The underlined line in father's letter
When Mukōda was a student home for a winter visit, her father, an insurance branch manager in Sendai, hosted a drinking party. One of the guests vomited in the frozen entryway, and she cleaned it up by hand while her father watched and said nothing. After she returned to Tokyo, his usual stiff, instructional letter arrived with one phrase underlined in red, roughly 'your exceptional service on this occasion.' That underline was the entire apology, the 'wabijō' of the title.