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

shortly followed. Due to these diseases, her culture encouraged her to commit suicide in order to restore honor to her family. If she did not commit suicide, then she must travel to a place of seclusion: the village of Yamaguchi. With the weight of the village and her diseases on her shoulders, she adapted to her environment and circumstances. After she settled into life in Yamaguchi, Sachi started working toward achieving happiness. Matsu supported her by creating a Zen garden for her, and this garden allowed her focus to shift from her family to the garden, which she now needed to tend to. Without an activity to focus on, Sachi’s lovely personality would rot away in a dark hole of sorrow. Tsukiyama did not yearn for this, she wanted Sachi to stay alive so she could help Stephen overcome his unwanted conditions. Toward the ending of the book, readers find out that Sachi and Matsu tried to have a child and unfortunately failed. “Sachi’s fingers closed tightly around the wooden rake. ‘You have been the musuko we lost so many years ago.’… ‘It was a difficult birth and in the end he was stillborn.’” (Tsukiyama 205). Matsu and Sachi now feel as though Stephen embodied their stillborn child and took his place as their own. Even with her disease, Sachi still had the capacity to obtain happiness and enjoyment. Rather than taking the blissfulness for granted, she experienced each moment of joy to the full extent. Most of those moment were with Stephen.
Stephen also suffers from several afflictions.

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

Matsu.
In addition Matsu used his best qualities to strengthen himself and others, but he did not have any major diseases like Stephen or Sachi.

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,

which made his life wonderful.
Contrary to their physical and emotional toll, ailments guide their host to the obtainment of true happiness. Throughout the book, the author incorporates disabilities to seclude and ruin people; however, the opposite effect takes place. People embrace their misfortunes to establish additional joy in their life than previously possible. This book moves through a difficult time period for the Japanese and Chinese nations, and it shows the readers that abnormalities wrecked havoc. Those sicknesses included physical illnesses and emotional disorders. Even with all of these factors, a Chinese boy stayed with a Japanese man, and everyone suffered together. This also means that they share each others joyful moments. Gail Tsukiyama uses diseases and misfortunes to show true gladness in her character’s lives.