Haru no mezame (1947)

In a small provincial town, Kumiko Hirobe divides her time as a high-school student between her traditional family and her two friends: Hanae Takemura, whose mother runs the Akebono, where she teaches the koto and receives clients, and Kyōko Machii, the daughter of liberal parents. Three older boys gravitate toward them: Kōji Ogura, the son of the town doctor; Kunio Takemura, Hanae’s older brother; and the young painter Shinkichi Noshiro. Bonds begin to form among them. In a bucolic, springtime atmosphere, the girls lie in the grass and recite Heine’s poems without really understanding what they are reading; no adult is willing to talk to them about sex. Clues begin to accumulate. The Hirobes’ maid is dismissed because of her affair with a black-market trader; at school, a “suggestive” picture prompts a search of the lockers and gets Kumiko in trouble when a photograph shows her with Kōji. Akiko, a classmate, misses the annual medical examination. During a walk above the temple, Noshiro, overjoyed at having finished his painting, leads Kumiko into a meadow, where they roll around laughing; he suddenly kisses her. Thinking that this is how one becomes pregnant, Kumiko runs away; a storm breaks. At home, Kumiko now refuses to bathe with her little sister, learns to lie, and swings from laughter to tears. Her worried parents call Dr. Ogura, who advises them to stop treating their daughter like a child. Akiko’s revealed pregnancy proves the doctor right. Noshiro has abandoned his studies to pursue a career as a painter in Tokyo. At the start of the summer holidays, Kumiko watches her four friends swim freely from the shore of a lake.