THE PORTRAIT OF THE LIFE OF SAMURAI DURING THE SHOGUNATE ERA OF JAPAN IN JAMES CLAVELL’S SHOGUN

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

SIDIQ MURTAYA EKA PRASETYA

Student Number: 994214203 Student Registration Number: 990051120106120203

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

2007

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A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

THE PORTRAIT OF THE LIFE OF SAMURAI DURING THE SHOGUNATE ERA OF JAPAN IN JAMES CLAVELL’S SHOGUN

By

SIDIQ MURTAYA EKA PRASETYA

Student Number: 994214203 Student Registration Number: 990051120106120203

Approved by

Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum July ,2007 Advisor Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum July ,2007 Co-Advisor

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A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

THE PORTRAIT OF THE LIFE OF SAMURAI DURING THE SHOGUNATE ERA OF JAPAN IN JAMES CLAVELL’S SHOGUN

By

SIDIQ MURTAYA EKA PRASETYA

Student Number: 994214203

Defended before the Boards of Examiners On

And Declared Acceptable

BOARD OF EXAMINERS Name Chairman : Dr. Fr. B Alip, M.Pd, M.A Secretary : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum Member : M. Luluk Artika, SS. Member : Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum Member : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum

Yogyakarta, …………….,……………….2007

What are clouds

But an excuse for the sky? What is life

But an escape from death? (The words of Kasigi Omi)

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This Undergraduate Thesis is dedicated to My beloved parents My beloved brother

All my teachers Those who read it

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The process of writing a thesis is equivalent to the great battle of Yedo. It was

the battle that one’s destiny of life and death will be determined not only by his own

skills and by will to fight, but also by the supports of those who helped and guided

him. Within this section, I dedicated my greatest thanks to those who have guided and

supported me to finish the process of writing this undergraduate thesis.

My first thanks first goes to Allah, the Lord of creations, whose great love and

mercy never decline although I often forget Him; and I knew I will never succeed to

finish this thesis without His blessings.

My special thanks go to Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarko, M.Hum., my advisor in

writing this thesis, Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd. M.Hum, as my co-advisor, Tatang

Iskarna, S.S, M.Hum., Maria Ananta, S.S., and all lecturers of English Letters

department of Sanata Dharma. Without their advice, guidance, and mental supports, I

will never be able to finish this undergraduate thesis

The last but not least, to my parents, little brother, and family, for their

endless loves and supports, and for my best friends Roberto “Chodhot” Januar, Harry

‘@” Arya Tamtama, Reygan”Den Baguse” Eufra T., Antonius Agung “the Badroen”

Priharyanta, and all my friends that I can not mention here. Best friends we are, best

friends we will be. For the community of Black Metal, in Jogja, Indonesia, and

around the world, thy spells of darkness enchant my spirit.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………….. i APPROVAL PAGE……………………………………………………. ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ………………………………………………... iii MOTTO PAGE ……………………………………………………..…. iv DEDICATION PAGE …………………………………..........................v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………….vi TABLE OF CONTETS …………………………………………………vii ABSTRACT ……………………………………………….....................viii ABSTRAK ……………………………………………………………...ix CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study…………………………………… 1 B. Problem Formulation ………………….…………………… 6 C. Objectives of the Study …………………………………….. 6 D. Definition of Terms …….…………………………………...6

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL VIEW

A. Review of Related Studies …………………………………..9 B. Review of Related Theories ………………………………....12 C. The Relation between Literature, Society, and History ……..14 D. Review of the History of Samurai in Feudal Japan ………….15

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study…………………………………………...22 B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………... 24 C. Method of Study …………………………………………… 24

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS A. The Description of Samurai………………………………….27 B. The Characteristics of Samurai………………………………34 C. The Portrayal of the Life of Samurai………………………...43

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION.………………………………………..54 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………56

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ABSTRACT

SIDIQ MURTAYA E.P (2007). The Portrait of the Life of Samurai During the Shogunate Era of Japan in James Clavell’s Shogun. Yogyakarta. Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.

Samurai are well known as one part of Japanese culture that already goes international. They are recognized almost at all parts of the world. Most people have an interpretation of samurai as brave and fearless Japanese soldiers, who were expert in combat and killing, but only few knew how they their aspect of life. In James Clavell Shogun, the samurai were described a lot, although they are not the center point of the story. These facts drew the attention of the writer to study the life of samurai in James Clavell’s Shogun.

The writer formulated two problems in this thesis. The first problem discussed

how Clavell characterizes and describes the samurai in his novel. This problem statement attempts to reveal how samurai are described physically and how Clavell characterized them in the novel. The second problem discussed what aspect of life of samurai portrayed in the novel, and how Clavell portrayed it. This part aims to what the codes, tradition, and believes of samurai in their life, and how they are portrayed within the novel.

To solve the problems in the thesis, the writer uses the way of library

research. It means the writer takes the data from a novel entitled Shogun by James Clavell. The sources to analyze the problems were taken from books and internet. The writer also uses the socio-cultural historical approach to be used as ‘spectacles’ that gives the point of view of the writer on analyzing the life of samurai. Books and internet citations were used to find out the supportive theories and information that will help the writer to solve the problems formulated in the thesis. The writer used the theory of characterization to solve the first problem, while books and articles from experts that contain information on samurai were used as guidance to solve the second problem.

After analyzing the problems and applying the related theories and

information, the thesis led into the result that samurai are characterized as honorable, loyal, self-disciplined, and fearless men. Physically they are strong and considered as powerful warriors. Their aspect of life reflected in the novel were bushido as their code of honor and loyalty, their relationship with the lord as mutual relationship, and the special meaning of sword for them, which are considered as their soul and honor.

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ABSTRAK

SIDIQ MURTAYA E.P (2007). The Portrait of the Life of Samurai During the Shogunate Era of Japan in James Clavell’s Shogun. Yogyakarta. Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Samurai adalah salah satu bagian dari budaya bangsa Jepang yang telah mendunia. Hampir seluruh bagian dari masyarakat di dunia mengenal samurai, dan menginterprestasikan samurai sebagai sosok ksatria yang tangguh dan pemberani serta memiliki keahlian tinggi dalam membunuh dan bertarung. Dari sekian banyak orang yang mengenal samurai, tidak banyak yang betul-betul mengetahui bagaimana nilai-nilai kehidupan mereka. Dalam novel James Clavell yang berjudul Shogun, samurai banyak dibahas walaupun fokus cerita tidak dititik beratkan pada mereka. Hal ini menarik perhatian penulis unruk mempelajarinya dalam skripsi ini.

Skripsi ini mebahas dua masalah. Yang pertama membahas sifat-sifat dan

penampilan samurai. Bagian ini nertujuan menemukan gambaran baik penampilan fisik maupun sifat yang dimiliki para samurai. Rumusan masalah yang kedua membahas nilai-nilai kehidupan samurai yang mencakupi kode-kode, kepercayaan dan tradisi para samurai yang tergambar dalam novel, dan bagaimana Clavell menggambarkan nilai-nilai tersebut dalam novelnya.

Dalam proses menganalisa masalah-masalah yang ada di skripsi ini, penulis

melakukan studi kepustakaan. Penulis mencari teori-teori, buku-buku, maupun artikel yang ditulis oleh mereka yang ahli dan mengandung informasi yang berkenaan dengan masalah-msalah di skripsi ini. Penulis juga menggunakan pendekatan sosio-kultural historical sebagai ‘kacamata’ yang menunjukan dari sisi mana skripsi ini mebahas kehidupan para samurai. Penulis menggunakan teori karakterisasi untuk memecahkan masalah pertama, dan menggunakan buku-buku dan artikel mengenai samurai untuk masalah kedua.

Dalam hasilnya, skripsi ini menunjukkan bahwa samurai memiliki sifat

sebagai ksatria yang kuat, terhormat, setia, dan disiplin, serta pemberani. Sedangkan nilai kehidupan yang tercermin dalam novel Shogun adalah bushido yang digambarkan sebagai jalan kebenaran, dan kehormatan, hubungan antara samurai dengan tuannya dan arti pedang-pedang mereka sebagai symbol kehormatan dan jiwa samurai.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Literature can be considered as the work of art of human being, which is

expressed through the spoken or written words. It contains the records of people’s

values, thoughts, conflicts, or even histories and cultures of certain society.

Hudson in An Introduction to the Study of Literature said “literature is a vital

record of what men have seen in life, what they have experienced, what they have

thought and felt about those aspects which have the most immediate and permanent

interest for all of us” (1958: 10). Marry Rohberger also mentioned that “literature is

not created in a vacuum, and it embodies ideas significant to the history and culture

that produce it” (1971: 9). From the previous statements, it is seen that by reading a

work of literature, it is possible for us to learn and know the life, experience, opinion,

or way of thinking of certain people, and even history and culture of certain society in

a certain time, which is useful for us to record them as a mere entertainment, or even

something that will fill our knowledge addition. Related to culture and history of

certain society, the significant of literary works is that the reader may learn what

happened in the past and what kind of social condition and values that are existed in a

society. In other words, literary works can play their role as historical documents that

record social reality, which are aesthetically portrayed by the author.

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Novel is one kind of work of literature besides poetry, drama, short story,

and prose. As a kind of the work of literature, a novel may includes the record of

people’s aspect of life, history, or culture. According to Danzigen and Johnson in the

Introduction to Literary Criticism, “a novel may contain many aspects of life in

which the writer has interpreted them as fiction narration” (1958: 41).

