The Marsh House is an abandoned mansion from When Marnie Was There. Marnie and her parents moved into the house when she was a toddler and she ended up living there for most of her childhood -- besides Marnie and her parents, there was also Marnie's nanny and a pair of maids living at the house, with the maids and the nanny looking after Marnie when her parents weren't around (which was basically all the time, as they were often away traveling and were only ever home a few times per year).
Sometime during Anna's stay in Kissakibetsu (the rural seaside town that the Marsh House is located in), the Doi family moves into the house from Tokyo -- Sayaka, the family's daughter, ends up moving into Marnie's old bedroom and discovers some of Marnie's old belongings hidden in certain areas around the room, like Marnie's old diary (which had some pages missing that Sayaka found later on) and a painting that Marnie's old friend, Hisako had made for her.
In film[]
The back of the marsh house
After Anna Sasaki (who has asthma) suffers a bit of health scare during a school outing, Yoriko (Anna's adoptive mother) sends her to stay with some relatives that happen to live in Kissakibetsu for the summer -- specifically, Anna's staying with Yoriko's older sister, Setsu, and Setsu's husband, Kiyomasa (making them Anna's aunt and uncle).
After arriving at Setsu and Kiyomasa's house and unpacking her things in her room for the summer, Anna sets off to the post office to let Yoriko know that she arrived in town safely and ends up exploring the town. While doing so, she (quite literally) stumbles upon the Marsh house and finds herself feeling drawn to the place. After walking across the salt marsh (as it was low tide at the time), Anna looks around the mansion grounds and looks inside through some of the windows, and it's clear that nobody's currently living there.
While having dinner with her aunt and uncle later that night, Anna (who ended up getting a boat ride back across the salt marsh from a local fisherman due to high tide coming in) tells Setsu and Kiyomasa about her little adventure. When Anna notes how the mansion appeared to be abandoned, Setsu explains how the place was originally built to be a fancy vacation home for some wealthy foreigners that moved to town sometime after WW2 ended and that ownership has changed hands several times over the years, but by the time of the movie's main events, it's been empty for quite some time. Kiyomasa also claims that, just like with the abandoned silo that Anna saw when they were driving into town from the train station, many of the locals think the marsh house is haunted.
Anna eventually meets Marnie, a girl around her age who lives in the marsh house (and who Anna eventually realizes was her biological maternal grandmother). Marnie and Anna spend time together over the course of the movie, including in and around the mansion as well as the land nearby (including the abandoned silo, which Marnie is deeply afraid of). Before Anna explores the silo with Marnie, the Doi family buys and moves into the old Marsh house, even start having the house renovated as well. The family's daughter, Sayaka, moves into Marnie's old room and discovers some of Marnie's old belongings (like her diary and a painting that Hisako had made for Marnie before she moved out of the house). Anna and Sayaka become friends and start hanging out together, and by the end of the movie, when it's time for Anna to go back home to Sapporo, the two girls promise to keep in touch.
Also, at the end of the movie, when Yoriko arrives in Kissakibetsu to bring Anna home to Sapporo, Yoriko gives her daughter an old photograph that she had carried around with her at the orphanage she and Mr. Sasaki had adopted Anna from, claiming that the photograph had belonged to Anna's biological grandmother. Seeing that the photograph is of the Marsh house (along with seeing Marnie's name written on the back of it) is what makes Anna realize that Marnie was her grandmother (as well as the fact that Marnie's daughter, Emily, was her biological mother) and also helps to bring Anna closure about her identity and her past.
Resident(s)[]
Current[]
- Sayaka
- Takeshi Doi and the Doi family