ricardoglizzy

4 years ago

this is my favorite book! although this book may not be fun to everyone. This book was a great representation of medieval japan. if you are a good reader and is interested in old japan and samurais this is the book for you. in my opinion it is 10/10

Anonymous

4 years ago

This is a good book with good meaning.

Me

7 years ago

Awesome!

Yesh Godse

11 years ago

The Samurai's Tale is a deep, absorbing story about an interesting Samurai's youth. This mesmerizing tale of a boy who loses his father describes in great detail the troubles of a feudal warrior society and the different levels of poverty in Japan. The book was written as if you were there with the main character, Taro (who later becomes Murakami Harutomo), watching his life unfolds in the true detail. The foreign, but educated author behind it all, Erik Christian Haugaard, became a popular author renowned for children’s books after the release of The Samurai's Tale clearly expressing the various fans he got from writing the book. Now days, even after his death in 2009, people wonder how he conjured so much detail without any personal experience of Feudal Japan. One could describe it as Margaret Mitchell writing Gone with the Wind without any upbringing in a southern state. Like Gone with the Wind and many other detailed books, The Samurai's Tale is certainly a masterpiece with few other novels close to its level of superiority. The Samurai's Tale is set in Kai, an area in the middle of the Japanese Island Honshu, during the Japanese Onin War. It opens with a very young boy who learns of his father’s death and is captured by Lord Akiyama Nobutora to work in the servant kitchen of the castle. He is renamed Taro and worked as a helper to the head chef, Togan, who he later got a deep friendship with. When Togan suddenly dies, Lord Akiyama Nobutora moves him to the stables where he learns the way of the horse and asserts his superiority over the other kids. While working in the stables, he gained lots of love in Lord Akiyama Nobutora's heart by doing special, secret missions for him and Lord Takeda Shingen. He is moved to work alongside Lord Akiyama, Lord Akiyama Nobutora's son and he gets a new name: Murakami Harutomo. There, he helps Lord Akiyama seize Iwamura Castle from Lord Takeda Shingen’s enemy, Lord Oda Nobunaga. There, he falls in love with a girl named Aki-hime, the daughter of one of Lord Akiyama's officers. He and Aki-hime write poems to each other to express each other’s love. Meanwhile, Lord Takeda Shingen dies of old age and disease. His son, the Wakatono (Prince), takes over and makes ruthless decisions that secure the downfall of Lord Takeda Shingen’s campaign, including Lord Akiyama. Later, Murakami Harutomo marries Aki-hime and they both settle away from Iwamura where their masters were dishonored. This spells the end of Murakami Harutomo's childhood and as the book says, "In the raging fire of the world, there is no peace." Yet that is not altogether true, for in the love between two human beings that fire can be quenched and peace may be found. (234). In my opinion of this story, the author, Erik Christian Haugaard, is trying to convey to the readers how it is like to be in Japan and serve under a powerful Lord with your own other responsibilities going on. In The Samurai's Tale, this is shown with Taro being a messenger for Lord Akiyama, helping with the rice and rations for the army with Wada Kansuke, and writing poems and meeting with his love and lover, Aki-hime. This shows the feudalism between a vassal and his Lord while doing his own things and to a certain extent, the book describes the free time of the young samurai. Another aspect demonstrated in The Samurai's Tale which I had not realized before was the role of nature and poetry represented even in the common talk to two Samurai. In the book, Taro writes multiple poems to himself and later writes them to Aki-hime winning her love; as he matured throughout the book, he also mimicked the wiser, older Samurai using analogies mostly representing nature to prove points in what he was saying. An example of this style of speaking and thinking would be, Lord Zakoji wanted Lord Katsuyori to make peace with Oda and Tokugawa and to give up the thought of being ruler of Japan, leaving such dreams to others. But dreams are strong as iron. They say that a wild horse can be tied to a spider web; certain it is that a man can be tied by a dream. Overall, I liked this story because of the well-developed plot, realistic and detailed context, wise sayings and poems that reeled me into a deeper meaning of the book, and the awesome combination of drama, adventure, and action all creating a well-written book. Erik Christian Haugaard has concocted this master peace with all of these qualities and many fans of his works including new ones like me have accepted it with open arms.

Brayden H

11 years ago

In the story “The Samuri’s Tale,” a boy named Murakami lost his mom and dad at a very young age. He had a servant named Yoichi. He was captured by officer Akiyama and was taken to lord Akiyama to be his servant. When Murakami first became his servant he worked in the kitchen. He pleased lord Akiyama very much, so lord Akiyama decided to have Murakami work in the stables with all of the horses. He worked there for a while and then became a messenger/ young samuri. Murakami began by just delivering messages to other important people in Japan. He also had a job of helping the other servants of lord Akiyama if the other leaders or lord Akiyama were not there to help. I personally did not like the book at all because there was no action what so ever. You would think that with a title like “The Samuri’s Tale” that there would be action in it, but not in this story. The only action in the story was in the beginning when his mom and dad died in the first couple of pages.

Brayden H

11 years ago

In the story the"The Samuri's Tale," a kid named Murakami's mom and dad both died very early on in his life. He had a servant named Yoichi. He was then captured by officer Akiyama and taken to lord Akiyama's servant at his home. Murakami worked in the kitchen and pleased lord Akiyama a lot. Then lord Akiyama had Murakami work in the stables with the horses. He worked there for a while and he then became a messenger/young samuri. At first he just delivered messages to other important people in Japan. Murakami also had a responsibility to help the other servants for lord Akiyama if Akiyama or another leader was not there to help. I personally did not like this book at all because there was no action at all. The title of the book was kind of miss leading because with a title of "The Samuri's Tale," you would think that there would be a ton of action and suspenful parts in and throughout the story. In this book there was none of that except in the first couple of pages.

jackie

11 years ago

There's this kid murakami who's father was a samurai but I guess a bandit but other lords did not like him so they murdered his whole family so I guessed this kid would be like batman but even better because his brothers got killed too so he gets adopted by this lord guy and starts from the bottom now he's on top then he become's a samurai and just serves his lord. I read the back of the book and it sounded action packed and it said that every women in the village wanted to fondle with this guy but there was no action and unfortunaly no fondiling and spoiling. I really disliked this story cause everyone this kid made contact with got killed and it was kinda boring but I kinda liked the words of wisdom from his friend melonhead...who then gets killed the next few pages. Well thats my review hope you like it.