Oshin trains under Isho in traditional Japanese hairstyling. Two years into the apprenticeship, Oshin receives a letter from her mother informing her of the sudden death of Sayo, the younger sister of Kayo, from pneumonia. Oshin had also been her babysitter at Kaga-ya in Sakata. Oshin takes leave to visit the grieving family in Sakata. She is told that Kayo had not returned home and was somewhere in Tokyo. Kayo's mother pleads with her to stay behind but Oshin is unable to do so. Oshin is still hurting emotionally from the time Kayo and Kota left Sakata two years earlier.