Comparing Matsukiyamaus The Samurai's Garden

In The Samurai’s Garden, Gail Tsukiyamauses drastic scenic garden comparisons to display key differences along with similarities between Matsu and Sachi’s gardens along with their individual personalities. From the very beginning of the novel Stephen is exposed to Matsu’s beautiful garden which is depicted as “The sweet perfumes were immediately intoxicating. A silk tree still heavy with summer blossoms, and two large black pine trees shaded the house. An oval-shaped pond, with hints of movement that flashed orange and silver beneath its surface, dominated one side of the garden” (10). Illustrations such as these delicate garden details, gives the garden its own role within the story as “a world filled with secrets” (31). Matsu’s garden has the ambience of mystery, comfort, freedom, and reassurance while still giving an air of peacefulness and welcoming like a …show more content…
As Stephen walks out into the garden, he finds that “In the place of the greens, browns, and flashes of color which punctuated Matsu’s garden, the sparseness of Sachi’s garden stunned me. There were no trees, flowers, or water, only a landscape made of sand, stones, rocks, and some pale green moss which covered the shaded areas” (40). Sachi’s garden, unlike Matsu’s, gives air to heartache, hardships, and struggles all of which Sachi has faced in her life, which itself can become a type of beauty. The beauty from Sachi’s will to surpass these difficult times is reflected in the garden itself as Sachi can “[spend] hours rearranging those stones, as if they held some strange, mesmerizing power that brought me calm[ness]. . .I [was] trying to fit each piece together into a complicated puzzle I needed to finish” (150). Thus, Matsu’s garden gives the atmosphere of calm and secrecy he possess while Sachi’s garden reflects her personal struggle with leprosy. Thus, both gardens have their own beauty which Stephen is able to admire