This thesis focuses its study on a novel. According to Danzigen and

Johnson, a novel is a form of literary art. In complete definition, they defined it as “a

work of art in so far as it introduces us into living world, in some respects resembling

the world we live in, but with an individuality of its own” (1958:163). It means a

novel is like a mirror image of real world and lives, which is clearly seen by the eyes

of someone who read it, but it will give the reader something that they cannot get by

seeing the original world.

The Novel that is analyzed in this thesis is entitled Shogun written by James

Clavell. It is a fiction historical novel depicting the adventure of a bold English

adventurer in Japan in the time of Feudal period. Shogun tells the story of an English

pilot, John Blackthorne, who was in charge of five Dutch ships whose purpose is to

break the Portuguese monopoly on Japanese trade and conquered the land if possible.

However, later, instead of monopolizing the new land, the pilot becomes involved in

Japanese politics as he was captured by one of the powerful daimyo named Lord

Toranaga who employs him as his secret weapon to aid him to get greater power as

shogun. Shogun uses straightforward storytelling techniques to keep readers

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fascinated as they imagine themselves in the position of the English pilot. By the end,

the reader has learned about Japan alongside Blackthorne, as he attempts to survive.

Although not considered great literature by most critics, Shogun: A Novel of

Japan made its author, James du Maresq Clavell, one of the most commonly read

twentieth-century novelists. The novel contains war, trade disputes, cultural clash,

passion, death, and descriptions of beauty that have kept readers up until down. The

features make Clavell an "old-fashioned storyteller" who spins charming thread rather

than an artiste like Virginia Woolf or Thomas Pynchon. Clavell's survival of a

Japanese death camp gave him unique sight into human behavior and cultural

differences, enabling him to produce a truly fascinating story. In addition to penning a

good book to curl up with, Clavell built a bridge of understanding from West to East

by fictionalizing a historical encounter between them.

The novel reflects a large part of Japanese social life, culture, and believes in

the era of feudalism. One of the interesting aspects of culture of Japan reflected in

the novel is the Samurai. The writer realized that James Clavell’s Shogun does not

place the samurai as the center point of the story, but the writer also found that the

novel contains a big part of portrayal the life of samurai, which draws the interest of

the writer to focus the thesis on it.

It is interesting to discusss the life of samurai when discusssing Japan culture

and history. The term “samurai” is already well known by most part of the world as

the part of Japanese culture, especially in the military and spiritual aspect. The word

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“samurai” is very famous and commonly recognized whether by people of Asia,

especially Japan itself, China, Indonesia, or other people outside Asia, such as

America and Europe. Most people have common sense on samurai as a tough and

brave Japanese male warrior armed with two-handed swords by his belly, bow and

pack of arrows carried on his back, and an expert on killing and martial arts.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, some people often have a misunderstanding in recognizing

“samurai” and “katana”. Katana is a large two-handed sword and it is one of the must

have weapon of samurai. In other words, it can be described as the sword of samurai,

or samurai’s sword, but most people in Indonesia often name “katana” as only

“samurai”, which should be “pedang samurai” (Indonesian translation for “samurai’s

sword”)”.

Samurai do not only well known for the terms, but also exposed in several

medias of entertainment. Very clear examples that shows samurai have been widely

exposed is that they exist a lot and out of its motherland area in several kinds of

entertainment such as movies like The Last Samurai, American Samurai, Twin

Samurai, Edge of Steel, Shodown in Little Tokyo, etc. The movies like The Last

Samurai and American Samurai are Hollywood movies that success to hit box office

rate at their time. Samurai also commonly appeared in video games such as

Bakumatsu Roman 1 and 2, which are converted into their European version entitled

The Last Blade 1 and 2 (SNK), Neo-Geo’s Samurai Spirit series which also adopted

to European and North American version as Samurai Shodown I – V, Battle Realms

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(Liquid Entertainment), Empire Earth and Throne of Darkness (Sierra), and many

more that the writer can not write due to the matter of efficiency and source.

Because samurai was exposed a lot in various universal medias, it is not odd

that later samurai becomes well known by people from around the world, but most of

the description of samurai, whether it is in movies or on games, is still more or less

similar one to each other. There, samurai are described as men skillful in combat,

physically wear Japanese war armor, or kimono, and carrying long sword. This is

may be the cause of why people have such common senses on samurai.

Within James Clavell’s Shogun, the samurai is not merely physically

described as what common people think. The novel, although not focusing its center

point on samurai, contains large aspects of the life of this private-warrior class of

feudal Japan including their believes, ethos, culture, their goal and purpose to become

a samurai, and also the description of their relationship with their masters, the

Daimyos or the Shoguns, even with the weapons they carried. After reading James

Clavell’s Shogun, the writer, who was already interested with the culture of samurai,

became more interested in studying samurai as there a lot of samurai’s aspect were

described. Based on the Information stated previously, the writer decides to use

James Clavell’s Shogun and discusss the life of samurai in this thesis.

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B. Problem Formulation

The Problems which are discusssed in this thesis are

1. How does James Clavell characterize the samurai in his novel entitled

Shogun?

2. What are samurai aspects of life portrayed in the novel and how does

James Clavell’s portray them in Shogun?

C. Objectives of the Study

The writer has two points of objective in writing this thesis. The first goal is

to identify how James Clavell describes the samurai in his novel. The description the

writer want to find out is not only on the physical appearance of the samurai, but also

their personality, behavior, and believe.

The second objective the writer wants to achieve on this thesis is to find in

what aspects of life the samurai is portrayed in the novel and evaluate it with the

aspects of life of the samurai in the real life, or, in other word, the writer wanted to

find out how far James Clavell’s Shogun described the truth about the life of samurai

in the era of shogunate in Japan.

D. Definition of Terms

In order to make this thesis clearer and to avoid any misunderstanding,

definitions for the terms are used. There are several terms that will be defined in this

part. They are samurai, shogunate, and shogunate era.

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1. Samurai

According to Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture, the

word samurai is defined as the member of military class of high rank in Japan in

former time. According to Encyclopedia of Japan: Japanese History and Culture,

samurai has literary meaning as “the one who serves”. Samurai is also defined as “the

servant warriors” as the name “samurai” is derived from word subarau, which means

to serve or, to guard and bushi, which means warrior (1991: 290). The writer will use

the second definition, which is taken from Encyclopedia of Japan: Japanese History

and Culture in this thesis, as it gives clearer detail about the definition ansd the

meaning of samurai.

2. Shogunate

According to Encyclopedia of Japan: Japanese History and Culture,

shogunate is the English translation of bakufu, which has the meaning literary as “the

tent Government”. Bakufu or shogunate is a government system; usually a military

based one, consists of several daimyos that own certain part of the land of Japan

under the rule of an official lord called shogun (1991:316). In the same books it is

also described that the word shogun means the one who own and rule (1991:316).

3. Shogunate Era

According to Encyclopedia of Japan: Japanese History and Culture,

shogunate era is the time when shoguns rule as supreme land owner in Japan. The era

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started from the year of 794, the beginning of Heian era, until the year of 1868, the

end of Edo Period. Edo period, which last from 1603 until 1868 is the last time of

samurai era (1991: 136). The setting of time of James Clavell’s Shogun is in the

middle of 1618, so it is still in the era of Shogunate, during Edo Period.

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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies

As one of works of literature, James Clavell”s Shogun draws attention from

critics, reviewers, students, or persons to give comments, or do a research study on it.

Charles Hubbel, a graduate student in History at the State University of New York,

Stony Brook wrote an essay on the novel discusssing on the scientific mind and

technology. In his essay that the writer found from

http://www.google.com/libraryworks.edu/members/critics/clavell/shogun.htm,

Hubbell stated that Blackthorne, the main character of the novel, does not play a

major role in the progress of science and technology of Japan. According to the essay,

“Blackthorne is only a figure of no one to show any support in the raise of Meiji

turmoil. He only carries his own stand-alone problems and more to be that one’s

dreams”. The writer comprehends that this essay discusssed and related the novel

with the restoration of Meiji, the time when Japan began to develop gunpowder and

use it to improve their weaponry systems.

Dorothy Perkins in her book Encyclopedia of Japan: Japanese History and

Culture said “this novel is inspirited by the real experience of an England ship

navigator named William Adams who was navigating a Dutch ship, Die Liefde to the

East Indies when it was wrecked in a storm off the Japanese coast on April 19, 1600

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but the work itself is no more than a fictional of personal adventure with no

significance neither to the mission motherland nor political sarcasms.” (1991: 2).

When Shogun was published in 1975, the reviews around the major

newspapers and magazine overwhelmingly praised the book for its ingenious plot and

fascinating narrative. Cynthia Gorney of the Washington Post described the book as

"one of those books that blots up vacations and imperils marriages, because it simply

will not let the reader go." Webster Schott in the New York Times Book Review

commented, "Clavell has a gift…It may be something that cannot be taught or earned.

He breathes narrative. It is almost impossible not to continue to read Shogun once

having opened it." Library Journal contributor Mitsu Yamamoto praised Shogun of

consisting "a wonderful churning brew of adventure, intrigue, love, philosophy, and

history." However, other critics, such as the New Yorker, mentioned the downside of

the book of having "flashy Hollywood dialogue and derring-do that haven't been

around much since the heyday of the Errol Flynn movie." Nevertheless, the above-

mentioned critic could not escape from acknowledging Clavell as having "a decided

gift for storytelling."

