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 hadnt paid our rent. My mother rushed out of the house with her broom to avenge my fathers 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 didnt mean that I would kill many less. By that time, I forgot completely about the death of my parents because I was Prince Shotokus 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 cant recall how many times I tried to kill him. Out of everyone in the village, he was the only one who didnt show me respect. Everyone in the village including me believed in heaven and hell. The only one who didnt 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 couldnt 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 couldnt 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 someones life more than I had thought life had. I knew I was told that we were already dead and our lives were in the kings 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 shouldnt kill others just for fun. By apprehending this, I became a more honorable warrior that people didnt 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 mens art and womans 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. Japans 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 Shokotus 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 wouldnt 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 enemys 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 didnt 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 didnt 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 wouldnt 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/asian377/students pring99/asian377g/

Samurai Diary

Eamon Barkhordarian

Eamon Barkhordarian