The Samurai's Garden By Gail Tsukiyama

In every fragment of The Samurai’s Garden someone lived with a disease, whether it attacked a persons’s physical body or his emotions. The characteristics of all the diseases lead to the same ending. After contracting an abnormality, people wallowed in sorrow and contemplated suicide as a result of maintaining “honor” and society’s beliefs. If people with diseases did not follow through with suicide then they must also live in isolation from the real world. After a person contracts an ailment, life still continues, and he must appreciate the little aspects of life more. In the book The Samurai’s Garden, Gail Tsukiyama uses disease and misfortune to show true delight in her characters’ lives. When Sachi first suffered from leprosy, depression

These include tuberculosis and mild depression, which cause his family to shun him as the disorders weaken his body. Even with those problems he maintains a mood of happiness when he engages in certain hobbies. Those hobbies include painting, traveling around Tarumi with Matsu, and assisting Sachi with her garden. Matsu and Sachi develop into Stephen’s “adoptive parents” by providing him with further guidance than his birth parents ever had. This allows Stephen to adopt the carefree attitude of a child. Stephen’s mood instantly transforms into a happier and more loving demeanor when he sees how a relationship between two people should work. Stephen always shows joy when he aids others. During the fire in Yamaguchi, Stephen only wanted to help. “Even though my lungs still burned, and the desire to cough pulled at my throat, I didn’t want to worry Matsu and simply said, ‘I’ve never felt better’” (Tsukiyama 122). Assisting the people of the village gave immense satisfaction to Stephen because he improved the lives of others. Even though the diseases weakened his physical body, Stephen overcame the barriers. He used his best qualities to bring happiness to himself and others. He learned how to use his qualities from

However Matsu suffered from loss. He lost his sister Tomoko to suicide around the age of fifteen, and moreover, he also lost Kenzo, his best friend, much later in life. He allowed all of his remaining family to leave Tarumi while he stayed and secretly took care of Sachi and the leper community in Yamaguchi. Even though he sacrificed making a life outside of Tarumi, Matsu also gained significant joy from it. He created a Zen garden for Sachi and continually added additions to his own garden. Matsu achieved happiness from helping others. In Matsu’s eyes Stephen transformed into his son, so Matsu developed a sense of gaiety from helping Stephen. “‘You’ve seen the painting?’ ‘It was the first thing Matsu showed me. He is very proud of you’ ‘He never said a word about it to me,’ I said” (Tsukiyama 59). Even when Matsu loved what Stephen worked on, he would not speak to Stephen directly. His appreciation would come from indirect confrontation rather than direct recognition. Stephen found out that Matsu admired his painting from conversing with Sachi rather than Matsu himself. Matsu showed exceptional fondness toward Stephen and Sachi. Those two people created happiness in his life that would be unreachable if he had moved to Tokyo with his sister. Even though Matsu suffered a great deal he also experienced a huge amount of love from others,