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Samurai Diary

I awoke one morning to find my father


impaled with a chokuto stuck through his head. I
knew that the murderer had to be a landowner
because we hadn’t paid our rent. My mother rushed
out of the house with her broom to avenge my
father’s death. It had been two hours and I had
grown impatient, so I went to go find my mother. I
followed her footprints until I ended up in a pool of
blood and a body in the center of it. There was
nothing to be done, so I just walked home.

Starting at the age of five,


I trained beyond my limit using batto-jutsu and
budo. I took down people who were twice my age.
Luckily, my knowledge of the death of my parents
at such a young age made me a merciless warrior
that branded me for life, but made me the famous
warrior that countless people fear. Anytime I had
defeated someone in a battle in my neighborhood, I
would slit their throat thinking that there might be a
slight chance of them being the murderer of my
parents. I thought of everyone that way.
Prince Shotoku governed
the land of which I lived in. He was a strong
supporter of Buddhism. Prince Shotoku influenced
me as much as my grandfather influenced my
father. The prince introduced me to Buddhism, a
religion I followed for the rest of my days. I later
became a samurai whose life was in his hands, and
a person I was willing to die for.
I grew remarkably fast
both physically and mentally. I had a body built like
a tank, and could juke out my opponents and cut
off their head before they even realized what was
going on. This was because I relied heavily on my
good muramasa. One time I let someone slash me
with their Daisho. Both cuts barely pierced my skin.
Everyone in the village was frightened when they
heard my name because one way or another, I had
erased someone from their family. As time passed
by, I grew stronger, smarter, and killing was
something as normal as breathing to me.

By the time I was 20, I had


become a samurai and had killed the Daimyo of my
land. I knew that he was the one who murdered my
parents but that didn’t mean that I would kill many
less. By that time, I forgot completely about the
death of my parents because I was Prince Shotoku’s
bodyguard, and he treated me like a father. He and
I shared the same beliefs. We both thought that
fear would organize the community and make our
army stronger than any of those who opposed us.
Fear was what made people follow orders without
question. Fear was what made a strong military.
Fear was what made me the warrior which I was.
The shogun and I aided one
another in battle, but during normal day life, we
were enemies. I can’t recall how many times I tried
to kill him. Out of everyone in the village, he was
the only one who didn’t show me respect. Everyone
in the village including me believed in heaven and
hell. The only one who didn’t was the shogun, and
so I wanted to send him there to prove it to him.
One night I crept into his home while he was
sleeping and threw my sword straight through his
skull ending his life.

I knew immediately that what I


did was wrong. I tried to commit seppuku for my
horrible deed. It was a dishonorable thing to do,
and the consequence was suicide. The problem was
I couldn’t kill myself. No matter how many times I
slammed the sword at my stomach, it never went
through my skin. Maybe I drew a couple drops of
blood, but nothing other than that. It was
impossible I thought. I couldn’t kill myself.
I had become a feared member of
the community, killing all my enemies, not even
allowing one of them to live. I later realized my
mistakes of being so cruel, but it was too late. I had
already killed so many before I realized my
wronging. It would have been my undoing, but
luckily my master Prince Shotoku introduced me to
Zen Buddhism. Zen is a form of Mahayana
Buddhism that places great importance on
moment-by-moment awareness.

Zen Buddhism helped me see the


value of someone’s life more than I had thought life
had. I knew I was told that we were already dead
and our lives were in the king’s hands, but I realized
that our lives did at least mean something.
Following this form of religion aided me in realizing
to true beauty in life and that I shouldn’t kill others
just for fun. By apprehending this, I became a more
honorable warrior that people didn’t just respect
because I told them to, but because they wanted
to. I had changed from the infamous warrior of
whom I was, to a respected leader which many
honored.
One can distinguish Zen Buddhism
from other forms of the religion because the culture
has its own particular temples, rituals, priesthoods,
and religious orders. The religion does not
emphasize on only those terms, but also in terms of
teaching, thought, and practice. Zen, in the course
of its long history, has come to have many reasons
to differentiate it from other Buddhism forms.
Art, drama, and literature, were all
important and enjoyable to the Japanese society. I
myself enjoyed them also. In art, woman influenced
Japanese art until there was a men’s art and
woman’s art. Buddhism also had a large effect on
Japanese art. Some paintings showed Amida
Buddha coming down in celebration to dead
relatives. Others illustrated Amida sitting cross-
legged while descending on a lavender cloud.

Japanese Noh drama is a dramatic


form that combines drama, music, and dance. It
had its own instruments and performance
techniques, which were handed down from my
father to me. Noh drama was supported by the
government, and particularly the military. The
military commanders sometimes performed
themselves.

