"I am the daughter of a peasant from Suwa in Shinshu province," writes Hirabayashi Taiko in the introduction to Watashi no rirekisho (My Life, 1966), her series of autobiographical essays. "My grandfather was involved in Itagaki Taisuke's Freedom Party, but the silk reeling factory he ran at the time went out of business because of fluctuations in the silver market, and he died an ill man. My father, who had been adopted into the family, liquidated the company and became a farmer."

Hirabayashi was born in the village of Nakasu, Suwa-gun, in Nagano Prefecture. The silk industry flourished in that area, but following the death of her grandfather, a businessman who dabbled in politics, the once-wealthy family declined and turned to farming and operating a general store on the side. In her youth Hirabayashi recalls that she assisted her mother by tending the tiny shop where, "thanks to this...