Tomoko Yamaguchi

their personality or their gestures. In the book The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, many characters recieve judgement from their peers; many times for circumstances beyond their control. Society takes hold on many of the characters causing them to focus on the way others view them and causes them to lose sight of themselves and give into society’s expectations. In the book, Matsu’s sister struggles with accepting herself after discovering leprosy on her own body because the Japanese culture did not accept her illness. She views her beauty and public image as the most important aspect of herself. “Tomoko had a spark which seemed to ignite everything she touched” (Tsukiyama 132). Tomoko’s personality lit up everyone and everything around her. She walked through the village with a carefree spirit. To the people around her they saw a beautiful,…

Beauty is in the Eye of the Samurai (Quotation Analysis) “Beauty exists where you least expect to find it” (Sachi, page. 148). The speaker of this evocative and telling quotation is the diffident Sachi; this line is uttered when she is confabulating with Stephen alone in her meek house in the village of Yamaguchi after the preceding fire is doused out. After Matsu and Hiro-san go to bed, Stephen sneaks out into Sachi’s garden where she finds her musing upon her sentiments of anxiety. Shortly…

Sachi explains her past life where she tells Stephen that Tomoko and her valued outer beauty more than inner beauty, and after Tomoko was afflicted with leprosy she committed sepuku and Sachi tried to end her own life also, “But at the moment I knew I didn’t have the courage of Tomoko, nor of this woman dying before me” (Tsukiyama 137). Sachi explains to Stephen that even though she did not know why she ran away from the ocean, knowing that death was the greatest honor she could’ve given her…

depression. These diseases cause his family to shun him and the diseases make his body frail. Even with those diseases he maintains a mood of happiness when he engages in certain hobbies. Some of those hobbies include painting, traveling around with Matsu, and helping Sachi with her garden. Matsu and Sachi develop into Stephen’s adoptive parents with more influence on than his birth parents have. This allows Stephen to adopt the carefree attitude of a child who is free of burdens. Stephen…

The Interconnection Between Actions and Behavior Beauty is created with behavior, attitude, and actions that sum up who a person is. This is one of the life lessons focused on in The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, a story of a young man named Stephen with the lung disease tuberculosis. He goes from China to his summer home in Tarumi, Japan to recuperate due to hong Kong’s polluted air. Set on the eve of World War II, the novel focuses on the relationships that Stephen forged with his…