 The characters of Sadako and Shizuko are named after and loosely  based on two real women. Both were taken under the wing of Professor  Fukurai Tomokichi and, whilst not actually mother and daughter,  Takahashi Sadako did work with the professor soon after Chizukos  suicide. Neither woman possessed the gift of nensha, but another  student of the professor, Nagao Ikuko, was believed to have this  power.