Strange Houses

Kurihara supports Uketsu’s journey to discover the truth about the novel’s titular houses. Kurihara is characterized as a draftsman with a deep interest in mysteries. The latter trait is evidenced by his apartment, which is filled with mystery novels and architecture books.

Kurihara is a flat, static character. He never undergoes a character arc, nor are there any hints of his life outside of the investigation that Uketsu involves him in. He exists to provoke Uketsu’s curiosity by interpreting the floor plans and offering new theories about the kinds of life that lived in them.

The novel implies that Kurihara gains pleasure from provoking Uketsu. Even after Yoshie and Yuzuki’s reconciliation, Kurihara continues to prod Uketsu toward filling the holes in the mystery. The Afterword, in which he exposes Uketsu for omitting information from his retelling of their investigation, suggests that Kurihara is proud of his ability to endlessly deduce new leads from the information that Uketsu has gleaned. At the same time, Kurihara is quick to absolve himself from the emotional burden that his speculations place on Uketsu as an active investigator. He frequently frames his theories as “pure speculation” to remind Uketsu not to take what he says so seriously, even as his speculations force Uketsu to go deeper and deeper into the history of the Katabuchi clan. By disregarding this impact, Kurihara becomes a foil for Uketsu’s character.

Yuzuki Katabuchi is the novel’s secondary protagonist. While she brings Uketsu deeper into the mystery of her family’s sinister traditions, she also undergoes her own quest to reunite with her sister, Ayano, and liberate her from the Offering of the Left Hand.

Yuzuki first appears in disguise, presenting herself as the wife of a man who was supposedly killed in the Saitama house. Her subterfuge reinforces that nothing in the story is as it initially appears to be on the surface. Her access to the real people who live in these houses also helps Uketsu to sift truth from speculation, which in turn makes Kurihara less central as a resource.

Yuzuki’s backstory reveals her early exposure to trauma: She dealt with the mysterious death of her cousin, Yoichi, and Ayano’s sudden expulsion from the household. The reasons for Ayano’s expulsion remain a mystery to Yuzuki, contributing to her antagonistic relationship with her mother, Yoshie, the only other member of Yuzuki and Ayano’s family left after their father’s death. Yuzuki broke away from the family, hoping to start a new life for herself; her arc is thus central to the theme of The Struggle to Make a Better Life. Her desire to reconnect with Ayano shows maturity and nuance, as she affirms that she only wants to remain connected to the parts of her old life that bring her joy and love. When Yuzuki starts to suspect that something is wrong in Ayano’s life, she becomes motivated to find and liberate her, too, which brings her into Uketsu’s path.

Chapter 4 elucidates Yuzuki’s function as a protagonist by showing her learning the truth and reconciling with Yoshie. Unlike Uketsu, whose arc culminates in witnessing this resolution, Yuzuki grows by learning to accept that her family was acting in her best interests all along. She comes to accept Yoshie’s apology, as well as her call to help Ayano by offering emotional support. Uketsu and Yoshie thus acknowledge their need for each other in their shared quest to extend love and joy to Ayano.

Shigeharu Katabuchi is the novel’s primary antagonist. He is the mastermind behind the abusive ritual that led to the creation of the Tokyo and Saitama houses. Shigeharu is the last surviving son of Soichiro and Chizuru Katabuchi, inheriting not only their wealth but also their worldview, which prizes indulgence and comfort over communal values. That Shigeharu believes in the Offering of the Left Hand and is driven to observe it for fear of losing his wealth embodies the novel’s ideas about The Corruptive Power of Greed.

Shigeharu’s backstory underscores this point. Because he grew up in the wake of World War II, his family was no longer in active conflict with the Seikichi branch of the family. Shigeharu grew up in comfortable isolation on the family estate and continued to live there until his death, so his obsession with wealth was not predicated on need. Although the novel initially characterizes him as a devout old man who shows reverence to his dead ancestors, Shigeharu is gradually revealed to be controlling and power-hungry, forcing his family members to undergo the Offering of the Left Hand in order to preserve his wealth. For instance, he confines Misaki to his house, forcing her to carry her pregnancy to term so that the ritual can take place. He also orders the abduction of Ayano to serve as the warden to Misaki’s child, Momoya.

Shigeharu relies on his enforcer, Kiyotsugu, to carry out his threats against defiant family members. While Kiyotsugu does not believe in the superstition behind the ritual, their collaboration highlights their shared greed as the motivating force behind their actions. A news article reveals that Shigeharu and Kiyotsugu were killed by Keita, though Kurihara’s theory about Yoshie introduces the possibility that she and Ayano may have worked together to kill these two men.