In The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, a young man is thrown from his established world, left in a new, confusing realm that holds more than meets the eye. In the midst of a violent and ferocious war between the Chinese and Japanese in mid 1937, this young man, Stephen, contracts tuberculosis, and is sent to his family’s summer house in Japan. There he meets the house’s caretaker, Matsu, a simple and reserved man who holds back all but the most necessary speech. This meeting will come to define many of Stephen’s interactions with others throughout the novel: reserved and limited. In this odd land filled with subtle secrets and unspoken uncomfortability, Stephen is prepared for a very quiet and restful period, marked with healing and growth. …show more content…
This parallel is used throughout the text in order to help the reader better understand these characters’ emotions and what draws them to do as they do. For example, Keiko tells Stephen she cannot be with him near the end of the novel, saying, “There can never be any ‘us,’” she answered. Then Keiko pulled away from me, and for a moment I thought she was going to strike me with her sandals again.” (Tsukiyama 187) This of course connects to Sachi and Matsu’s inability to live fully together, Sachi being held back by her shame and her compulsion to honor her family. Similarly, Keiko is left unable to be with Stephen as she has an obligation to her family. Understanding this connection, it allows us to draw upon Sachi’s experiences with this situation, and how she has learned to appreciate what was, such as Sachi’s lost beauty. This doesn’t just allow us to understand things about Keiko and Sachi, it also helps us to understand the reactions from other characters involved in these parallels. Stephen’s slow coming to acceptance, for example, and his help doing so from Matsu, help to show both Matsu’s and Stephen’s peace, their understanding and appreciation of inopportune situations. One might suggest that this parallel between the characters of Sachi and Keiko removes from the understanding of each …show more content…
These small contributions, though, help to add to the greater image of each character as deep and unique people. Examples of these small contributions are abound in the novel. For instance, Stephen gets a letter from his younger sister, Penelope, or Pie, talking about her daily life in war-torn China, saying, “For the past month, I have been going after school to the Red Cross refugee center in Wan Chai. I do everything, from rolling bandages to sorting donated clothes and filling care packages.” (Tsukiyama 117) This connects rather easily to the character of Matsu, who is seen as the sole saving grace of Yamaguchi, the village of lepers. Being one of the smaller connections in the novel, it is often discounted as unimportant or insignificant. I think quite the opposite, as I think this parallel says a lot about both characters, but most prominently that of Matsu. From the beginning of the novel Pie is characterized as a sweet and innocent child, even coming into Stephen’s room to talk to him while he was still dangerously tubercular. This parallel allows this benevolence to be extended onto Matsu, as in Matsu’s case his help for Yamaguchi could be otherwise discounted as showing his love for Sachi. Instead, the link helps show how Matsu’s care for these people is instead based on his
In the book Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan, Karl Friday focuses on war in early medieval Japan. A central thesis could be the political primacy of the imperial court. (Lamers 2005) This is the tenth through fourteenth centuries, before the samurai became prominent in Japan and were trying to form themselves into more of what we think of them today. Friday focuses on five aspects of war in his book; they are the meaning of war, the organization of war, the tools of war, the science of war, and the culture of war.
Much of what is considered modern Japan has been fundamentally shaped by its involvement in various wars throughout history. In particular, the events of World War II led to radical changes in Japanese society, both politically and socially. While much focus has been placed on the broad, overarching impacts of war on Japan, it is through careful inspection of literature and art that we can understand war’s impact on the lives of everyday people. The Go Masters, the first collaborative film between China and Japan post-WWII, and “Turtleback Tombs,” a short story by Okinawan author Oshiro Tatsuhiro, both give insight to how war can fundamentally change how a place is perceived, on both an abstract and concrete level.
Isolation is similar to a puddle of water – it is seemingly dull and colorless, but all it takes is for one drop of paint to change the entire picture. The novel cc is about a ailing Chinese boy named Stephen who goes through the same cycle. Stephen moves to a Japanese village during a time of war between Japan and China to recover from his disease. By forming bonds with several locales 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, his relationship with Sachi and his time spent in Matsu’s garden lead him out of solitude.
Our team feels that the film, 47 ronin (2013), generally supports orientalist structures due to its misrepresentation of Japan and Samurai through its character portrayal and historical inaccuracy.
Few countries have a warrior tradition as long and exciting as Japan. It is a tradition found in the Samurai, the loyal and self-sacrificing knight of ancient Japan. The Samurai is a valiant warrior who can both appreciate the beauty of nature in that of a rose blossom but will also kill or die for his master in an instant. This well-rounded warrior was the ruling class of Japan for almost seven hundred years. He fought for control of his country and to keep Japan free from outside influences. (Turnbull 1)
World War II was a time of great fear and distrust in this world’s history. There was great prejudice with a sense that betrayal could occur at any moment. This held most true for the Japanese. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese were greatly looked down upon due to an American fear of retaliation. In Joy Kogawa’s novel, Obason, the narrator is a young Japanese Canadian girl recalling her forced relocation to internment camps. It was a time filled with stereotypes and a great deal of prejudiced behavior. Kogawa makes great use of point of view, selection of detail, and figurative language in order to reflect to narrator’s naive attitude of her past.
