The samurai who won't commit seppuku

The story of Shusaku Endo’s The Samurai contemplates the question of what it means to be small, as in unimportant. In the novel, we follow Roku, a lowly samurai, who lives at the mercy of powerful feudal lords and the will of a mighty emperor. Does he fight back? Not really. He can’t. It would be suicide if he did. He can only obey his masters out of duty. He does not receive much in return, but he hopes that one day his efforts will win him back his family’s lost ancestral land. To relate to Roku’s suffering, we can think of our dead-end jobs or bosses who have taken command of our lives, even in our sleep. We complain. We think of fighting back, but at the end of the day, our desire to break free only highlights that we cannot—and perhaps we should not.

Eager to receive a favor to recover his lost land, Roku joins an embassy with the purpose of having his homeland, Japan, open a trade agreement with New Spain (modern-day Mexico). He shows forbearance in the arduous journey across the Pacific Ocean, with unwavering loyalty and a faithful spirit. His dedication is worthy of a slave who has fully resigned to his fate and desires nothing more than to serve his master. When a boss tells Roku to go, he goes. When his lord tells him to do something, he will do it to the best of his abilities, although he might not have great talent to show—except for being obedient.

Roku is a relatable character because of his ordinariness. He is an average samurai, an average man, a typical worker—a man.

But he is an inspiration to many people in the 21st century. Armed with patience, Roku does not only have the capacity to take on whatever difficult and absurd task he receives, but he also has the mental toughness to bear with the useless and foolish endeavors that corrupt men require. Roku is a slave like all men, and they can learn from him how to live and hold up their heads high under desperation, helplessness, and oppression.

Today, the world often makes a quick suggestion to resist, rebel, or go to war against forces that curtail freedom. These are all fine given the right conditions. Let us not forget, though, that a man can fight tyranny, too, with longsuffering. This is what Roku, along with other important characters in the book, excels at doing. How? Reading the novel can give you interesting answers.

I will no longer say more about Roku, the unusual hero of The Samurai, in the interest of not revealing spoilers. But I would like to close this review by emphasizing that his ordinariness (in terms of talent) and exceptionalism (in terms of fortitude and forbearance) are what make him a great character with a beautiful story. The Samurai is an adventure tale of the spirit. The novel gives us the chance to be with the admirable soul of a man caught in the middle of the clashing ideologies and grand ambitions of lords, kings, and emperors. Roku may be powerless in the face of these, but he possesses a secret to overcome them all. Perhaps I can liken him to a germ that will continue to thrive even when the bigger and more beautiful plants and animals have left temporal existence to enter eternal rest.