An American educator and historian, Smith has written widely on Japanese

history and was the editor of Learning from "Shogun": Japanese History and Western

Fantasy (1980). In his essay, Smith relates Clavell’s sources and manipulation of

Japan culture and history. He said “Clavell was true an adventurer; in his mind, and

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those true adventurer often trimmed down what should be raised, but for Shogun, it is

a positive sin (1980, 14).”

A criticism also came from Webster Schott, a critic that often wrote in New

York Times Book Review. In his review Schott began his words with "I can't

remember when a novel has seized my mind" like Shogun. According to Schott,

"Clavell is neither literary psychoanalyst nor philosophizing intellectual. He reports

the world as he sees people—in terms of power, control, and strength. He writes in

the oldest and grandest tradition that fiction knows.

Another critic wrote his review on James Clavell’s Shogun found in

http://www//pandorasbox.com/users/lists/critics/pages=12/fav=98/review.htm. The

critic said that “Clavell tended to focus on three themes Clavell's brilliant storytelling,

the work as a historical novel or fiction, and the work's multiculturalism. It is easy to

point out the historical inaccuracies of the novel, but its entertainment value and its

understanding of broader historical themes to light led most critics to forgive Clavell's

manipulation of historical facts.”

From the criticisms on James Clavell’s Shogun stated in the previous

paragraphs none of them discusssing the samurai or aspects that have close relation to

samurai. The writer did found some criticism discusssing cultures of Japan during the

shogunate era and the writer also sure that samurai is a part of Japanese culture, but

the writer, so far, have not yet find the discusssion that focused its main topic on

samurai.

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In this thesis, the writer will focused the topic of the analysis on the samurai,

discusssing it from various aspects of life in the feudal era, that is also become one of

the part in the novel. So, as it never been such discusssion, this study is expectedto be

original.

B. Review of Related Theories

In order to get the clear and right path to solve the problems formulated in

this thesis, the writer realizes that theories are important and needed. Considering on

the problems of this study, the writer will apply the theories of characterization. A

significant resource about the history and culture of Japan and Samurai will also be

included to solve the problems of this thesis.

1. Theories of Characterization

Characterization holds an important rule in a novel or other kind of literary

work, as it is the one, which creates the existence of characters in it. Mary Rohberger

stated that characterization is the way in which the author creates character.

Therefore, characterization should be conveyed into good way as to create a clear

image to the reader perception. There are two principle ways an author can

characterize characters. He can use dramatic way to place her situation to show what

she is by the way she behaves or speaks (1971: 20).

According to M.J. Murphy (1972: 161-172), there are nine ways for an author

to characterize or reveal the characters personality and traits to the reader, they are:

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a. Personal Description

The author can describe a character’s appearance like the face, body, and

clothes of the character. The personal description is very important because it can

give clues to the character.

b. Character as seen by another

Instead of describing characters directly, the author can describe a character

through the eyes and opinions of another.

c. Speech

The author can give the readers some clues or insights to the character

through what a person says. Whenever he is in conversation with another, and

whenever he speaks and puts forward an opinion, he is giving us some clues to his

character.

d. Past Life

By permitting the readers to learn something about a person’s past life, the

author can give us some clues to the events that have helped to shape a person

character.

e. Conversation of others

The author can also give the reader some clues to person’s character through

the conversations of other people and the things they say about him.

f. Reaction

The author can also give us a value to a person’s character by permitting us to

know how that person reacts to various situations and events.

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g. Direct comments

The author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly.

h. Thoughts

The author can give his readers a direct knowledge of what a person is

thinking about.

i. Mannerism

The author can describe a person’s mannerism, habits, or idiosyncrasy, which

also may tell us something about his characters.

2. The Relation between Literature, Society, and History

Since the writer focused this thesis on a topic that has a very close relation to

the society and history of a certain nation, the writer will explain the relation between

literature, society, and history in order to both diverge, and correlate them.

Literary works are not the same as history record, but it is also true that

literary works may help the reader to understand or at least having an imagination of

the condition of the past or history of certain society. Marry Rohberger said that

novel is not a merely historical report. Historical report is only has a purpose of

revealing the truth of the past of certain condition, value, believes, and ethos in a

certain society, without paying attention on the aesthetic and artistic value, while

novel, it is an artistic and aesthetic work (1971: 9).

De Bonald also launched the same theory. He said, “Literature is an

expression of society. Writers in certain aspects, express their experiences and

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conception about life in their work. Thus, it could be said that literature reflects and

express life and greatness of artistic value from a work art (1956: 95).

In further of his explanation, De Bonald said that literature primarily an

immigration of life as it is and social life in particular. Nevertheless, Literature has its

own justification and aim (1956: 102). Therefore, the interpretation may vary

according to the point of view of each reader.

3. Review of the History of Samurai in Feudal Japan

Located 100 miles off the mainland of Asia, at its closest point, Japan was a

land of mystery at the edge of civilization. Isolated at first by geography and later by

choice, the Japanese developed a distinctive culture that drew very little from the

outside world. It is described by Mikiso Hane in her book Premodern Japan: A

Historical Survey, that at the beginning of what were the Middle Ages in Europe, the

advanced culture of Japan was centered at the north end of the Inland Sea on the main

island of Honshu. Across the Hakone Mountains to the east lay the Kanto, an alluvial

plain that was the single largest rice-growing area on the islands. To the north and

east of the Kanto was the frontier, beyond which lived aboriginal Japanese who had

occupied the islands since Neolithic times (1991: 21).

Further more, Hane also described that by the fifth century AD the Yamato

court had become largely ceremonial. Independent clans, known as Uji, held the real

power behind the throne. Clan leaders formed a sort of aristocracy and vied with each

other for effective control of land and the throne (1991: 23).

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Karl F. Friday stated in his book entitled Hired Sword: The Rise of Private

Warrior Power in Early Japan (1992:26-31) The beginning of the samurai started in

the year of 536, when Soga clan became predominant and produced the first great

historical statesman, Prince Shotoku, who instituted reforms that laid the foundation

of Japanese culture for generations to come. In 645, power shifted from the Soga clan

to the Fujiwara clan. The Fujiwara presided over most of the Heian period (794 to

1185). The new leadership imposed the Taika Reform of 645, which attempted to

redistribute the rice-growing land, establish a tax on agricultural production, and

divide the country into provinces. Too much of the country remained outside imperial

influence and control, however. Real power shifted to great families that rose to

prominence in the rice-growing lands. Conflict among these families led to civil war

and the rise of the warrior class.

In the same book, Friday also said “similar to the experience of medieval

Western Europe, the breakdown of central authority in Japan, the rise of powerful

local nobles, and conflict with barbarians at the frontier combined to create a culture

dominated by a warrior elite” (1992: 36). These warriors were became known as

Samurai, ("those who serve"), who were roughly equivalent to the European knight.

A military government replaced the nobility as the power behind the throne at the end

of the twelfth century. The head of the military government was the Shogun.

Harry Cook in Samurai: The Story of a Warrior Tradition described that

samurai are living a code of the warrior, something like the European code of

chivalry. The foundation of the warrior code was loyalty to the lord. The warrior

16

expected leadership and protection. In return, he obeyed his lord's commands without

question and stood ready to die on his lord's behalf. A Samurai placed great emphasis

on his ancestry and strove to carry on family traditions. He behaved so as to earn

praise. He was to be firm and show no cowardice. Warriors went into battle expecting

and looking to die. It was felt that a warrior hoping to live would fight poorly (1994:

67-68).

The samurai were the members of the military class, the Japanese warriors.

An American-Japanese sociologist named Nicklaus Suino wrote in his book entitled

The Art of Japanese Swordsmanship that samurai employed a range of weapons such

as bows and arrows, spears and guns; but their most famous weapon and their symbol

was the sword (1992 :20). In his book, Suino exposed a lot about the meaning and the

importance of sword for samurai. He said that “A samurai would not complete

without their swords, and the swords would be meaningless without their masters”

(1992: 34).

Ikegami’s essay entitled “Shame and the

Samurai:Institutions,Ttrusthworthiness, and Autonomy in the Elite Honor Culture”

said that samurai were supposed to lead their lives according to the ethic code of

bushido ("the way of the warrior"). Strongly Confucian in nature, Bushido stressed

concepts such as loyalty to one's master, self-discipline and respectful, ethical

behavior. After a defeat, some samurai chose to commit ritual suicide (seppuku) by

cutting their abdomen rather than being captured or dying a dishonorable death.

17

In her further explanation, Eiko wrote that samurai were fighting men, skilled

in the martial arts. Samurai had extensive skills in the use of the bow and arrow and

the sword. They could just as likely have killed you with their bare hands. Samurai

were also great horsemen (http://www.ecyclopedia.com/Shame and the samurai_

institutions, trusthworthiness,.html).

In her other book entitled The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific

Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan , Eiko axplained the code of samurai

which is called bushido.

These warriors were men who lived by Bushido; it was their way of life. The samurai loyalty to the emperor and their overlord, or daimyo, was unsurpassed. They were trustworthy and honest. They lived frugal lives with no interest in riches and material things, but rather they were interested in honor and pride. They were men of true valor. Samurai had no fear of death. They would enter any battle no matter the odds. To die in battle would only bring honor to one's family and one's lord (2003: 60). Samurai usually would rather fight alone, one on one. In battle, samurai

would call out their family name, rank and accomplishments. Then he would seek out

an opponent with similar rank and do battle. When the samurai has killed his

opponent he severs his head. After battle, he takes the heads of his enemies back to

show proof of his victory. Heads of generals and those of high ranks were transported

back to the capital and displayed for the officials and others. The only way out for a

defeated samurai was death or ritual suicide: seppuku.