Japanese literature was a very


important part of the community. Japan’s adopted
their writing system from the Chinese. Poetry was
the favorite from of writing. Many composed poems
and everyone looked forward to occasional poetry
contests. Because many writers enjoyed nature,
they expressed it in their poems, in some cases
explaining the sadness of natural things. Later,
diaries were the favorite form of literature. They
were personal accounts that helped remember our
past.
The Fujiwara was one of the four
great families that dominated Japanese politics
during the Heian Period (782-1184), and the most
important of them at that time. The others were the
Tachibana, the Taira and the Minamoto. The
Fujiwara exercised tremendous power, especially
during the period of regency governments in 10th
and 11th centuries. The Fujiwara clan's political
influence was initiated during the Asuka period.
Some members of the Fujiwara were court nobles,
provincial governors and vice governors, members
of the provincial aristocracy, and samurai

The Tokugawa was a feudal military


dictatorship of Japan established by Tokugawa
Leyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa
family. This period is known as the Edo period
(1600-1867) and got its name from the capital city
of Edo. The Tokugawa period, unlike the shogunates
before it, was supposedly based on the strict class
hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi
Hideyoshi. The warrior-caste of samurai was at the
top, followed by farmers, artisans, and traders. The
very inflexibility of the caste system unleashed
disruptive forces over time.
I fought many battles, but only one is my
favorite. I was riding my horse at the front of the
Shokotu’s army, as I always did. We were told to
keep our heads up, for our opposing army was very
strong. Of course, none of us took the advice for we
had never lost a battle. I had the best vision in the
army and could see up to 10 miles away. None of
the others had noticed the huge black looking
pebbles just on the horizon around 10 miles from
us. I was the only one who spotted it before it was
too late.

Suddenly there was a blast that rang


through our ears and a soldier next to me fell off his
horse screaming as his face splattered with blood.
Confused I stared at the body looking to see what
was wrong. I checked of his heartbeat. Nothing.
Then, two more of the same sounds came to my
ears and there followed two more bodies collapsing
to the ground. I started to get it. Whatever was
happening, it was from our opponents, and they
had amazingly long range weapons.

The amount of sound was


increasing every second and more and more of my
allies were falling to the ground. The only thing to
do was go straight at the enemy. Along with my two
assistant shoguns, we rode straight at the heart of
the opposing army.
A whizzing sound came to my ears again as I
felt something cut a bit of my cheek. Suddenly I
saw the mysterious weapon. It was coming straight
at my head, its purpose to go through my skull and
out. I wouldn’t let that happen. I quickly drew out
my katana and sliced the “pebble” in half, both
sides going in opposite directions.

As we approached closer to the


enemy’s army, we were shot at by about a hundred
more of those pebbles. Luckily I chopped every one
of them before they made contact with my skin.
Immediately after, I saw an enemy ahead. I could
tell by his color that he was part of the enemy. My
two assistant shoguns took out their arrows and
shot him in both arms that were holding his swords.
Then it was my turn. I drew out my sword and
slashed straight through his stomach ripping him in
half. By the time either one of us three got to look
up, we were surrounded by a thousand samurai.
Their swords at our throats, and if we made one
slight movement, they would do to us what we did
to that previous samurai.

At this moment, a smile


came to my face. This was going to be a bloody
fight. I was going to win this battle and bring honor
to my name once again. I looked at my two
comrades. They looked back at me and smiled too.
It was kill or be killed. In that split second, we all
drew our swords. I was killing faster than I could
slash my sword, cutting everyone in my path. We
were ripping apart everyone we saw. Every few
seconds I was also getting stabbed, bleeding as the
sword pierced my skin, but I felt no pain; I was
already dead.

I turned around to realize


that my army had recovered from the long range
attack and was charging towards us to help us out. I
knew that I only needed to hold off for a few
seconds until my allies joined me. I sliced up a
couple more of my enemies. I looked towards the
direction of the assistant shoguns, to see if they
were alright. They were doing fine. That was when
my army joined the three of us. Our opponents in
confusion were no match for us. As the enemy
number grew thinner I could get a clearer view of
their leader.
That was when I found him

I rushed towards him, prepared to


get out my katana ready to shop him up. The only
thing I didn’t understand was that he had a long
stick with a hole at one end. He drew his sword as I
got closer and galloped towards me. We were both
going straight at each other, horses going at top
speed. I yanked out my katana at the last moment.
I closed my eyes to summon the power inside me.
SLASH.

I opened my eyes to find one of my


enemies hands separated from the wrist. Blood
oozed out of the cut artery. He screamed and fell off
his horse. A couple seconds later he was back on
his feet. With only one hand he took out the
weapon that I saw a couple minutes ago. His aimed
it at me, his arm quivering. I didn’t know what he
was doing but, I charged at him, not waiting to find
out. Suddenly there was a bang and smoke shot out
of the weapons hole. I felt a pain in the center of
my heart, but this wouldn’t be the end of me. I
summoned my remaining strength and sliced off his
head. I fell of my horse. I started to see blackness,
and I was sweating hard. I finally went to the point
were I stopped breathing. Nothing.

I died the next day in the hospital bleeding to death

You might be wondering how I could write in my diary when I died


but remember, this story is fictional, NOT REAL!
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Armento, Beverly, and Cordova, Jacqueline.


Across the Centuries. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1999

Unknown. “Prince Shotoku.” Worldbook,


2007.

http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Article?
id=ar72 5108

Davis, Matt; Wilson, Mary. “A Brief History of


Japan Religion.” Religion in Medieval
Japan.

http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/asian
377/stude ntspring99/asian377g/
Samurai
Diary

Eamon Barkhordarian
Eamon Barkhordarian

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