“I suppose I’m like a river that has come up against a dam, and that dam is Hatsumomo.”
-Chiyo

“I can see you have a great deal of water in your personality. Water never waits. It changes shapes and flows around things, and finds the secret paths no one else has thought about-the tiny hole through the roof or the bottom of a box. There’s no doubt it’s the most versatile of the five elements. It can wash away earth; it can put out fire; it can wear a piece of metal down and sweep it away. Even wood, which is its natural complement, can’t survive without it being nurtured by water. Those of us with water in our personalities don’t pick where we’ll flow. All we can do is flow where the landscape of our lives takes us.”
-Mameha