Nicklaus Suino explained that seppuku--or disembowelment or hara-kiri

(belly slicing)--is when a samurai stabs a knife into his abdomen and literally

18

disembowels himself by cutting out his guts and only those who are honorable

enough allowed to do seppuku.

Samurai lived with swords, and they will die by the swords. It is not only means that samurai will die by swords that cut his head off, or stabbed his belly, but also means that he deserves to live as long as the sword is in his hands. (1992:42) After the samurai disembowels himself another samurai, usually a kinsman or

friend, slices his head off. This form of suicide was "performed under various

circumstances: to avoid capture in battle, which the samurai did not believe to be

dishonorable and degrading, but generally bad policy; to atone for a misdeed or

unworthy act; and perhaps most interestingly, to admonish one's lord" (Friday, 1992:

232). A samurai would rather kill himself than bring shame and disgrace to his family

name and his lord. This was considered an act of true honor.

The samurai became the ruling class during the 1400s and the 1500s. In the

1600s, there was a time of unification; warring in Japan had ceased. Then toward the

end of the Tokugawa Era (the late 1700s), Japan began to move towards a more

modernized and Western way of life. There was no need for fighting men, for

warriors, for samurai. The samurai and their way of life were officially abolished in

the early 1870s, but it was not forgotten.

For more clearly, below follows a short history of the Japanese warrior the

writer took from Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey by Mikiso Hane (1972: 161-

204).

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1. Heian Period (794-1185)

The samurai's importance and influence grew during the Heian Period, when

powerful landowners hired private warriors for the protection of their properties.

Towards the end of the Heian Period, two military clans, the Minamoto and Taira,

had grown so powerful that they seized control over the country and fought wars for

supremacy against each other.

2. Kamakura Period (1192-1333)

In 1185, the Minamoto defeated the Taira, and Minamoto Yoritomo

established a new military government in Kamakura in 1192. As shogun, the highest

military officer, he became the ruler of Japan.

3. Muromachi Period (1333 - 1573)

During the chaotic Era of Warring States (sengoku jidai, 1467-1573), Japan

consisted of dozens of independent states, which were constantly fighting each other.

Consequently, the demand for samurai was very high. Between the wars, many

samurai were working on farms. Many of the famous samurai movies by Kurosawa

take place during this era.

4. Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573 - 1603)

When Toyotomi Hideyoshi reunited Japan, he started to introduce a rigid

social caste system, which was later completed by Tokugawa Ieyasu and his

successors. Hideyoshi forced all samurai to decide between a life on the farm and a

warrior life in castle towns. Furthermore, he forbade anyone but the samurai to arm

themselves with a sword.

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5. Edo Period (1603 - 1868)

According to the Edo Period's official hierarchy of social castes, the samurai

stood at the top, followed by the farmers, artisans and merchants. Furthermore, there

were hierarchies within each caste. All samurai were forced to live in castle towns

and received income from their lords in form of rice. Masterless samurai were called

ronin and caused minor troubles during the early Edo Period.

With the fall of Osaka Castle in 1615, the Tokugawa's last potential rival was

eliminated, and relative peace prevailed in Japan for about 250 years. As a result, the

importance of martial skills declined, and most samurai became bureaucrats, teachers

or artists. In 1868, Japan's feudal era came to an end, and the samurai class was

“physically” abolished.

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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The object of the study of this thesis is a novel written by James Clavell

entitled Shogun. James Clavell is a British novelist born on August 10, 1924, in

Sidney, Australia, was the son of British colonist, Richard Charles and Eileen Clavell.

Although not considered great literature by most critics, Shogun: A Novel of Japan

made its author, James du Maresq Clavell, one of the most widely read twentieth-

century novelists. The novel contains war, trade disputes, cultural clash, passion,

death, and descriptions of beauty that have kept readers up until dawn.

Shogun tells the story of an English pilot, John Blackthorne, in charge of five

Dutch ships whose purpose is to break the Portuguese monopoly on Japanese trade.

Instead, the pilot becomes embroiled in Japanese politics as Lord Toranaga employs

him as his secret weapon. Shogun uses straightforward storytelling techniques to keep

readers riveted as they imagine themselves in the position of the English pilot. By the

end, the reader has learned about Japan alongside Blackthorne as he attempts to

survive.

Shogun still is being read widely and praised for its remarkable quality of the

narrative style. After twenty years from its initial publication, the December 1995

issue of the Writer's Digest's article called, '75 Books Every Writer Must Read'

22

included Clavell's Shogun among the rest of the notable books in its list.

The West is interested in the East is proved by Shogun's success. In the first

five years of its printing, 7 million books were sold. NBC did not risk much in

sponsoring a film extravaganza. For twelve hours of prime time, 130 million people

watched Shogun. The miniseries prompted sales of another 2.5 million books. Since

the movie, even more people have read the book or watched the shorter 2.5-hour-long

film.

This study takes samurai, one of the elements of the novel as its center of

attention. Samurai, although they are not the center point of the novel, play a major

role in the story. In the novel, it is described that John Blackthrone, one of the main

characters of the novel, interacts a lot with samurai. Blackthrone seems undervalue

them because of their weird habits and size, but then he learned a lot after a long-

difficult time of having contact with samurai. Blackthrone soon finds that samurai are

distinguished from any other kind of warriors and soldiers he ever knew. Their codes

of honor and loyalty, customs, and even the accessories they wore have their own

meaning. The feeling of disapproval toward samurai finally changed into deep respect

and sympathy, after Blackthrone deeply learns the life of samurai; and thus led him

into the decision of being a samurai himself.

23

B. Approach

This study contains problems that have connection with the social and

historical-fiction literary work, so, the writer decide to use the sociocultural-historical

approach. The writer chose this approach because by using the sociocultural-

historical approach it is expected that the writer can determine the social life, manner,

and habit of the samurai during the feudal era of Japan.

According to a book entitled Reading and Writing about Literarture, written

by Marry Rohberger, it is defined that sociocultural-historical approach is the only

way to locate a real work by relating the civilization as the attitude and action as its

subject matter. It is also necessary for a critic to use this approach in order to

investigate the social environment where literature embodies idea significant to the

culture that produces it (1971:9).

Guerin said in his book A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature that

sociocultural-historical approach is an approach that studies a literary work from its

social milieu and literary work (1979:272). It can be interpreted that sociocultural-

historical approach is applied to see a literary work as reflection commentaries on

something in certain society. There is a close interaction between social environment

and literary work.

C. Method of Study

In writing this thesis, the writer employed library research. The main data of

the study was James Clavell’s novel entitled Shogun. To support the analysis, the

24

writer collect the information from books and internet. The primary data are taken

from the novel or the literary work itself. By using the literary work, in this case

reading the novel, the writer could find various samurai presented in the novel such as

Yabu, Omi, Toda Hiro-matsu, Zukimoto, and others nameless-stated samurai that are

considered to be the most significant samurai character, how they are described and

characterized, and the description of the life and believe of the samurai presented by

Clavell. The secondary data the writer need will be taken from various theories and

books on Japanese culture and those that discusss samurai.

To do the analysis in this thesis, the writer took several steps. The first step

was reading the whole story of the novel and understood all of its content. By this

step, it is expected that the writer found as much as possible the information on

samurai. Realizing that the information are very important and to avoid the

information to being lost, the writer saved the information through noting it in books

or papers, or directly typed it and saved it on the writer’s computer.

The writer, who is not a native Japanese, faced some difficulties in

understanding Japanese terms such as onna, daimyo, anjiro, seppuku, domo, honto

,isogi, etc. To solve the obstacle, the writer tried to search the meaning of those terms

through reading the dictionary of Japan language, looking at the meaning from

Internet, and asking people who are skilled on Japanese language.

The second step was getting the idea of what the writer wanted to analyze and

discusss on this study. The writer used internet to find the studies on James clavell’s

Shogun. The third step the writer took was reviewing the Japanese samurai, and the

25

fourth was analyzing the novel for the thesis. To analyze the novel, the writer

gathered any information about samurai from within the novel. In details, first the

writer would find the characteristic and description of samurai in the novel. After the

writer got the characteristic and how Clavell described the samurai, the writer

searched for what aspects of life of the samurai exist in the novel, such as their

tradition, status, class, believes, etc. Then, after the writer got all of those

information, it will be analyzed with the theories and resources of information the

writer get from library research on samurai and used it as a source to compare the

samurai in the novel and its real life. The last one would be constructing the

conclusion of the thesis.

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CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

Based on the problem formulation in chapter I, this chapter is divided into

two main parts. As stated earlier in the objectives of the study, the goals of this thesis

are to reveal the description and characteristics of samurai in James Clavell’s novel

entitled Shogun and to search for the aspects of life of samurai portrayed in the novel.

The first problem emphasized on the analysis of the characteristics and the

description of samurai because it will gives very important information to do the

further analysis. In part A, the physical description of samurai and their

characteristics are discussed and the result will give fundamental information to

answer the next problem discussed in part B because by understanding the

characteristic of samurai in the novel, it will be much easier to analyze their codes

other aspects of life.

Furthermore, the second part, part B, will discuss the aspects of life of

samurai that is portrayed in the novel. This part also divided into smaller sub-parts

which are discussing the parts of the aspects of life itself.

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A. The Description of Samurai.

