A Samurai Never Fears Death

Devin Stanley

Mrs. White

Honors World History

16 March, 2018

A Samurai Never Fears Death

By Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler

Main Characters- Seikei was formerly the son of a tea shop owner who was later adopted by Judge   to fulfill his dream in becoming a Samurai.

Ojoji - He works at the Puppet Theater. He was falsely accused of Killing the Theater narrator Kamori for moving the Samisen that was used kill the narrator.

Main Conflict -  The main conflict of the book was finding out who was the real murderer of the Puppet Narrator Kamori and the Headmaster Nishi. Seikei and Asako went to the Puppet Theater to watch a puppet play, but in the middle of the show they Seikei discovered that Kamori the narrator was dead. They discovered that he was strangled to death by a Samisen string. They came to the conclusion that who ever had a samisen with two strings was the murderer. They caught Ojoji moving the samisen and determined that he was the murder. Seikei did not feel that this was right so he volunteered to find the real murderer by taken the place of one of the puppet handlers. During the play he discovered that the Headmaster. Seikei is captured by The Five men of Naniwa which were gang members of what the play was about. Takemoto confesses to murdering Nishi.

Quotes -

• “But you don’t have enough proof,’ said Seikei. ‘A confessin is all the proof we require here in Osaka” - I chose this quote because it brings to reality that during this time when someone is accused of a crime there is little proof required to take some in prison. If it looked like you were part of a crime you were automatically arrested.

• “Well, because frankly when you have a torturer who is too enthusiastic about his, he can sometimes kill the prisoner before he confesses” - I chose this quote to show that Japan had torturers that usually tortured prisoners to force them to confess to the crime they committed so they could be killed. This was important because if Seikei could not find the real murderer Ojoji would be killed.
• “Tsukiyomi, the brother of Amaterasu the sun goddess, was supposed to inhabit the moon, which appeared only after his sister retired.” - This quote shows that the Japanese believed in multiple gods and goddess, which played a huge roll in their society.

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History -  

• On January 30, 1703 Forty seven samurai avenge their leader out of loyalty (before the book).
• On March 20, 1703 the play Forty-seven rōnin which was on of the plays performed at the Puppet Theater in the book.
• On December 31, 1703 a earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.

Overall success - Overall I think this book was a success because it was filled with mystery and suspicion.

Author Fact -  Dorothy Hoobler was born on March 6, 1941 age 77 and Thomas Hoobler was born on June 1942. They have been married since 1971. Dorothy Hoobler and Thomas Hoobler have both written over 90+ books together.