Convalescence in Japan: The Samurai's Garden Book Review

 

The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Written as journal entries by Stephen, the main character, Gail Tsukiyama's The Samurai's Garden is set during the Second Sino-Japanese War and in the time leading up to World War II. It is a tale of love, honor, and loneliness. 

Struck with tuberculosis, twenty-one-year old Stephen is forced to leave college and return home to Hong Kong. While he struggles to regain his health, his mother fears he will infect his younger sister, so his parents decide he will go to Japan, where his father does business. From there, he is sent to the family’s vacation home in the coastal town of Tarumi while his father stays in the city of Kobe.

Tarumi has been left quiet during the off-season, and Stephen feels isolated. His only companion is Matsu, the caretaker who has been with the house and family since his youth and is now in his sixties. Quiet and reserved, Matsu does not coddle Stephen as his mother did, but encourages him to paint and spend time outdoors.

Eventually, Matsu takes Stephen into the mountains to the town of Yamaguchi, a village of people who had been driven from their homes when they showed signs of leprosy. There, Matsu introduces Stephen to his beautiful friend, Sachi, who covers the affected part of her face with a scarf. Later, Matsu takes Stephen into town and to the tea house to meet Kenzo, who has been his friend since childhood.

While Stephen is the narrator, the heart of the story is Matsu, Sachi, and Kenzo, and especially their shared past that unfolds itself to Stephen. Their quiet lives, as Stephen will see, are not devoid of passion.

Would I teach this book? Yes, this semester I taught it for the first time. The Samurai’s Garden is one of the novels that can be taught as part of Eastern Washington University’s dual credit literature course. Written by an American woman who is of Chinese and Japanese descent and told from the point of view of a young Chinese man in Japan, it certainly fits into Multicultural Literature. I learned a lot about history by reading and researching to prepare to teach the book. I was able to pass on what I learned to my students, so all of us gained knowledge about the second Sino-Japanese war.

My students appreciated the muted tone of the book and called it “relaxing,” though there are plenty of non-chill moments. It is an enveloping story and gives a peek into the cultures of China and Japan of a century ago. The Samurai’s Garden also lends itself to interesting class discussion. A good pick for both high school and college.

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