The Samurai’s Garden
Encyclopedia
The Samurai's Garden is a 1996 novel by American author Gail Tsukiyama
Gail Tsukiyama
Gail Tsukiyama is an American novelist from San Francisco, California, USA. She was one of nine fiction authors to appear during the first Library of Congress National Book Festival...

. Many consider it to be Tsukiyama's finest work, and an influential piece in Asian literature
Asian literature
-Examples:*East Asian literature**Chinese literature**Japanese literature**Korean literature*Central Asian literature**Bengali literature**Indian literature**Pakistani literature**Tamil literature*West Asian literature**Arabic literature...

. The Samurai's Garden is usually included in required reading lists for high school students, and is considered to be a prime example of using effective figurative language.

Synopsis

Twenty-year-old Stephen leaves his home in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 just as the Japanese are poised to further invade China, towards Hong Kong. He is sent to Tarumi, a small beach-side village in Japan, to recuperate from tuberculosis. There, he meets and develops friendships with three adults, Matsu, Kenzo, and Sachi, and a young girl, Keiko, who is his own age.

Keiko becomes his first love, but it can't be because she is Japanese and he is Chinese. The Japanese and Chinese were fighting a war at that time, and Keiko's family had prejudiced opinions about Chinese people (especially Keiko's father). Yet Keiko still sees Stephen. Then Keiko's brother eventually dies fighting for Japan, and that causes Keiko to feel guilty for dating Stephen. She ends the relationship because of that.

Also, there is a bitter love triangle between Sachi, Kenzo, and Matsu. Sachi is now an old woman with leprosy
Leprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...

. Lepers are forced into exile and are said to dishonor their family, because of their disfigured bodies. Sachi says that society thinks of her as a monster, and those thoughts have obviously rubbed off on her self-concept. She always makes sure that no one can see the right side of her scarred face (the left is unblemished and considered to be the most beautiful face Stephen has ever seen). Such beauty existing next to the scars shows that beauty is in everything. Now, when Sachi was younger and "one of the most beautiful girls in Tarumi", she was engaged to Kenzo, another good looking boy who had promise for a great, successful future. But when Sachi got leprosy, Kenzo's parents forbade Kenzo going to Yamaguchi
Yamaguchi
Yamaguchi is the 15th most common Japanese surname.-People:People bearing the surname Yamaguchi include:*Adam Yamaguchi, an American television correspondent and producer at Current TV...

, and Kenzo was also afraid of seeing what happened to Sachi. He never realized it, but he had fallen in her love with her beauty, and not the soul.

In order to keep in some contact in the later years with Sachi, Kenzo sent messages through his childhood friend, Matsu. Matsu is one of the main characters in this book and housed Stephen. Matsu was Stephen's grandfather's servant, and is a very understanding, quiet man. Matsu taught Stephen many lessons about honor, the cruelties of humanity, and what it is to love someone. Matsu was the only person who was truly there for Sachi, and over the years he and Sachi had started a loving relationship. This was very understated throughout the book, as if Gail Tsukiyama wanted to point out how simple everything was then. Also, Stephen's Ba-ba (father) had an affair with a Japanese woman, and even gave money to his mistress. This tarnished Ba-ba's reputation in Stephen's mind, and he felt betrayed by his father. Throughout the book there is an underlying sense of society being out place, what with their crazy ideas of honor and the fact that there was a war going on. The unwinding stories of his new friends, war, and family eventually bring him to the beginnings of wisdom, love, honor, and loss.

Themes

At the core, The Samurai's Garden is a novel emphasizing the intrinsic themes of loyalty and honor found in Japanese culture
Nihonjinron
The term literally means theories/discussions about the Japanese. The term refers to a genre of texts that focuses on issues of Japanese national and cultural identity. The literature is vast, ranging over such varied fields as sociology, psychology, history, linguistics, philosophy, and even...

. The complex relationship between Tsukiyama's characters, and the physical adversities and conflicts they face, ultimately hold the significance for the title of the novel.
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