Yoko Ogawa’s text Old Mrs. J is based on misconception. It is based on the incorrect premise that every example of a type of thing or person thinks or acts in the same way, or is the same way. Throughout the text, Ogawa gradually unravels the stereotype of elderly women being perceived as gentle, kind, and loving.  Not everything is as it seems or is perceived to be, and in the case of Mrs. J, there is more than meets the eye. 

All throughout Old Mrs. J, many things do not turn out to be as they seem. It begins and ends with Mrs. J’s garden. Gardens are normally regarded as harmonious, calm, and tranquil places where one might take part in a potentially enjoyable and relaxing activity. Mrs. J’s own garden seems to fall in line with the general view early in the text when Mrs. J herself is “much more at ease” while tending to her crop (Ogawa 1). At this early point in the story, the garden gives off so much of a vibrant, youthful vibe that even the narrator believes that Mrs. J is a “different woman” in her orchard (Ogawa 1). As quickly as Ogawa starts to follow the common understanding, however, she starts to break it almost immediately when Mrs. J complains to the narrator about the stray cat. Upon the discovery of Mrs. J’s husband’s body in the vegetable patch, the perception is completely abandoned. The formerly young, positive, and relaxing area inside the U-shaped building now has a dark, deathly stigma attached to it, and its owner is nowhere to be found. 

Another perception is broken when the narrator witnesses Mrs. J carrying an overstuffed box down to the abandoned post office. This is when the post office gains a certain peculiarity. Before the narrator witnesses Mrs. J carrying the box, it is observed that Mrs. J’s kiwis are growing on trees one day, yet they are absent the next day. Shortly after this, Mrs. J complains to the narrator about the stray cat. Toward the end of the story, “a mountain” of kiwis are found in the post office on top of the cat’s corpse (Ogawa 5). Now, instead of being the insignificant building that the post office was thought out to be, it is now plagued by death, like the garden. Abandoned buildings are perceived to be dilapidated, vacant, and potentially unstable structures that are awaiting demolition. They may be connected to dead bodies in a joking manner, but not many truly expect a decaying body of any kind to be in a run-down building.

Around the middle of the story, after Mrs. J gives the generously sized man a massage, she excitedly comes into the narrator’s apartment, holding a carrot. The carrot is noticeably shaped like a chunky hand, it noticeably feels like flesh when cut, and the supposed “greens” on the carrot look like lace from a person’s clothes (Ogawa 3). Soon after, Mrs. J “finds” more of these carrots. When Mrs. J’s husband’s handless corpse is discovered in the garden, it is realized that the “carrots” never were in fact carrots and were actual human hands. It can be inferred that the original chubby hand belongs to the man Mrs. J gave a massage to. No longer intriguing or potentially exciting, the carrots also succumb to death and become symbols of murder. 

When Mrs. J describes her husband to the narrator and reader, she gives him negative connotations and describes the man as a lowlife alcoholic with a gambling addiction that died during a day at the beach. The reader and the narrator have no choice but to believe this, however, near the end of the text, Mrs. J’s husband’s body is found in her orchard. Now Mrs. J’s original account of her husband can be disputed and questioned. There is a possibility that Mr. J was a perfectly stable and loving husband, but for some reason, Mrs. J ceased to like him or wanted something of his, so she chose to murder him. There is a possibility that Mr. J was in fact a drunk gambler, but he did not die at the beach and Mrs. J killed him instead. Once again, what is originally presented does not, at least completely, turn out to be the truth. 

Finally, there is Mrs. J herself. Elderly women are thought of as gentle, kind, motherly, and clumsy people. Mrs. J gets increasingly less motherly-like as the text goes on. Mrs. J knowingly almost kills the narrator when giving her a massage, and the narrator notes that after Mrs. J got on top of her with “tremendous force”, it felt like she was underneath an “iron blanket” (Ogawa 4). Shortly into the massage, it is noted that “her fingers were cold” and that “if she went on much longer, her fingers would scrape away my skin, rip my flesh, and crush my bones” (Ogawa 4).  This ordeal proves to the reader that Mrs. J is uncharacteristically strong for who she is. No normal grandmother should be physically able to apply such a high level of force to another human being. By the end of the text, Mrs. J has also gone missing and there is no reason for an elderly woman to suddenly disappear without any previous symptoms of dementia or other common illness in the elderly. The discovery of Mr. J’s dead body in the orchard finally confirms to the narrator that Mrs. J is not a normal grandmother that is weak, caring, or kind. 

Each little instance where a common idea is fragmented helps build onto the fact that Old Mrs. J is built on misinterpretation. From the garden to the post office, to Mrs. J’s husband and finally to Mrs. J herself, it is constantly shown that not all things or people turn out to be as they initially appear. Common ideas about people and things are embedded in our minds, and we do not expect these perceptions to be challenged or disputed. There are objects and people who are not as they seem. 
