the tension between tradition and modern pressures in relation to marriage—and, by extension, within japanese culture as a whole—is one of the major conflicts ozu portrays in the film. sorensen indicates by several examples that what foods a character eats or even how he or she sits down (e.g., on tatami mats or western-style chairs) reveals the relationship of that character to tradition. according to peña, noriko "is the quintessential "moga"—"modan gaaru", 'modern girl'—that populates japanese fiction, and really the japanese imagination, beginning in the 1920s onward." throughout most of the film, noriko wears western clothing rather than a kimono, and outwardly behaves in up-to-date ways. however, bordwell asserts that "noriko is more old-fashioned than her father, insisting that he could not get along without her and resenting the idea that a widower might remarry… she clings to an outmoded notion of propriety."