Do you think the samurai and knights have more similarities than differences? Samurai and knights were two societies that lived about one thousand years ago. Samurai lived in Europe and knights lived in Japan. They both faced many problems throughout their battle. Critics would say that samurai and knights have more similarities than differences, however they actually had more differences than similarities. They had many differences throughout their lives. Some of their differences were between military training and warfare.
In the novel, The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, Stephen-san was on his way towards a full recovery, from tuberculosis, when he discovered the Japanese mythological system through his family’s servant, Matsu. Through his time, he spent in Japan he learned what roles the gods play in his everyday life and discovered a new way to view living and dying. He learned new ways to look at his life and understand his purpose. Stephan-san grew more than just physically in his time spent in Tarumi, Japan. He also learned what it meant to become spiritual and learned from this new spiritual realm he discovered. This mythological system affected how they went about their everyday lives, the gods they worshiped, the ways they worshiped the gods,
Dower, John. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999
In The Samurai’s Garden, Stephen, a young man from China, travels to Tarumi, a little seaside village in Japan, to recover from tuberculosis. During that time, China is being invaded by the Japanese. Matsu, the caretaker of his house in Tarumi, introduces him to Sachi, a woman plagued with leprosy. Gail Tsukiyama, the author of the book, utilizes indirect characterization, through Sachi’s experiences with gardening and the challenges from leprosy, to educate the reader that physical beauty has no correlation to one’s true inner beauty and holds less importance.
The samurai (bushi), were powerful military caste in Feudal Japan, who were highly developed in Japan. Samurais first arose in Japan as early as the 8th century. The Samurai were noble fighters that fought the evil with frightening swords and armour.
The late 19th century was a very different time for many living in Japan. The Tokugawa regime was leveling off, and the people of Japan who weren’t as wealthy had to find a balance between religious serenity and making money. The three most predominant religions of this era were Shinto, Confucianism and Buddhism, and an abundance of citizens living in Japan were often rooted very heavily in their religious backgrounds solely because these religious were seen more as ways of life than a religious practice. However, even the most devout of worshipers don’t always start off that way. In Katsu Kokichi’s book Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai, Kokichi begins his life as a down and out Samurai, adopted by the Katsu family at
P, tells him that his older sister wanted to write romance novels, but ended up giving up on her dream, because it would result in her leaving the reservation and being resented by the others that live there especially since she is an unwed female. This information is significant because it shows how strong the stigma against leaving the reservation is and how it affects those who live there hopes and dreams. When you aren’t given space to experience or learn new things, your creativity is often stipend. Without creativity or life experiences to integrate into your writing, the less interesting it would be. Mary gave up on her dream because she was not given the room to enhance her creativity, so she eventually gave up. Another factor is she was not given the opportunity that Arnold was given. They both come from the same reservation and family, but Arnold was able to strive because someone saw potential in him and gave him the idea to transfer schools. Mary was never given the opportunity to shine, mainly since she is a woman and didn’t receive any guidance. It is not common for women to be overlooked in any culture, so she was expected to either graduate school or drop out and get married, like her mother and many of the other women on reservation. So, she is forced to live her dreams in her head, which cause her to doubt herself and develop very low-esteem. Having
Do you know someone in the military? A loved one, a friend, do you know what they go through? I may not, but I do know about the harsh training and war that occurred for the Samurais and Knights. In Europe and Japan the empires were falling and Clans were taking over Japan. The government came up with an idea to create feudalism. There was an agreement in both Europe and Japan that exchanged land for protection. The similarities between Samurai and Knights were greater than the differences. This can be shown by looking at the three most similar areas: social position, training and armor, and life, honor, and death. The Samurai and Knights has their differences, but were the similarities greater than those differences.
The principle of individualism was essential to the shaping of the samurai history and culture. The beliefs of self reliance and personal dependence were evident throughout samurai life. “The process of Japanese state formation and self identity in Japan have been intimately connected” (Ikegami 43). Not only did this sense of individualism affect samurai identity but Japan as a whole. The samurai class as a whole sought to be part of their own warrior class, or even a part of the upper class; anything but the commoner class. The samurai had individualistic attitudes in every aspect of their lives and it was an obvious characteristic of these warriors. Samurai battled an individual fight for honor, seeking power and status, affecting their culture socially and militarily, occasionally leading to corrupt methods of power gain.