter 07 — "I Gave Up Once Before"
- Chapter 11 — "That Face"
- Chapter 12 — "Sis"
- Chapter 13 — "Struggle"
Volume 04[]
- Chapter 29 — "Granny"
- Chapter 30 — "Support"
- Chapter 31 — "Letter"
- Chapter 32 — "Gum Syrup"
- Side Story — "Sisters"
Volume 05[]
- Chapter 41 — "Everyone"
- Chapter 42 — "Fireworks"
Volume 06[]
- Chapter 44 — "Blight"
- Chapter 45 — "It Was All For Nothing?"
- Chapter 51 — "Shōko Nishimiya" (cameo)
Volume 07[]
- Chapter 53 — "To the Bridge" (cameo)
- Chapter 54 — "To You"
- Chapter 55 — "Homecoming"
- Chapter 61 — "Graduation"
- Chapter 62 — "A Silent Voice"
Relationships[]
Friends[]
Miyako Ishida: Yaeko and Miyako initially have a tense relationship, though they eventually reconcile and become friends. When Miyako chooses to give Shōko Nishimiya the haircut she wants instead of forcing her mother’s choice onto her, Yaeko insults her and leaves the salon in a fit of rage.
They speak again some months later when Miyako tries to get Shōya to apologize for being a bully, although Yaeko lies about Shōko not being present and talks with Miyako at a nearby café instead. It’s unclear if the conversation turned into a physical altercation, but Miyako returns to her son with the earring ripped from her right ear lobe.
When Shōya falls into a coma after saving Shōko’s life, Yaeko finds Miyako in the hospital and sincerely apologizes. After Shōya recovers, the Ishidas and Nishimiyas have dinner together, where Miyako sends Shōya to take the girls to the store when she and Yaeko begin to argue. However, when they return they find the two older women having a drink together and casually talking, showing that they managed to work out their differences and become friends. They continue to hang out often after this, with Yaeko even getting a haircut from Miyako in Chapter 62.
Shōya Ishida: Due to Shōya being her daughter’s biggest bully, Yaeko has a hatred for and greatly distrusts Shōya at first, wanting him to stay away from her family. She prevents Shōya from apologizing to Shōko Nishimiya while they were still in sixth grade, instead lying about Shōko’s presence at the bridge and going off to speak to Miyako Ishida alone.
Upon seeing Shōya for the first time in several years, her first impulse is to walk up and slap him. However, as Shōya’s friendship with Yaeko’s daughters grows and he continues to help them, she slowly warms up to him, even thanking him for being Yuzuru Nishimiya’s friend during Ito Nishimiya’s funeral.
After Shōya saves Shōko’s life and recovers from his injuries, Yaeko is grateful and apologizes to him when their families have dinner together. The two aren’t shown interacting many more times after this, but it appears Yaeko has taken a liking to Shōya after everything that’s happened.
Family[]
Ito Nishimiya †: Yaeko loved her mother very much as she was there when she needed her the most, in particular when her husband abandoned the family. Ito helped raise Yaeko’s daughters and even learned sign language so she can communicate with Shōko.
Ito understands why her daughter acts aloof and tries to guide her to being more loving towards her children, though Yaeko rejects the advice until Ito passes away years later. Yaeko is devastated at the loss of her mother and cries to herself during the funeral. Yaeko heeds her late mother's words and begins acting more like a mother to her daughters.
Shōko Nishimiya: Yaeko never learned sign language, so her ability to communicate with Shōko is very limited compared to the rest of her family and even Shōya Ishida, causing a huge gap in understanding between the two. When she is around her oldest daughter, Yaeko acts rather cold and forceful towards her. However, Yaeko cares deeply about Shōko and wants her to live the best life she can, even if that means she has to push her daughter to be strong by being strict and avoiding praising her.
Towards the end of the series, Yaeko makes an effort to be closer with her daughters, even allowing Shōko to move to Tokyo after graduating and follow her dream of becoming a hairdresser despite initially being against the idea.
Yuzuru Nishimiya: Yaeko has a rather distant relationship with her youngest daughter for most of the series, though their issues are mostly shown through Yuzuru's perspective instead of Yaeko's. Yuzuru believes her mother doesn't care about her or Shōko Nishimiya. This stems from a lack of understanding due to several factors, namely that Yaeko works long hours and isn’t around very often, along with the fact that she is generally withdrawn when she is home.
Yaeko cares deeply about her family, but has a difficult time expressing her love for them. However, this begins to change after her mother passes away, with Yaeko appearing to get along much better with Yuzuru and opening up to her towards the end of the series.
Ex-Husband and In-Law's: Not much is known about Yaeko's marriage besides her husband and in-laws leaving the Nishimiyas, but they blamed her for Shōko Nishimiya's hearing impairment. Her ex-husband and in-laws made disparging remarks towards Shōko while Yaeko desperately stated that an illness caused Shōko's disability and caught it from her ex-husband.
After Yaeko's father-in-law accused her and Ito Nishimiya of lacking knowledge in the world and claiming that Shōko would turn out the same way, Yaeko tearfully demands what right they have to "decide what's right and wrong". Showing their true colors, the ex-family's prejudice would psychologically damage Yaeko and leave her alone to provide for her family.
Etymology[]
- The name Yaeko means "eight" (八) (ya), "overlap, layers/multilayered, folds"(重) (e) and "child" (子) (ko).
- Yaeko's surname Nishimiya means "west" (西) (nishi) and "temple, shrine, palace" (宮) (miya).
Trivia[]
- In Chapter 32 of the manga, Yaeko is stated to have caught an illness from Shōko’s father before or during her pregnancy with Shōko Nishimiya, which is why Shōko was born deaf. The specific illness is never stated, but it is implied to be a sexually transmitted disease or infection.