1. Powerful High-Class men

In his novel entitled Shogun, Clavell distinguished samurai from other clans

like peasant and common villagers. He described samurai as warriors or those who

belong to military class and their physical appearance is very different from any other

class such as peasant and villagers. Clavell described peasant and villagers as the

ordinary people, who lived in a village living their life as farmers or anglers, wearing

odd style of clothes made of cheap cotton, and equipped with no weapons. Their

bodies are short and do not look too strong. The evidence can be found from the

quotation when John Blackthorne regained his consciousness.

He looked around the village and became conscious of the many people watching him. What is it about them that’s so weird? He asked himself. It is not just their clothes that are made of cheap and unknown kind of cotton, and their yellowish skins, and their behavior. Its – they’ve no weapons, he thought astounded. No swords or guns. With such size of men, he could just beat the whole village alone (p. 31). The first quotation shows us the description Japanese villagers or ordinary

peasant, who appeared powerless as their physics are small and thus, it gives an

image that they are not too powerful; besides, they are not equipped with any

weapons to defend themselves.

Different from the description of villagers, Clavell described samurai another

way. With weapons equipped on them, he described samurai more powerful, and

they looked like to have a higher rank compared to those villagers and peasant.

Samurai were considered as those who belong to warrior class. The conversation

28

between Blackthorne and father Sebastio, a Portuguese priest who acted as Japanese

translator shows us the status of samurai.

… “And Samurai?” “Warriors – soldiers – members of warrior caste, the priest said with growing irritation. “Where did you come from and who are you? (32)”

The quotation above clearly states that samurai belongs to the warrior caste, a

caste that holds more respects, and probably the second rank of respect level bellows

the royal family. The samurai physical appearances are also different from peasant.

Their detailed appearance can be seen by how Clavell described Kasigi Omi and his

men who patrol the village, and met Blackthorne.

The young man and his fellows were ten paces away. They wore breeches and breasts plate with clogs and light kimonos under them. Two scabbarded swords were stuck into their belt. One was dagger like. The other, a two handed killing sword, was a long, slightly curved. Those were not bothered him; the one is the mask they wear. They wore some kind of weird horned helms made of furnished turtle shell….(34). The lines briefly described that samurai wear clothes that are better compared

with ordinary peasant. They are equipped with weapons and accessories that give

them the image of soldiers or military men complete with their armors. Besides

clothes, Clavell also described samurai as a man of powerful look and higher class.

Blackthrone soon realized that they are not ordinary peasant – they do not wear cheap cottons.They all wore silk kimonos and, over them, ornate surcoats with wide belts nipping them in at the waist and huge, starched shoulders. And the inevitable swords. And their bodies looked well formed too (57).

29

The line stated “huge starched shoulders” looks like that Clavell wanted to

explain how strong a samurai are looked, because usually those who had huge and

starched shoulders are people who have their bodies trained at the gym and may

compared to nowadays athletes or bodybuilders. Another statement that gives support

that samurai are physically looked strong and more details about their armors,

accessories, and clothes is when Clavell described Toda Hiromatsu, an old-aged

samurai worked under Lord Yoshi Toranaga.

He was tall for a Japanese, just under six feet, a bull-like man with heavy jowls, who carried his sixty-seven years with strength. His hakama - military kimono - was brown silk, stark but for the five small Toranaga crests – three interlocked bamboo sprays. He wore a strange shaped horned-helm, a burnished breastplate and steel arm protectors. Only the short sword was in his belt. The other, the killing sword, he carried lose in his hand. He was ready to unsheathe it and ready to kill instantly to protect his lineage lord. This had been his custom ever since he was fifteen (124). In the description, the details of samurai appearance is clearly and completely

stated. There we can see that samurai wear a military kimono called hakama, and not

ordinary kimonos and samurai usually included some ornaments or accessories to

show a sign to whom they were working for. The looks of samurai are also described

as a strong person. The word “bull-like man” and the more on “he carried his sixty-

seven years with strength” are very clear clue of the power of samurai. Samurai

would always carry swords. Not one, but two; one is short and dagger-like, and one

is a long two handed curved sword, usually used in combat to kill the enemies. More

about the swords of samurai will be analyzed in the next section of this thesis.

30

Clavell also described samurai as men who belong to high class caste from

their physical appearance or in more specific, from the clothes and the accessories

the samurai wear. It was described by Mura, the head of the village.

You never been here before, neh¸ Anjin-San? For peasant like us those kinds of kimonos are forbidden. The silks are only allowed for those who deserve and honorable enough – like the samurai or the daimyo; and the swords are too. But sometimes, in a wedding, people of my class were allowed to wear them and still if only they are women…(P. 22). The scene above describes that peasant are not allowed to wear some kind of

clothes because they are considered not honorable enough to wear the clothes. Beside

the clothes, the samurai are allowed to carry swords that the peasant are not. Another

scene also gives similar explanation.

“… You mean the silks, right? They are just too expensive for them. Beside, only the warrior class are allowed to wear hakama.” “And why is that?” You didn’t hear me, did you, Ingles, I said they are too expensive, so expensive that they are at the price of a head. Yes, a head! (P. 144) In the conversation between Rodriguez and Blackthrone, it was described that

samurai are allowed to wear hakama or the military kimono while the peasant are

not. It shows that samurai are belong to higher class.

In conclusion of this section, Clavell, in his novel, described samurai as one

of the part of Japanese class belongs to the warrior class who is possessed by some

special rights such as they are allowed to carry weapons. The samurai’s appearance is

also different from peasant. Peasant usually wore clothes made of cheap cottons,

while samurai wore complete kimono, usually made of silk. Samurai, in their

31

complete uniform will have breastplate and clogs over their military kimono, steel

arms protectors protected their arms and shoulder pads covered their huge shoulders.

Samurai always carry two swords and this is the must-have weapons. One of the

swords is short and dagger-like, one is a long two-handed sword used in the fight.

2. Expert Combatants

Clavell described samurai as men who have great skill of fighting and good

strategists. He wrote some events when samurai demonstrates their good skill of

fighting in his novel that can be used as evidence. The first that shows samurai were

skillful fighters is below:

“Mate!!” The man’s shouted, but Blackthorne and Jan Pieterzen didn’t understand the word. Jan Pieterzen’s giant fist was just in half a second to land on its target – the man’s face. But what happened next was not like what they expected. In a flash, Omi made his movement. All was motionlessly and silently stunned; only Jan Pieterzen’s screams of pain echoed…(p. 22). In that scene, Clavell described samurai’s agility, which is considered as a

shocking fighting skill owned by a samurai named Omi. The next scene shows more

support to the skillfulness of samurai in fighting.

“Blackthorne violently attacked the man; with one he never missed before, but the Omi easily dodged and suddenly he knew that his right hand was already grabbed by his opponent, and with such motion, slammed him down to the ground. “He’s just under six feet, for God shake!” Blackthorne sighed (p. 22). The lines above give clearer information about the skill of samurai in

fighting. It was proven by the fact that Blackthrone and Jan Pieterzen were easily

32

beaten by a samurai who was far smaller than they were. It will not be possible for

someone without great skill of fighting to beat two men far bigger than him.

Not only samurai Omi who was described to have such great fighting skill.

There are other scenes and several direct comments from Clavell to show that samurai

were expert fighters.

“Both Toda and Yabu, they are men of their ages! What devils inside them; or they are the devils themselves.” Blackthorne muttered. He never saw such a battle and fighters before until this day of his age. Neither at sea, nor land (p. 903).

In the quotation, Blackthorne was amazed when he was witnessing the battle

between Kasigi Yabu against Toda Hiromatsu. The two senior samurai fought a great

fight with tremendous skill of fighting Blackthorne never saw before. It was so great

their fighting skill so that Blackthorne considered them as devils. It gives us another

clue that samurai were possessed with great skill of fighting.

The direct comment from Clavell can be seen when he introduced Naga and

Sudara, two young and talented samurai. He said in the lines that all samurai were

experts on fighting, but rare of them mastered it as early as those two youngsters.

All samurai were true experts on killing and fighting, but rare of them mastered the skills as fast as the youngsters; Sudara was allowed to wield his sword at twelve, and Naga’s sword took its first prey when he was fifteen (p. 338).

Through the sentences, Clavell explicitly said that all samurai were experts

on fighting and killing. This statement is, no doubt, a strong evidence that samurai

were experts combatants.

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B. The Characteristics of Samurai

As stated in the previous chapters of this thesis, James Clavell’s Shogun does

not put its center point on samurai, but samurai is involved and took a great parts in

its scenes. This section will analyze how Clavell characterized the samurai in his

novel. Here, in this section of thesis, M.J. Murphy’s theory of characterization will

be applied to reveal the characteristic of samurai in James Clavell’s Shogun. In the

novel, the samurai are characterized as follows.

1. Loyal

The meaning of samurai literary is equal to those who serve in English. It

means that samurai are actually more or less the same as mercenaries or soldiers who

worked for certain masters as their lord and their position were more or less as

vassal. Actually, there are some differences that distinguished samurai and ordinary

mercenaries. Samurai have certain codes they should follow and one of the code is

the code of loyalty toward their master. Many parts and scenes of the novel shows

the fact that samurai approved by this characteristic.

According to Murphy’s theory, one of the ways a writer characterizes his

character is by conversation of others (1972: 165). There are several scenes of

conversation between characters show the evidence that samurai is loyal. The first is

seen in the conversation between Rodriguez and Blackthorne.

“…Why? Only God knows, but it’s the truth. If in our countries we know words your order is my command then here they know the words your order is my life. If their superiors say “kill”, they kill, “die” and they will

34

fall for on their swords or slits their own bellies open. All done with no compliant at all ….(p. 145).”

