The Samurai's Garden

Stephen is left breathless and nauseated by the shock of Kenzo’s death. He stumbles home with Matsu, vomits, and needs Matsu’s assistance to get to bed. Stephen passes in and out of sleep as Matsu drinks whiskey and listens to the radio, which blares news of Japanese progress toward Canton. Stephen knows that their next stop will be Hong Kong and wonders if he should go home to his mother and sister or join his father in Kobe.

When Stephen rises, Matsu is gone. He doesn’t return until much later, when he silently makes the evening meal. 

Matsu informs Stephen that Kenzo will be buried the next morning in a Buddhist ceremony. Other than this, Matsu has been eerily silent. “Since I’d arrived in Tarumi, Matsu had been the anchor and I was the one afloat. I wasn’t ready to switch places” (102), writes Stephen. Matsu tells Stephen that yesterday, he went to tell Sachi of Kenzo’s suicide.

Matsu tells Stephen that strangely, at the news of Kenzo’s death, Sachi began speaking about a Tama Matsuri festival many years ago during which Matsu rescued her from being crushed by a frenzied crowd while popular Kenzo helped carry the festival shrine.