That summer was special. The summer that it happened, and the summer I spent coming to this city to interview people connected with it, are joined in my mind. I associate both summers with the colour white.
-- Makiko ("Part One: From the Sea")

Importance: Makiko has strong associations with the color white because of the murders at the Aosawa house. This quote is important because, while white might traditionally represent purity, in the novel it comes to represent horror and abuse based on the associations with the murder through the white flowers in the tree outside the house as well as the white flowers in the prayer room where Hisako is abused by her mother.

If I may speak frankly – and please don’t misunderstand me – I wonder if a crime like this, something beyond our comprehension, is more of an accident than anything else. At some point it begins to roll down a slope, like a...
-- Makiko ("Part One: From the Sea")