Hisako (久子) is an artist who appears in Studio Ghibli's film When Marnie Was There, a film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi.
A longtime resident of Kissakibetsu, Hisako's an artist just like Anna is, although while Anna focuses more on drawing, Hisako focuses more on painting -- after Anna is sent off to Kissakibetsu by her (adoptive) mother, Yoriko Sasaki, to stay with Setsu and Kiyomasa Oiwa (relatives from Yoriko's side of the family) for the summer, Hisako meets Anna after the two of them happen to pick the same spot to work on some artwork (during which they also complement each other on their artistic skills and projects). Hisako, who loves drawing/painting the Marsh house (the house that Marnie had grown up in), is the one who ultimately reveals to Anna that a family had bought the house (after it had been empty/abandoned for a long time) and that renovations are going to be done on it soon -- this also leads to Anna meeting/befriending Sayaka Doi.
Later on, after Anna recovers from a fever after getting caught in a terrible rainstorm, Sayaka comes over to the Oiwas and shows Anna a painting she found in her bedroom (which was the room that Marnie occupied when she was still living in the house). When they see that Hisako had made the painting, they go to her and question her on it -- Hisako confirms that she made the painting and had given it to Marnie, who Hisako explains had been an old friend of hers. Hisako agrees to tell them Marnie's story but warns that it's a very sad story, although Anna and Sayaka make it clear that they want to know everything (especially Anna).
Hisako starts off her story by explaining how she had known Marnie (whose family had moved to Kissakibetsu when Marnie was two) since they were very young children and reveals that, despite coming from a wealthy family and often flaunting all the perks that came with it (like the presents she'd receive from her parents and the glamorous parties her parents would host at their house), Marnie honestly had a rather rough home life -- her parents were often away traveling, leaving Marnie under the guardianship of an abusive nanny and a pair of mean-spirited maids (apparently the only other people living at the mansion besides Marnie and her parents). Once Marnie reached adulthood, she moved to Sapporo and got married to Kazuhiko, another old friend of theirs and who Hisako describes as being one of the one of the few people who had always been there for Marnie when she really needed it. And about two years after Marnie and Kazuhiko got married, Marnie gave birth to their daughter, Emily -- Hisako then reveals that, after Emily was born, she didn't see Marnie again for quite some time, and that the next time she and Marnie saw each other in person was a few years after Kazuhiko passed away unexpectedly sometime during Emily's early childhood.
Hisako goes on to explain how Marnie had been so devastated by Kazuhiko's death that she was committed to a sanatorium (which, as Anna explains to Sayaka, is "a place where you go to get better") -- and because of how Marnie was an only child and how both of her parents had already passed away by the time Kazuhiko died, and we also never hear anything about the relatives from Kazuhiko's side of the family, Marnie had Emily sent off to a boarding school so she could be taken care of properly (since it's not like Marnie was in the proper mental state to be able to take care of her daughter). While Emily moved back home sometime after she turned 13, she was (kind of understandably) furious with Marnie for basically abandoning her and the mother and daughter were never able to truly reconcile. In fact, sometime after Emily reached adulthood, she (after having one last argument with Marnie) ended up basically running away from home to marry the man who had gotten her pregnant.
While the mother and daughter never saw each other in person ever again, when Emily's child (a daughter) was around a year old, Marnie received word that Emily and her husband had been killed in a car accident -- Marnie was able to assume guardianship of her and Kazuhiko's only grandchild and vowed to give her the kind of life that she herself had been unable to have and had been unable to give to Emily. While Marnie obviously loved her granddaughter very much and took amazing care of her, Marnie (obviously devastated by the death of her daughter despite their issues with each other) ended up passing away only about a year after Emily and her husband died, when her granddaughter would've only been around 2-years-old.
And much like when Emily had been sent off to boarding school, Marnie's granddaughter apparently didn't have any other friends or relatives that could (or were willing) to take her in after Marnie died -- although in the case of Marnie's granddaughter, the child was ultimately sent off to an orphanage (which Hisako claims had happened about ten years prior to the movie's main events). Once Hisako's done telling Marnie's story, Anna and Sayaka are both crying, but thank Hisako for telling them everything.
At the end of the movie, Anna eventually realizes that the little girl Hisako was talking about was actually herself, which also means that Emily and her husband were her biological parents and that Marnie and Kazuhiko were her biological maternal grandparents -- learning all of this helps to bring Anna closure about her identity and her past.
When Anna's adoptive mother, Yoriko Sasaki, arrives in Kissakibetsu to bring her back home to Sapporo, Anna makes sure to say goodbye to Hisako and also introduces her to Yoriko.
Etymology[]
- The name Hisako means "long time" (久) (hisa) and "child" (子) (ko).
Trivia[]
- Hisako is based off of Gillie from the original novel version of When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson -- like Hisako from the movie, Gillie from the novel is ultimately established as having been an old friend of the titular character
- One of the differences between Hisako and Gillie is that, in the original novel, Gillie is also a family friend to the Lindsays (whom Sayaka and her family are based) -- but in the movie, Hisako (presumably) never met any member of the Doi-family (including Sayaka) prior to them moving to Kissakibetsu from Tokyo.