The conversation quoted shows how loyal a samurai was so that he will obey

the master’s command whether it was to kill someone, or even kill himself. There is

another conversation that shows the loyalty of samurai in relation to the master’s

order. It is still the conversation of Rodriguez and Blackthorne at the same scene.

“…and you know what, Jappos are worse that that. Not only the men here deserve to be called as samurai. Women are samurai too, Ingeles, armed to the teeth! They kill to protect their masters, that’s what they call their husbands here, or they’ll kill themselves if they’re ordered to….(p. 145).” From the two quotations, it is no doubt that Clavell characterized samurai to

be loyal to their master’s order. Stronger evidence of the loyalty of samurai toward

the master’s order shown directly by their actions or reactions toward what their

master asked them to do. But before it is continued further, it is need to clarify once

more that one of Murphy’s theory stated that revealing a character’s characteristic

can be done by seeing his reaction towards several events around him (1972:163).

Samurai’s loyalty is signed by their reactions toward the master’s order are seen on

several scenes. The samurai dedication to the master can be seen in chapter 7 of the

novel page 155 when a low-level samurai accidentally fallen into the pit in which

their master’s prisoners were kept. This was considered a mistake by his leader and

thus, the leader ordered him to commit seppuku or hara-kiri – an act of suicide in

order to die a honorable death, to abolish the shame for doing a mistake – and the

low-level samurai, whose name was Masijiro, obeyed it proudly, and honorably.

35

“Should I take Masajiro-san here and commit seppuku here, at the beach?” Asked the young samurai. No, he failed in the pit. He stays in the pit”, Omi said. Omi weighed Masijiro’s past service and his future worth. Then, he took the young samurai’s dagger from his sash, dropped it into the pit….(p. 155).”

The scene shows that Omi, the leader of samurai, considered his man,

Masijiro, doing a shameful mistake by carelessly fallen into the pit. His act of taking

another samurai’s dagger and dropping it into the pit where Masijiro was fallen is an

implicit order for Masijiro to commit suicide, to kill himself for the mistake he had

done. The loyalty of Masijiro is seen in this lines:

At the bottom of the pit, Masijiro stared at the knife in disbelief. Tears began coursing his cheeks. “I don’t deserve this honor, Omi-san,” he said abjectly. “Yes.” “Thank you”. He stabbed his own belly proudly (p. 155).

Through the scene, it is shown a samurai who committed suicide for the

reaction toward his master’s order. He did it gladly, no objection at all. The scene

shows he cried, but it is not the cry of fear, regret, or hostility. It was a cry of some

one who feels to be honored as later he said “I don’t deserve this honor… “. Karl F.

Friday in his book Hired Sword explained that a samurai who was ordered to commit

seppuku by his own master would die an honorable death. His mistakes, if any,

would be abolished forever from him, and from his family too (1992:39).

Another scene that shows a samurai who is loyal by obeying his master’s

order is seen in the conversation of Kasigi Yabu and his private massager, a blind

man named Suwo. In that scene, Suwo told a story of the great battle between

36

Chikitada and Obata Hiro. He said Chikitada’s army was almost totally wiped out,

until he only had twelve men remained from what were three hundreds.

“That was a grim day, Yabu-sama. I don’t how old I was, but my voices hadn’t broken yet. I’ve never seen such bloodshed – not even those done by kami….and by dawn, Chikitada’s three hundreds horsemen remained no more than twelve brave samurai to fight an enemy that was more than twice of their complete army…No, no orders to retreat, neither one of them retreated for himself…(p. 80).”

The scene shows us how Chikitada’s samurai act in battle. They knew they

could not win, but still fought to protect he they called him master although they

knew they would not able to protect and defend their own lives. The loyalty of

Chikitada’s samurai as what Suwo told Yabu is seen by their action of not to try to

escape from battlefield to save their own lives since their leader did not give any

order to do so.

Clavell also wrote several direct comments to samurai, showing that they are

loyal person. They will not hesitate to kill, to fight to their death in order to protect

their lord. At the end part when he decribed Toda Hiromatsu, Clavell said that he will

not hesitate to kill anyone who would harm his master.

…Only the short sword was in his belt. The other, the killing sword, he carried lose in his hand. He was ready to unsheathe it and ready to kill instantly to protect his lineage lord. This had been his custom ever since he was fifteen (p. 124).

Another direct comment from Clavell to describe the loyalty of samurai is

seen on page 235.

The code was very private and only four people knew it. His eldest son, Noboru; his second son and heir, Sudara; Kiri; and himself. And like him,

37

they must not leak the secret, even by the cost of their life. This is the fate of samurai (p. 235).

By the quotation above, Clavell implicitly gave a direct comment that

samurai should loyal to their lord. He wrote at the last quotation “This is the fate of

samurai.”, and the word “this” represent the obligation of keeping the secret code

with all they have, including their lives. So in conclusion, the fate of samurai is to be

loyal to the death to their lord. Thus, based on the facts and analysis above, it can be

concluded that samurai were loyal men.

2. Honorable and Self-Disciplined

Beside samurai are described as loyal men to the master, Clavell also

described samurai as men of honor and full of discipline. The terms men of honor or

honorable here is that samurai were highly regarded by other characters in the novel

and their status is higher compared to non-samurai class. They also did several

actions to show respect by bowing themselves on each other. The meaning of the

samurai are self-disciplined is that they are described to be characters that tolerate no

mistakes; they have certain kind of rules that should be obeyed completely with all

the consequences and Clavell described them, the samurai, as men who uphold those

rules.

Some parts of the novel give the description that samurai were honorable and

self-disciplined men. Through the conversation of other characters, several scenes

briefly show the honor and the discipline of samurai. The example is in the

conversation between Blackthorne and Mura, the village chief.

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“No. He’s a samurai, the samurai in charge of this village. His surname’s Kasigi, Omi’s his given name. Here they always put their surname first. He and his men – and all samurai are honorable. You’d better learn to behave quickly. Here, they don’t tolerate lack of manners! (p. 35)”

The scene gives a brief explanation about the characteristic of samurai as one

of character, in this case Mura, the headman of the village explicitly and directly said

that samurai were honorable men who do not tolerate anyone who have bad manners

toward them. The next scene shows how samurai gave a threat to someone that did

something wrong by not respecting them.

“Omi disdainfully waved them away. They all bowed low, except one man who rose deliberately, without bowing. With blinding speed the killing sword made a hissing silver arc and the man’s head toppled off his shoulders and a fountain of blood sprayed the earth. (p. 37)”

To bow to each other, in Japanese society, has the meaning of the act of

respect to each other. A book entitled Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey by

Mikiso Hane stated that the act of bowing for Japanese people is the act that will

determine whether or not a man respect another, and whether or not a man deserve to

be respected by the others. The deeper the bow, the more respect was given. This is

the code of honor of Japanese people. (1991: 76). The scene described that all men

bowed low to Omi, the samurai, and his samurai fellows. It means samurai deserve to

get deep respect, and those who receive deep respect from others are unquestionably

honorable. The discipline of samurai also described through the line. When there was

a villager who did not bow, samurai considered him did a bad manner and broke the

code of honor of samurai and he must accept the consequences. The scene shows

briefly that samurai tolerate no mistakes through Clavell’s direct comment.

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Another evidence shows that samurai were honorable through the

conversation of other is seen when Rodriguez had a conversation with Blackthorne.

“You are not in England, Ingeles! Here samurai rule everything, own everything. They have their own code of honor and sets of rules. Arrogant? Madonna, you’ve no idea. The lowest of them deserves to get the lowest bow from non-samurai (p. 146).”

In the conversation, Rodriguez told Blackthorne that even the lowest level of

samurai deserve to get deep respect from those who belong to non-samurai class.

Thus, it is clear that from the quotation samurai were described as honorable men.

Clavell himself put some direct comment about the honor of samurai in his

novel. He stated that to live a life as a samurai is all men’s dream, but not all could

reach it as to be a samurai, a man must born to be so.

It is not the amount of kaku he would have or the comfort of silks he could wear so that they obsessed to such a dream of being a samurai; it is the matter of living a worthy life and to die an honorable death. But neither he nor any of his sons wont ever touch it. He was not born to be so (p. 442).

Clavell, through those lines, implicitly said that to be a samurai will grant

someone great honor both in life and death. Another direct comment from Clavell to

show that samurai were honorable is as follows.

…,and one more man of honor had met his destiny; Sudara, the young samurai fallen onto his knee, breathless. Toda raised his sword high, and with a tremendous speed swung it to his son’s kneeling body, cut the head off. He was a samurai, and would be reborn samurai (p. 776).

Clavell called samurai by “man of honor” on that part. It gives very clear

information that samurai were honorable. So, in the final of this part, samurai were

considered honorable and self-disciplined.

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3. Fearless

James Clavell characterized samurai as men of no fear in his novel. Through

his direct comment at the early part of the novel, he clearly stated that samurai were

possessed by such characteristic.

“…Then order your samurai to press them to the flank! She said harshly. Yabu remained silent. His men were all courageous, but weren’t all samurai brave? Yes they are! Nothing could haunt them. Not kami, not even death (p. 74).

The quotation shows us that all samurai would have no fear even to the devil,

or death. Kami can be translated as demon in English. By saying that samurai were

not afraid of kami, it is clear that clavell want to describe that samurai were fearless.

According to Murphy’s theory of characterization, a character’s reaction

toward certain kind of events around him is one of the ways for a writer to

characterize his or her character (1972: 165). In the novel, some scenes show

samurai’s bravado from their reaction toward certain kind of events. The first is when

a samurai bravely sacrifice his life to encourage his master who was in desperation.

