Yoko Ogawa’s short story, “Old Mrs. J.” is an interesting piece that at first glance looks like it could be a true story about a really crazy and intruding land lady that Ogawa had earlier in her career. Then it takes an almost supernatural turn and plunges into a menacing tonal shift that stays until the end. Unfortunately, it ends right when it starts getting interesting, so clearly the point of the story lies in the buildup to the climax in a journey is more important than the destination type of way. The little hints spread throughout the beginning and middle of the story are critical in finding the point of the entire story: that just because something appears innocent does not mean that it will not have malicious intentions and that nature pushes back when intruded upon.

Old Mrs. J. is first portrayed as a craggy old lady spends her days spying on her tenants and padding around in her garden. She even mentions that Mrs. J. is pretty uncoordinated, “She was unsteady on her feet and was constantly bumping into chairs or knocking over something on the table (Ogawa 1). This makes the atrocious actions that Mrs. J. has and will commit even more amazing since she has trouble eating in front of the TV and during the story she has the stealth to bury her victims and pick loads of kiwis off of trees in the middle of the night without waking anyone in the building. Which means either Mrs. J. is a really good actions and she is aware of her attentions and puts on a persona to deceive everyone else, or she truly is just an old lady but is possessed by something else and controls her actions at night. Instead of turning into a werewolf, she buries her victims in kiwis. Whichever the case, Ogawa is trying to prove that things are not always as they seem. Mrs. J. is relatable to a Venus fly trap, in that her pollen that attracts her bees (people) she brings her victims in by giving them massages or by marrying them and then kills without mercy. Mrs. J. herself is not the only piece of the story that is typically perceived as innocent. Mrs. J. is not written as brooding around with an icepick in one hand and a rope in the other that screams that something is not right. Mrs. J. utilizes a garden which brings nostalgia of planting seeds with one’s mother and sneaking strawberries from behind her back, and she sneaks around picking kiwis instead of making back alley deals with an arms dealer. Even after the reader finds out the answer to what is happening to the kiwis at night, hiding bodies is not the first thing that comes to mind. Maybe Mrs. J. is baking a huge kiwi cream pie for all of her tenants or selling them on the side. Nature is not just used to help Mrs. J. perform these hideous acts but ironically it brings her downfall.

Since “Old Mrs. J.” was originally written by a Japanese writer and nature is a prominent part of their culture and ancestry, Ogawa writes nature as almost a character in her story. Nature is written similarly to the Force in that it is ever-present and has a life of its own. It is clear that Mrs. J. loves her garden but she probably never would have guessed that it would be it that betrays her. Nature is present all throughout Mrs. J’s cover up process. From the kiwis being used as temporary storage (there are a lot better means to store a body like a freezer), to the garden being the actual burial place (rather than in a river or somewhere discrete instead of a place right where everyone walks past), and lastly to the tell itself in the form of carrot hands. It is eerie that nature knew exactly who Mrs. J. killed and then made a matching pair of hands to replace their dismembered ones. “A large, middle-aged man appeared at her apartment (Ogawa 2)” … “There were all sorts: swollen hands, hairy hands, blotchy hands. . . (Ogawa 4)” One of the underlying hints to what may come is the fact that Ogawa attributed a type of person to the carrot hands that came out of the ground which off puts the reader. Ogawa uses this to her advantage on how the reader does not know if the carrot hands are just a miracle of nature or nature itself is trying to tell the reader/narrator something which further personifies it.  

In the end “Old Mrs. J.” is a unique piece that provides an interesting story with an abrupt ending but captivates the reader throughout. The lead up to the climax is where Ogawa works in the shadows to provide her purpose and lessons from the story. The story reads closely to a folk story because of the using of personification and the presence of a life lesson of sorts. Ogawa teaches the reader the lesson of being wary of all things especially ones that act innocent. She also provides a modern social commentary on the current status of our world. Whether it be the deforesting of the Amazon Rainforest, melting of glacial icecaps, and the depletion of the ozone layer which all can find their cause to humans, Ogawa gives a warning that at some point nature strikes back.