Hurdles in Life: Understanding The Samurai’s Garden

The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama is a book about a young man, Stephen, who is faced with tuberculosis changing the course of his life by taking him to a small peaceful village, Tarumi. When he initial arrives at Tarumi, he meets Matsu, Sachi, and other characters from the village. His experiences at Tarumi are one of a sort, and he learns a lot of lessons from the experiences that Sachi has gone via. At a time prior to Stephen, Sachi was a young, gorgeous lady that was admired by absolutely everyone in the village. This was all till the leprosy outbreak in Japan. Several people all across Japan, and many parts of Tarumi were impacted. Out of the several people getting infected, Sachi, regrettably, was one of the numerous people who caught the illness. When this happens, Sachi is faced with obstacles that she cannot overcome through her restricted understanding, at the time, of these obstacles.

In the story, time after time Sachi has demonstrated energy over her fears and obstacles by way of experiences in life, that brought her to realization. Throughout Gail Tsukiyama’s, Samurai’s Garden, the author utilizes Sachi’s thoughts and feelings about the Japanese idealism of honor and her experiences with leprosy, to show that the path of overcoming adversity demands time and understanding of the obstacles one particular faces. Throughout her life, Sachi was a lovely Japanese girl. She was a person who her household was proud of, and loved dearly. Throughout the early stages of her life, Sachi had no troubles, and her life was blissful. At this time she loved and was loved back, by her household, and a young man named Kenzo. For the duration of this time Kenzo and Sachi were regarded as lovers. This was at the same time Sachi caught leprosy. When Sachi got the illness, her household, supposedly lost their honor, by getting a daughter with the disease. According to the Japanese honor code, that her family members extremely respected, Sachi had to be honor bound, and commit suicide to preserve her family’s honor. When Sachi recalls,”By seventeen, I had shamed my loved ones twice…my father wanted me to honor the family members by killing myself.”(79), it is shown that Sachi had to make a decision of killing herself to preserve family’s honor. This also shows the Japanese honor code technique and how strict her household implies it. After her selection, to not suicide, she was regarded a disgrace to her family members, and she was alone because of the code of honor.. Her family members did not want anything to do with her due to the fact of who she became, and cast her away. When she is forced into suicide she explains, “I have brought excellent dishonor to my household by not killing myself”(109), it is shown how crucial the honor of her family is to her and their place in society. The Japanese code changed her partnership with Kenzo, and even her loved ones. This is an huge obstacle for her due to the fact this indicates she has no family members or folks who love her, simply because of the honor code. The overcoming in her adversities ultimately happens, when Stephen tells Sachi that her honor doesn’t matter simply because it will never ever impact Matsu and Stephens really like for her. This is a turning point for her, because she ultimately understands that her honor shouldn’t matter to the folks who really like, and truly care for her. Whilst it takes her a extended time to comprehend this, she lastly understands this when she realizes what the adversity of the Japanese code is, and removing her idealism of not becoming honorable.

The honor of Sachi’s household is essential to her, and was an adversity that took time and understanding to surpass. Yet another example of Sachi overcoming adversity, through time and understanding, is when she overcomes the experiences she has had with leprosy. As a outcome of getting leprosy, Sachi was impacted for life since of what the illness is, and what it does to men and women. When Sachi noticed the early stages of leprosy, rashes on her arm, she hid this from everyone she loved and cared for, simply because of her shame towards what it did. Soon the rashes spread to other components of her physique, and they in no way left her body. When the disease became visible, men and women realized this and isolated her. In the beginning of her leprosy, Sachi knew that it would isolate her and make her a stranger in society, so, since of this, she hid it from everyone. Sachi’s leprosy impacted her life in a lot of ways, which demonstrate that the experiences that have haunted her took her time and understanding to vanquish. Not only Sachi, but several other people had gone to Yamaguchi, a village full of lepers, as a secure haven exactly where they wouldn’t be judged and isolated for their leprosy. The adversity, that is leprosy, is a effective obstacle that can adjust the visualization of life for people like Sachi. When Matsu talks about Yamaguchi, he illustrates the massive negativity contained in leprosy, “After all, lepers from all more than Japan located their way to Yamaguchi…to be accepted”(120). This excerpt shows the type of energy the disease has on people’s lives. The leprosy makes individuals modify who they are and is an obstacle that requires Sachi, most of her adult life, to overcome.

When Sachi rethinks her decisions about living, right after Kenzo’s death, when she is reminded of him that she is a monster, Matsu reminds her, “It takes more courage to live”(139). At this moment, the effect of what Matsu told Sachi, on Sachi is what creates a rippling impact on her overcoming of the challenge of leprosy. A single of the largest problems, Sachi had about leprosy, was the beauty aspect, which was as soon as once again shown when Kenzo calls Sachi a monster. The beauty aspect was something that people in Tarumi have been judged on. Throughout her life, Sachi is ashamed at what the leprosy has made her look, and thus she covered herself with a scarf. Throughout the part in the story, where Stephen visits Sachi, in private, they talk about the leprosy. When Stephen reaches over and touches her face, she is awestruck, simply because she believed people have been scared of her, yet he touched her face. They speak for a period of time, and at the finish Sachi ultimately feels accepted when Stephen touches her. These different events more than the course of her experiences with leprosy took her time and understanding, to understand that she is incredible just the way she is. Overcoming this hurdle in her life caused a wonderful influence in her life, by generating her defeat the illness she had been struggling to defeat.

The Samurai’s Garden is an inspirational book that portrayed the ways Sachi faced the Japanese code of honor, and her experiences of leprosy, to illustrate the essence that Sachi, by way of time and understanding of her adversities, was able to surpass these experiences. When 1 gathers the courage and understanding of that hurdle, they will be able to conquer this inevitable obstacle in their life. The experiences of the brutally strict Japanese code of honor, was an huge obstacle that Sachi had to go ahead of, since of how it bound her life and created her lose who she loved and cared for. Her past history of leprosy, affected her in an abundant quantity of approaches. Leprosy, given that the time she had obtained it, had impacted her love life, her looks, and also her spot in society. Her understanding of this, was lastly obtained when she talked to Stephen. The diverse varieties of obstacles that Sachi had to overcome, leprosy experiences and Japanese honor code, changed her life drastically for the much better.