Still no movement from Yabu. They went on and Blackthorne added his shouts, but it was as if they made no sound at all. One of them spoke to the others briefly and they all nodded and bowed. He bowed back. Then with a sudden screaming shouts of “Bansaiiiiiiiii!” he cast himself off the cliff and fell to his death. Yabu came violently cut of his trance, whirled around and scramble up (189).

In his entitled book Samurai: The Story of a Warrior Tradition Harry Cook

informed something about the action of shouting bansai. He said that bansai is a kind

of war cry that Japanese soldiers used to show their courage and to raise their morale

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in battle. The word was familiar during the 2nd World War and was often used by the

Kamikaze skuadrons (1994: 56). In the scene quoted at the quotation, it is described

that a samurai shouted the word bansai and with full brave, plunged himself into the

cliff to sacrifice his life to draw the attention of his master. This is one clear prove

that samurai were fearless. This is supported by the next scene where Blackthorne

was impressed by what the samurai did.

The other samurai shouted and pointed but Blackthrone herd nothing and saw nothing but the broken corpse that lay below. What kind of men are these? Blackthrone thought helplessly. Was that courage or just insanity? That man deliberately committed suicide on the off chance he’d attract the attention of another man who had given up. It doesn’t make sense! What the hell the guts they possess! (p. 189)

That scene shows how Blackthrone was very shocked and he at first

confused whether the deed was a courageous act, or just the silly of him, but in the

final sentences Blackthrone’s mind admitted that the samurai was true a brave man.

Through this scene, Clavell characterize the samurai as a fearless man by the

thoughts of other character toward samurai.

Through conversation of others, Clavell showed the fearless characteristic of

samurai in the scene when Rodriguez had a conversation with Blackthorne.

“Not only the men here deserve to be called as samurai. Women are samurai too, Ingeles, armed to the teeth! They kill to protect their masters, that’s what they call their husbands here, or they’ll kill themselves if they’re ordered to…all Jappos are different from us – they don’t feel pain or cold like us – but samurai are even worse. They fear nothing, least of all death. Why? Only God knows, but it’s the truth (145).

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From the conversation, Rodriguez clearly said in his sentences that samurai have no

fear to anything, even to death. This quotation gives one more evidence that samurai

were characterized as fearless men.

There is also a conversation between Suwo and Yabu, that can strengthen the

fearless characteristic of samurai. It is when Suwo told Yabu about the battle of

Chikitada against Obata Hiro.

“That was a grim day, Yabu-sama. I don’t how old I was, but my voices hadn’t broken yet. I’ve never seen such bloodshed – not even those done by kami….and by dawn, Chikitada’s three hundreds horsemen remained no more than twelve brave samurai to fight an enemy that was more than twice of their complete army…No, no orders to retreat, neither one of them retreated for himself…(p. 80).”

From the line, a character, Suwo, told Yabu that in the battle, Chikitada’s

army of samurai horsemen was almost totally wiped out by his enemy’s army. From

the 300 persons, twelve samurai remained survive at the almost end of the battle. The

action of the twelve samurai who should fight twice amount of soldiers of their

complete army size – it means they must fight against six hundred men – and none of

them even have an idea of escaping the battle to save their lives was true a clear

description of the brave of samurai.

C. The Portrayal of the Life of Samurai

After reading and analyzing James Clavell’s Shogun, the writer found that the

novel contains large parts of samurai’s aspect of life that are portrayed through many

ways by the writer of the novel. The writer found three most significant aspects of

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samurai’s life reflected through Clavell’s Shogun; they are: the samurai’s way of life,

that is called Bushido, in which the rules and codes for the samurai are drafted, the

reflection of the relationship between the samurai and their master, and their relation

to the swords they carried, or the meaning of swords for the samurai.

1. The Reflection of Bushido: Code of Honor and Loyalty

According to Karl F. Friday bushido for a samurai is more than the guidance

of how to act and how to behave; it is more like the spirit that samurai can not live

without. (1992: 233). From what Friday said, it is shown that bushido and samurai

were two that should become one to complete each other. A quotation taken from

Hagakure:The Book of Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo said that ”Life for a

samurai is like a great ocean. He needs a ship to sail through it, and this is why he

needs bushido (23). Since the bushido cannot be separated from samurai, we can say

that where there are samurai, there will be bushido inside them. Information of

bushido is also stated by a Japanese sociologist, Eiko Ikegami. Eiko Ikegami in her

book entitled The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of

Modern Japan said that bushido contains significant codes of samurai. It contains

their code of honor, their code of loyalty and rectitude, and their purpose of lives

(2003:141).

The reflections of bushido in James clavell’s Shogun can be found in several

scenes of the novel, in which the samurai showed their certain codes drafted within

bushido. The samurai’s code of honor and loyalty reflected in great parts of the

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novel. It was reflected both from how Clavell directed his characters of samurai to

act, talk, and think, and by involving samurai’s ritual of honor named seppuku. In

one of the scene, Clavell described that honor for a samurai is very important.

Through the words of Kasigi Yabu, one of his samurai character, honor for samurai

are described as follows

“We are samurai – those who were born with honor and walk the path of bushido. A samurai, who has lost his honor, is no more walking their path of bushido. He deserves not to wield his sword anymore, and he deserves not to live anymore.” (p. 988) The honor for samurai means everything. It means honor is the life and the

title as samurai itself. It was supported by Friday. He said, “Samurai believed that

honor and loyalty to be ones that they must carry, and once they lose them, they

considered losing everything (1992:89).” From this point, James Clavell’s Shogun

reflects bushido as the code of honor of samurai that is very important to a samurai.

Another reflection on the code of honor is the existence of the ritual of

seppuku or hara-kiri in the novel. A short description of seppuku, taken from Eiko

Ikegami’s essay entitled Shame and the samurai: institutions, trusthworthiness, and

autonomy in the elite honor culture stated that seppuku or Harakiri is a ritual of

suicide to protect or to return the honor of the doer

(http://www.ecyclopedia.com/Shame and the samurai_ institutions,

trusthworthiness.html). It was described, in the novel, that seppuku is done by

characters, in this case, samurai, who were considered to lose or almost lose their

honor by doing some mistakes, or to lose in a battle. The meaning of mistakes so that

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samurai must committed seppuku is described in various ways. They can be true in

the forms of wrong deeds, or the deeds that were considered wrong by the samurai’s

master. The scene that shows the ritual of seppuku as a portrait of bushido, in relation

to mistake is below:

“…He failed in the pit. He stays in the pit”, Omi said. Omi weighed Masijiro’s past service and his future worth. Then, he took the young samurai’s dagger from his sash, dropped it into the pit. At the bottom of the pit, Masijiro stared at the knife in disbelief. Tears began coursing his cheeks. “I don’t deserve this honor, Omi-san,” he said abjectly. “Yes.” “Thank you”. He stabbed his own belly proudly (p. 155). From the scene, we can see that Clavell portrayed seppuku as an honorable

deed that samurai must assign to pay the mistake they do, or they consider being

have one. Seppuku is also portrayed as a ritual that is allowed to be done by those

who are honorable enough to do it. Clavell in his novel included a scene that

described a samurai who was not allowed to do seppuku as he was considered to have

a fatal mistake so that his master abolish his status as a samurai and his honor as a

man.

“…I ask permission – and I apologize and – I ask permission to commit seppuku immediately for I cannot live with this shame.” …No, you will not be allowed to commit seppuku. That’s an honor. You have no honor and no self-discipline. You will be crucified like a common criminal today!’ (226) Through the lines, Clavell portrayed seppuku as an action or ritual of suicide

for those who have some mistake, but ones are allowed to do it when they still have

honor on themselves. Support for this portrayal can be found in a book entitled Hired

Sword by Karl F. Friday. Friday said in his book: “Peasant, criminals, and other non-

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warrior class were not allowed to do the ritual of hara-kiri because they did not have

the honor” (1992:235).

Besides portraying the code of honor of samurai, the bushido in James

Clavell’s Shogun also reflect the samurai codes of loyalty. The loyalty of as the

spirit of bushido for samurai also portrayed in large parts in the novel by their

obedience and bravery in taking the order or protecting their lord. In a book by

Mikiso Hane entitled Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey stated that samurai were

actually mercenaries. It means they were hired by certain lords and worked for them

with some amount of regards (1991:89). The thing that distinguished samurai from

any common of mercenaries is that samurai are possessed with high loyalty to their

master. They will obey whatever the master said, and they will do anything for the

safety of their lord. The following scene gives a clear description the obedience of

samurai.

“…Why? Only God knows, but it’s the truth. If in our countries we know words your order is my command then here they know the words your order is my life. If their superiors say “kill”, they kill, “die” and they will fall for on their swords or slits their own bellies open. All done with no compliant at all ….(p. 145).”

The loyalty of samurai is clearly described by that scene. It is said samurai

will obey all what his master’s said, even it was an order to kill themselves. The

novel also contains a reflection that the loyalty of samurai was the part of their spirit

of bushido.

“Loyalty and obedience, Anjin-san! We are samurai, and for that our is our lives – and when you are a samurai, your life, your mind, are no more yours, bitter neh?but that is truth for samurai. That is the truth of bushido”. (621)

47

According to Karl F. Friday, loyalty for a samurai is a significant factor that

will determine their next status in the warrior class hierarchy besides family and

echievements, since it is drafted in bushido… (147). Through the quotation from the

novel above, bushido was portrayed to be the truth for samurai, and to gain the truth,

samurai must loyal to their master.

