The Samurai's Tale

“It was then that the thought came to me not only how I should tell my story, but also, that those three—child, beast, and man plowing—were eternal: Age and death could not touch them. The great lords with their armies, the knights, the samurai with their swords were the froth on the waves, the scum, the foam, the bubbles that rise and burst and are gone.”

The narrator contemplates the futility of war. Calling the lords and warriors of the time “froth” and “scum” on the waves suggests that their battles merely change appearances without altering the world. Applying the word “scum” to the warriors also implies criticism of the bloodshed. These metaphors also help to establish the poetic tone that the narrator intersperses with his matter-of-fact descriptions. This tone helps the reader connect with the historical period because samurai were expected to show an interest in poetry.

“I had only one desire—to be among them and to be recognized as their equal.”

Taro describes his desire to regain the rank he was born with. As he watches highborn youths participate in an archery contest, he feels that he is one of them even though he is a servant. This passage illustrates the importance of status in feudal society and the naive, even arrogant, perspective that Harutomo has in his youth.

“Death will always be a part of life; it is as natural as the seasons. […] But there are those who are cursed to live in times when death seems to come out of season, when the winter of a man’s life may leap upon him in the midst of summer greenness.”

In this quote, Harutomo foreshadows the death of Togan, the cook who is his first mentor. The author’s use of metaphor and poetic style in this quote place the death in a philosophical context that gives some distance from the trauma of a murder.