The Samurai's Garden

The Samurai’s Tale by Erik Christian Haugaard is about a boy named Taro, the protagonist in the story. The major characters in the story are Taro, Yoshitoki, Lord Takeda Katsuyori, Lord Akiyama Nobutomo, and Togan. The setting of the story is in Japan, in around the 16th century. In the beginning of the story he was presented as a gift by the great Lord Takeda Shingen to Lord Akiyama after his parents had been killed. By using his wits and suppressing his fierce pride, Taro slowly escalates the ranks of his lord’s household until he achieves his greatest goal—becoming a samurai like his father and Lord Akiyama, whom he has come to admire. The life of a samurai is not so easy, Taro finds himself sacrificing opportunities of love and friendship

Throughout life, we all go through hardships and things we think that we’ll never be able to overcome. More often than not, the cause of such feelings stem from our home and personal lives. For example, in Gail Tsukiyama’s The Samurai’s Garden, Sachi developed leprosy, a terrible disease that left white rashes all over and was believed to be contagious, and was no longer capable of living a normal life with her family. Her fiance, Kenzo, was greatly upset and as Sachi remembered, he “backed away from me and walked out” (Tsukiyama 136). In Japanese culture, it is expected for a person in a situation like Sachi commit an honorable suicide, also known as seppuku. Seppuku takes all of the shame and guilt that was brought down on a person and

The Japanese warrior, known as the samurai, has played a significant role in Japan's history and culture throughout the centuries. Their ancestors can be traced back to as far as can be remembered. Some stories have become mysterious legends handed down over the centuries. In this report you will learn who the samurai were, their origins as we know them, how they lived and fought and their evolution to today. It will be clear why the samurai stand out as one of the most famous group of warriors of all times.

Samurai and Knights are warriors fighting and serving for their lord. Samurai and knights are both trained, physically and mentally to fight for their lords, however while in a battle, strategies of both make it hard to distinguish who would win. While both warriors are very similar in many ways, Samurais differences such as their, training, weapons, and armor give them big advantages.

The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama tells the story of a young man who is sent away from his friends and family to a small village in Japan, in the attempt to get better from his illness. Through his self isolation, Stephen is able to learn from the two elderly people he meets there, and slowly comes to accept himself for who is he, regardless of what other people thought. Through the use of internal and external conflict in The Samurai’s Garden, Gail Tsukiyama uses Stephen’s character, specifically through his interactions with Matsu and Sachi, to convey the message that sometimes one will need to leave what they are comfortable with, and place themselves into isolation in the attempt to rediscover who they are while still knowing that

The garden is the vehicle in which the narrator reveals her reluctance to leave behind the imaginary world of childhood and see the realities of the adult world. The evidence supporting this interpretation is the imagery of hiding. The narrator uses the garden to hide from reality and the

The samurai were the feudal warriors of ancient Japan. For thousands of years they upheld the code of bushido, the way of the warrior. Samurai were around for thousands of years, but when did they disappear? Does the code of bushido still exist to this day? Exploring the history of the samurai will give an explanation to what has happened to these formidable warriors.

Matsu draws the beauty out of her damaged face and soul through his gentle words and actions, which summates while Stephen is in Tarumi. Stephen describes one of their interactions as, “They speak in low tones, and he’s always making her laugh. ‘Little hana,’ he calls Sachi, when she laments that he has lost all of his autumn blossoms. She’s the only flower that matters to him” (59). In The Samurai’s Garden, Tsukiyama has a tendency to compare people to flowers- and in Sachi’s case, it is all too appropriate. A beautiful flower is not the perfect, or uniform flower- it has special flaws and marks, except on a flower they are not seen as bad. Often the most exotic and lovely flower is found in a barren place, devoid of attractiveness, just like the people of Yamaguchi. Sachi’s marked face and her exceptional one of a kind personality make her the breath of fresh air in a place such as Tarumi. Without the uniquely harrowing experiences Sachi suffers through, she would not have been the attractive person she grew to be. Like a flower, Sachi’s beauty draws people to her and inspires them to be better

Like walking through a barren street in a crumbling ghost town, isolation can feel melancholy and hopeless. Yet, all it takes is an ordinary flower bud amidst the desolation to show life really can exist anywhere. This is similar to Stephen’s journey in The Samurai’s Garden. This novel is about an ailing Chinese boy named Stephen who goes to a Japanese village during a time of war between Japan and China to recover from his disease. By forming bonds with several locals and listening to their stories, he quickly matures into a young adult. Throughout the novel, Gail Tsukiyama shows how disease forces Stephen into isolation; however, Matsu’s garden and Sachi lead him out of solitude.

The Samurai’s Garden, written by Gail Tsukiyama, incorporates the various aspect of myth throughout the plot, from how the Japanese worship to the rituals they perform. Stephan-san, a young Chinese man, when he first arrived in Tarumi Japan, discovered the Japanese ritual of being clean. The Japanese in this book had a strong desire to be sanitary in every aspect of their life both physically and morally. They used to be physically clean to visualize being spiritually clean. Another part of the mythology in this novel was the worshipping of the kami deities. These deities dwelled in the shrine near Tarumi and Stephan-san along with Matsu traveled to the shrine to worship and pray to the kami fox deity, the Inari. Two facets of The

The Samurai’s Tale is about a young boy named Taro, who had became the hero of the story. The main characters in the story was Lord Akiyama, Lord Takeda Shingen, and Togan. This story took place in Japan around the 16th century. The story began with Taro, Murakami Harutomo, arguing with his mother about what she had been telling him to wear for an event that was going to happen without him knowing about. Later that day Taro saw that soldiers came attacking his house, his mother leaving him with Yone in a chest trying to keep them safe in a storehouse that had laid behind the house. A soldier then found them both and took them out of the chest, then as they walked out of the store hold, he found his mother on the ground dead. A plot twist that

The gardens of both Matsu and Sachi symbolize them, and this gives the reader an insight on each of their respective personalities. Matsu’s garden turns more riveting and reveals more secrets as one goes deeper through it while Sachi’s garden illustrates that beauty can be in all forms. These descriptions of the garden mirror their owners and give more information about them. One example is that in the later portion of The Samurai Garden, it is revealed that Matsu was one of the primary founders of Yamaguchi. Like his garden, Matsu’s tale only becomes more

"The garden is a world filled with secrets. Slowly, I see more each day. The black pines twist and turn to form graceful shapes, while the moss is a carpet of green that invites you to sit by the pond. Even the stone lanterns, which dimly light the way at night, allow you to see only so much. Matsu 's garden whispers at you, never shouts; it leads you down a path hoping for more, as if everything is seen, yet hidden. There 's a quiet beauty here I only hope I can capture on canvas." - Stephen at the beach house planning to paint Matsu 's garden, page 31

Lord Takeda Shingen- The Lord of Kai, a ruthless warlord whose ambition is to rule all of Japan.

A knight in Feudal Europe were warriors who owed loyalty and military service to the lord for in return, land. A samurai in Feudal Japan were warriors who owed loyalty and military service to daimyos for either regular payment or land. While knights and samurais have many similarites, in a one on one battle, the advantage would be to the samurai and this can be seen in weapons& armor, code , and training.