The Samurai's Garden By Gail Tsukiyama

“The Samurai’s Garden” is a novel by Gail Tsukiyama based on the experiences and journeys of a young Chinese adult named Stephen. Due to his problems with tuberculosis, Stephen is send to a small Japanese town named Tarumi to recover from the disease. In Tarumi, he meets Matsu, his father’s house caretaker (and tender for a beautiful garden) and through Matsu, he is introduced to Sachi, a once beautiful women who is now affected by leprosy. Not only that, Matsu introduces Stephen to Kenzo, a man once affianced with Sachi but left since Sachi was not beautiful enough for him. Throughout the course of “The Samurai’s Garden,” Tsukiyama uses Sachi’s outer looks to contrast Matsu’s and Kenzo’s response to her disease (indirect characterization),

When Sachi gets leprosy resulting in her scarred face, Matsu reacts caringly and lovingly since he believes that true beauty is based on one’s inner personality. As part of sharing her memories with Stephen, Sachi recalls, “I wanted to say something back to him, and I knew deep down that he was right, though I didn't have the words yet. Until that disease chose me, I had lived a charmed life of grace and ease...but no matter how much pleasure I found in them, they were still cold and inanimate. I longed for my past life. Matsu always knew that the peace of mine I needed could only be found within myself” (Tsukiyama 151). Tsukiyama uses the phrase “He always knows where beauty comes from” to connect back to and depict the idea that different people have different definitions of beauty. Although Sachi had supposedly “transformed into a monster,” Matsu does not care

As she is describing her memories about the disease with Stephen, Sachi devastatingly recalls, “The night I told Kenzo, he thought it was all a big joke. ‘But you look beautiful,’ he laughed. ‘Who put you up to this?’ Then I showed him. I will never forget the look in eyes when he realized it wasn’t a joke-- a look of both fear and betrayal” (Tsukiyama 136). The phrase “a look of both fear and betrayal” clearly illustrates, through the use of indirect characterization, how scared Kenzo is after finding out Sachi has leprosy; consequently, Kenzo considers Sachi too “ugly” for him, leaving her behind right before the engagement. This quote, as a whole, directly shows Kenzo’s definition of beauty which is only based on outer appearance. He only decided to marry Sachi because she is beautiful on the outside and not because she is beautiful on the inside (inner personality). Not only did Kenzo judge Sachi from her outer looks, he also forgot all about her once she became too ugly for him. As a continuation to the last quote, Sachi says, “He quickly dropped my hand without a word, backed away from me and walked out. I never saw Kenzo again until that day at your oji-san’s house. And even after so many years, I saw the same betrayed look in his eyes” (Tsukiyama 136). The phrase --“backed away from me and walked out” is used to