The Samurai's Garden

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1994

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Winter: December 21, 1937-Winter: February 4, 1938Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Winter: December 21, 1937 Summary

For two weeks, Stephen has avoided thinking of his parents. A letter arrives from his mother.

She says that Stephen’s father has told her the same thing Stephen wrote about helping a friend in business and that she must accept this explanation, having married Stephen’s father when she was only fifteen and having no way to make a living on her own now, at forty. She also accepts that she and Stephen’s father may need to share family and finances but live separate lives. She notes that she had hoped to join Stephen in Tarumi for the holidays but will stay in Hong Kong because of her health. She suggests that he go to Kobe and expresses concern about his recovery.

Stephen remembers his younger years, before Pie was born and business took his father to Japan more and more often, when his parents were close and the family spent happy evenings together in Hong Kong. He feels the family’s changes and his own changes acutely. He wires his father to tell him that he will stay in Tarumi for the holidays.

Winter: December 25, 1937 Summary

Stephen wakes to his first Christmas morning in Tarumi. Matsu has made a Christmas tree for him in the garden, decorating it with origami cranes and fish. Stephen remembers his Christmases growing up in Hong Kong, the ornate Western-style tree, the children waiting for their parents to rise to open presents, five-course Christmas dinners at the Hong Kong Hotel with lectures from Mah-mee on how to use the formal Western silverware. He considers Matsu’s tree: “it’s the nicest Christmas tree I’ve ever had” (94), he says sincerely.

Winter: January 1, 1938 Summary

Ganjitsu, New Year’s Day, is a national festival for the Japanese. Stephen finds it to be much unlike Chinese New Year – spiritual as opposed to boisterous, with simple gifts, debts repaid, and visits to holy places. Stephen is thrilled to learn that he and Matsu will be celebrating with Sachi.

Matsu has been preparing for days, making special dishes and kado-matsu, holiday wreaths. Stephen has purchased a tiny pine tree for Sachi, and Matsu and Stephen have exchanged gifts: a good-luck daruma doll for Matsu (it is tradition to make wishes, then draw in eyes as the wishes come true) and a book of Japanese poetry for Stephen.

As they leave for Yamaguchi, Stephen asks Matsu what the kado-matsu symbolize. “[P]rosperity, purity, longevity, and loyalty” (96), says Matsu. Matsu tells him that he has made a wreath for Sachi and another for Kenzo. When Stephen and Matsu arrive in Yamaguchi, the village is celebrating. Sachi’s house is quiet, but she is dressed festively and excited to see them. Stephen thinks of the fresh starts the new year will bring for everyone.

Winter: January 15, 1938 Summary

Stephen has received gifts from his family and a letter from King, who is home for the holidays in Hong Kong. At first, the letter takes Stephen back fondly to his time at school, but it turns to disturbing news of the thousands of Chinese raped and murdered in the Nanking Massacre. King says he would join the fight if he thought China could win but will instead return to Canton against his family’s wishes, promising to come home if the Japanese get too close.

Winter: February 4, 1938 Summary

The First Rites of Spring, or Setsubun, takes Matsu and Stephen to the Tama Shrine. A crowd is there for mame-maki, a bean-throwing ritual performed by the monks that heralds new life in spring. Stephen looks for Keiko; Matsu seems to be looking for Kenzo.

Though Stephen has gained strength during his time in Tarumi, he still tires easily. On the way home, he and Matsu pause near Kenzo’s teahouse. A crowd has gathered. Many notice Matsu and speak in hushed whispers. Matsu and Stephen push their way into the teahouse to find Kenzo’s body hanging from the rafters.

Matsu lowers his friend’s body to a counter, allowing no one else to touch it. He stands silently with Kenzo, then whispers in his ear, carefully closes his eyelids, and walks slowly home.

Winter: December 21, 1937-Winter: February 4, 1938 Analysis

While these five chapters are shorter than many others, they pack a great deal into a few pages. The holidays have arrived, and Stephen is pleased with the delightful simplicity of the Japanese celebrations, compared to the more boisterous, Westernized ones of his childhood in China. Sachi, Matsu, and Stephen celebrate together and exchange gifts. Winter is symbolic of death; as the village celebrates a new year, the old one passes.

The letter from King is unsettling: he writes from Canton about the Nanking Massacre, thousands of Chinese people raped and murdered by the Japanese. The news stands in stark contrast to the peaceful, spiritual moments Stephen is experiencing with his Tarumi friends. Again we see the theme of the individual vs. the collective: War is sweeping across the larger world, yet individual relationships carry on, growing and changing.

The theme of suicide hits home in the present as this group of chapters comes to a close: As Stephen and Matsu leave a celebration of spring in town, they find that Kenzo has hung himself in the teahouse. Before, suicide had been something that happened in the distant past in this circle of friends. Now, it is immediate, visceral: “Matsu lowered Kenzo’s body from the wooden beam. He wouldn’t allow anyone else to touch his friend. I could hear the low thud of Kenzo’s body as it fell to the counter….” (99). In this new year, traditionally a time of forgiveness, hope, and change, Kenzo – deeply conflicted about his love and abandonment of Sachi and her relationship with Matsu – has chosen to leave this life. The symbol of winter deepens.

Before, we have heard characters’ remembrances of the past in the present. Now, the idea of present and past becomes a theme: they are not separate, one real and one conceptual. One overlays the other, and they affect each other with deep emotional resonance and real consequences.