Sōichirō Ito (伊藤 宗一郎, Ito Sōichirō) is a minor character in The Garden of Words. He is Yukari Yukino's colleague and former boyfriend.
Background[]
Ito was in real estate sales for three years before becoming a teacher in 2006. His lover Natsumi went to Cuba to study and they broke up in the same year.
When he started working as a teacher at Chiyoda High School, Ito believed that being friendly with the students was the key to help them grow into adults. However, because of one of his students' injuries, Ito's teaching philosophy made a U-turn. He became stern and unforgiving, in the hopes that the students would be able to face hardships when they became members of society.
He confessed his love with Yukari Yukino in 2011 Christmas and they dated until she began to skip work and they broke up.
His father passed away in March 2013 in Sendai. One month before, he reunited with his former lover Natsumi who returned to Japan 5 years before.
In The Garden of Words manga[]
Ito summoned and reprimanded Takao Akizuki for constantly skipping class.
In The Garden of Words[]
Ito calling Yukino
In June 2013, he had a phone call with Yukino and discussed her situation. In September 2013, he was seen accompanying Yukino when she returned to school.
In The Garden of Words novel[]
In December 2013, Ito met Shōko Aizawa at the Shibuya Starbucks by chance and offered to give her career guidance.
Trivia[]
- The name Sōichirō means "religion, sect, denomination, main point, origin, essence" (宗) (sō), "one" (一) (ichi) and "son" (郎) (rō).
- Sōichirō's surname Ito means "that one" (伊) (i) and "wisteria" (藤) (to).