User:HIGINOOGURO

Samurai Oguro Tanjuro  大黒、丹十郎 Ōguro, Tan Jūrō

The stories are set in Edo period Japan (1603-1867) and depict the lives of people from all walks of life, but revolve mainly around samuraicharacters. The Edo Period (1603-1867) was a period of over 250 years of lasting peace in Japanese history.

Japanese short story, The Bamboo Sword, there is a man called Oguro Tanjuro. He is a samurai, but not one that you would usually think up. Hungry, ragged and struggling to reach the gate of a city with his family in tow, he displays an contrasting image to the samurai that many in the US think and believe to be the reality of these historical enigmas. I relate to Tanjuro’s struggle to survive and how he goes about it. Despite his hard situation, when his attempt to receive a job with a recommendation falls through, he is given the chance to earn it by killing a man. He takes time to consider the man he must kill and even thinks of allowing the man to flee, but his target decides to attack him, so Tanjuro finishes the job. Sometimes the things you need to survive come at the cost of other; that is to say, for you to have what you have, someone else must lack it.

Reference: Fujisawa, Shuhei, "The bamboo sword". The Bamboo sword and other samurai tales. Tokyo, Kodansha, 2005

Wandering samurai Oguro Tanjuro and his family come to a castle looking for work, having been told they are hiring. This isn’t so though an official promises to keep an eye out for a job for him. In the meantime, he and his family become even poorer and Oguro must sell his word. Finally he is given the job of executing a man by trial by combat.

Shuhei Fujisawa(26 December 1927 – 26 January 1997) was a Japanese author, whose real name was Tomeji Kosuge. (小菅留治). Over fifty of his books were published through the course of his lifetime, including both full-length novels and short story anthologies. The focus of his writing was historical fiction. Before he became an author, he had been a journalist.