I was recently in Kanazawa and visited a Samurai house. In a room beside the lovely, peaceful garden is a vitrine with swords and other battle paraphernalia. And, this note to the resident samurai, Mr. Nomura Shichirogogo: "We appreciate that you worked so hard to kill one high ranked soldier on the fourth last month at the Yokokitaguchi Battle in Kaganokuni Enumagun. We are happy that you brought us his head." — Dated Oct 9, 1566 (Eiroku Ninth), signed by Yoshikage Asakura (Echizen)
I appreciated the juxtaposition of the serene garden with the casual language acknowledging the beheading.
Thank you. This captures perfectly what often seems (to me, at least) so be hard to understand about the samurai: the unnerving combination of silence and slaughter in their culture.
In my rudimentary understanding of Japanese gardens, I understand those fantastically shaped trees and twisted branches to be the result of pretty rough intervention in the growing process (wiring the limbs and cutting the roots etc.). While the result is lovely, the process is not particularly what a tree might want, just like a man might not particularly want his head cut off. Human beings are fascinating.
I look forward to Part 2, Christopher. I'm interested in Japanese history, and this parallelism between the concept of Christian sacrifice and the way of the Samurai makes for a great read. Thank you!
I was recently in Kanazawa and visited a Samurai house. In a room beside the lovely, peaceful garden is a vitrine with swords and other battle paraphernalia. And, this note to the resident samurai, Mr. Nomura Shichirogogo: "We appreciate that you worked so hard to kill one high ranked soldier on the fourth last month at the Yokokitaguchi Battle in Kaganokuni Enumagun. We are happy that you brought us his head." — Dated Oct 9, 1566 (Eiroku Ninth), signed by Yoshikage Asakura (Echizen)
I appreciated the juxtaposition of the serene garden with the casual language acknowledging the beheading.
Thank you. This captures perfectly what often seems (to me, at least) so be hard to understand about the samurai: the unnerving combination of silence and slaughter in their culture.
In my rudimentary understanding of Japanese gardens, I understand those fantastically shaped trees and twisted branches to be the result of pretty rough intervention in the growing process (wiring the limbs and cutting the roots etc.). While the result is lovely, the process is not particularly what a tree might want, just like a man might not particularly want his head cut off. Human beings are fascinating.
I look forward to Part 2, Christopher. I'm interested in Japanese history, and this parallelism between the concept of Christian sacrifice and the way of the Samurai makes for a great read. Thank you!
Thanks for reading!