Ken Kaneki's mother

Ken Kaneki's mother raised her son by herself until she died due to overworking when Kaneki was 10 years old.

Appearance
She was a slender woman with short black hair. She also wore glasses.

Personality
She was intelligent and seemed to always be kind. She believed that a kind person finds happiness just by love and becoming the person who gets hurt, rather than hurting others. She wouldn't refuse any request of help and was equal to everybody in her kindness. Rize, in Kaneki's hallucinations compared her kindness to weakness, as she was so terrified of being alone that she'd go out of her way to help other people.

Despite her attempts to be kind and generous, she would sometimes physically abuse Kaneki. Kaneki's description of his mother appears to be somewhat distorted; his memories of her show her to be both physically and emotionally abusive, beating her young son and putting others' needs before his emotional health along with her own physical health.

Aogiri Arc
Kaneki's mother appeared multiple times in the illusions monitored by Rize. She was shown to be a hardworking mother; as she worked two jobs, and committed herself to being a housewife as well. This however, caused her to feel sick and tired the majority of the time. She also seemed to be too weak for compromise, as she believed that one must be the person getting hurt, rather than others. An example of this was when she gave her older sister money despite that she was a single mother who had to support herself and her son. Due to the amount of work, Kaneki's mother almost never had time to spend with him, so he was lonely most of the time and stayed in his father's study room. After his mother's death, Kaneki proudly sustained her ideologies throughout his life. Upon being approached by Rize's manifestation, who pointed out how weak his mother really was, Kaneki went into a deep emotional breakdown, berating his mother for not living for him. Kaneki eventually disengaged from his mother's ideologies, and started to make his own decisions.

Tsukiyama Extermination Arc
During another journey into his fractured mind, Sasaki remembered frequently being beaten by his mother. While being beaten, he would apologize for wanting things and blamed himself for the abuse.

Ken Kaneki
She raised her son after the death of her husband and cared for him as a single mother. While he initially insists that their relationship was purely loving, in reality she sometimes abused him and he held a deeply repressed resentment towards her.

Quotes

 * To Kaneki: "Instead of a person who hurts others, become the person who gets hurt. It is okay if you lose because of your love and kindness. Ken, a kind person only needs those things in order to be happy."