For the conclusion of this part, Clavell portrayed bushido in his novel by the

way he behaved and characterized his samurai as ones possessed by codes of honor,

and loyalty. The novel also portrayed the spirit of bushido as the truth for samurai, so

that they must walk through it to be the full samurai, and as that which diverged

samurai from other soldiers.

b. The Relationship between Samurai and the Lord

As mercenary soldiers, samurai worked for certain lord. In the novel, samurai

were employed by those called daimyos. The daimyos were the ones considered to be

the masters of the samurai, the ones to whom the samurai must dedicate their loyalty,

power and lives. In Premodern Japan: A Historical Surve, Mikiso Hane described

the relationship of samurai and daimyos is more than the relationship of vassal-lord.

It is more as a mutual relationship where both side gain ‘profit’ (1991:58).

In the novel Clavell also described their relationship not as a take-and-give,

but, both the lord and the samurai described to gain an equal advantage.

“No, Ingeles, not that way. Here their lord owns everything. Their body, their souls, their wives, mothers, children, everything! But they also granted with one they dreamed a lot – honor. And when they died, the honor goes to their

48

names, their wives, mothers, children, and all their future descents. Here, nothing greater than to receive those weird bows! (p. 146). The lines described how much profit the lord would get by hiring samurai.

The lord will have a complete control over everything the samurai have in their life.

The advantage the lord drew seems too great, but the samurai were granted the thing

they most eager, the thing that most valuable in Japan, honor.

In Japan, especially in the shogunate era, honor considered to be the people’s

greatest dream. Harry Cook in Samurai: The Story of a Warrior Tradition stated that

honor is the only one to determine whether or not someone deserve to life as a man in

Japan (1994: 111). By that fact, it is logically accepted that both the lord and the

samurai gain the same or equal benefits.

Beside in relation to the benefit each will take, Clavell also described the

relation between the daimyos and their samurai as more than lord and vassal.

Daimyos often threat their certain samurai more than a vassal. The factors that cause

it are various. The first factor is that the samurai’s loyalty level to the lord. It is

shown in the scene bellow:

Hiromatsu put his swords in front of the entrance, but Toranaga order him to to take them. “Take your swords, Toda! It is no need for you to behave like my common men – and its really ugly of you to walk without your swords, neh. Come on! This sake can’t wait any longer.” (p. 455) In the novel, Toranaga is Toda Hiromatsu’s lord, and the scene shows that

Toranaga threat Toda as friend by allowing him to drink sake with the lord and carry

his sword while he was inside the lord’s private room. In normal situation, daimyos

would never act such generous way to his samurai. But since Toda was described as

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Toranaga’s loyal samurai, who had serve him since he was fifteen, the treatment

from the lord can be different. The samurai can be considered as friend of the lord.

According to Mikiso Hane, the relation between samurai and their master will not

remain static; it goes along with the samurai’s achievement and loyalty and may

develops into that kind of partnership (1991:58).

The second factor that samurai may have special relationship with his master

is that the samurai himself had a bloodline lineage with the lord. It is supported ny

Mikiso Hane statement that the tied of blood line may cause closer relationship

between samurai and the lord. The statement said “The hardcore of their following

consisted of vassals who had some sort of bloodlines with them. This fact, in a way,

led the more intimate relationship among them (1991:59)”. Within the novel, this

kind of relation is described in the relationship between Kasigi Yabu, and Kasigi

Omi. Kasigi Yabu is the lord of Kasigi Omi, but, since Kasigi Omi was the son of his

brother, their relationship was described more close.

To conclude this section, the writer draws a conclusion that the relationship

between daimyo and samurai is portrayed as more than the relation of ordinary lord

and vassal. Since both of them gain equal benefits, the relation is more like a mutual

relationship where one needs another. The relationship also described as non-static

relation since it may goes into more intimate kinship of partners.

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c. The Relationship between Samurai and Swords

In Hagakure:The Book of Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo samurai and

swords are described to have inseparable relation. It is written that lived the way of

the sword, and for that the swords are their soul (23). The novel described samurai

always carry two swords. Other weapons are possible as additional ones, but they

were always equipped with two kind of swords – one is short and dagger like, the

other is the long two handed killing sword.

Clavell described in his novel, the two swords samurai owned have its own

function. The short one, is described to be used as the one to kill themselves, or to

commit seppuku, while the long one, is the killing sword which use is clear; to kill

the enemies.

“…They are their ‘guns’. The short one called wakizhashi. They rarely used it for fighting. In combat they will use katana – the long one. They use wakizhasi to kill themselves in the ritual of seppuku.” (p. 144) Nicklaus Suino in his book The Art of Japanese Swordsmanship said about

the function of the swords of samurai, and its philosophy. He stated:

the swords of samurai have two functions. The first is as their weapons. It means swords are swords. They are weapons. The long one, is katana, the killing sword and the second is wakizhashi, the dagger usually to commit seppuku. (1992: 41) Suino in the lines described the functions of the swords as swords or weapons

in general. His theory on the function of the swords is the same as what Clavell

described in his novel. Katana is the killing sword, and wakizhashi is the dagger for

suicide.

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Besides functions, Clavell also described the swords of samurai as the

symbol of honor, the manifestation of their souls, and as their reminder of bushido. It

is described in the scene where Yabu was redy to do seppuku and he gave his katana

to Blackthorne.

Yabu thought for a moment, the he took his scabbarded Yoshitomo sword out of his sash. “Buntaro-san, perhaps you’d do me a favor. Give this to Anjin-san.” He offered him the sword, then frowned. “No, if its no trouble, please send him here, then I can give it to him myself. … …You’ve learned to behave, Anjin-san, and you’ve saved my life, once, and for that I trust you. This is Yoshitomo; my pride and my soul. Today, bushido calls me, but I don’t need this anymore. Keep it, you’ve earned the honor of Kasigi family…” (p. 1201) The scene portrays both the relation between samurai and his sword and the

meaning of swords for a samurai. From the scene, the sword, in this case katana

symbolizes the honor of samurai. The samurai must live with it or, he must die when

he lose it. Katana also described as the soul of samurai – it shown on the phrase “this

is my pride and my soul”. According to Nicklaus Suino in his next theory, katana

symbolizes the soul of its owner. A samurai deserves to life if only he owned the

sword (1992:41). So, Yabu’s action of giving his katana to Blackthorne is one of the

way how Clavell poertrayed the meaning of a katana as soul and honor toward

samurai.

Another interesting matter in the relationship between samurai and sword is

the arousal of question “who owns who”. Samurai, as living beings, looked like, as

they are the one that own the sword. Nevertheless, when a samurai owns a katana,

the sword removed the freedom of the owner over their soul as it will led him to the

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consequence of death if he lost it. Although it was just an abstract description,

Clavell described it in his novel.

“…I owned this sword since I was fifteen; and since that too this sword owned myself. I got it from my father, and my father got it from his father, and so my grandfather. This is the honor of Kasigi family. I must guard it as this sword did to guard my clan.” (p. 1201) Through the lines Clavell did not say who owns who in absolute. There, he

described that samurai, and sword owns each other. Support for the description stated

by Nicklaus Suino in his book The Art of Japanese Swordsmanship.

Samurai lived with swords, and they will die by the swords. It is not only means that samurai will die by swords that cut his head off, or stabbed his belly, but also means that he deserves to live as long as the sword is in his hands. (1992:42) Suino’s theory shows us information that it is true that the relation between

samurai and his sword is not a “who owns who” kind of kinship, but it is more like of

guarding each other.

Thus, this part can be concluded that swords have significant functions for a

samurai, and they contain the representation of honor, soul, and they are not merely

concerned as mere weapons to kill their enemies.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

In order to clarify the result of the thesis, and to avoid difficulties on

understanding the answers to the problems of the thesis, the writer decided to include

conclusions that covers the results of the whole analysis. The conclusion of the thesis

can be drawn as follows.

Samurai were described as men who belong to honorable warrior class, who

were powerful and expert in combat skills. They were also described as men who

were possessed by certain characteristic by the writer of the novel.The characteristics

of samurai are loyal, honorable and discipline, and fearless.

The samurai’s aspects of life reflected in James Clavell’s Shogun are the

reflection on the bushido, the relationship between samurai and their masters, and the

relation and the significant of swords to the samurai.

James Clavell’s shogun reflects bushido as the way of life of samurai through

which samurai must walk. Bushido also considered as guidance of truth for samurai,

in which the code of honor and loyalty of samurai are drafted.

Samurai are mercenary soldiers; therefore, they work for certain master. The

relationship between samurai and master, that are called the daimyos, is formed as

mutual relation that gives equal benefits to each other. Their relationship also formed

as non-static kinship of lord and vassal as the relation will develop into more intimate

relation of partnership.

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Swords have significant meaning to samurai and several functions, and they

must have swords in order to be called as samurai. Not all sword have same function.

Samurai usually use the long sword named katana as the killing sword, and they used

it often in battles. The short swords, called wakizhashi, are rarely used in combats.

Wakizhashi are used to commit a honor ritual of suicide called seppuku. Seppuku or

Harakiri is a ritual of suicide to protect or to return the honor of the doer, but not all

people allowed to do seppuku. Only warrior class and those considered honorable are

allowed to de seppuku.

Samurai have unique relationship with their swords. Samurai need sword to

be complete, and swords will have their meaning when they were carried by samurai.

Swords also symbolize the honor and soul of samurai, therefore, a samurai will

protect his swords as if the swords protect him and his family.

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