He sliced the moon in half, speared Bellatrix and cut off a shooting star. Whirling round, he brought his kissaki up ready for another assault and there was Dokugan Ryu. Standing in the darkness. Motionless. Waiting to attack.
‘Never hesitate.’
This time Jack wouldn’t. He lifted the sword above his head and ran at Dragon Eye to deliver the killing blow.
‘Jack-kun!’ cried Sensei Yamada from behind.
Dokugan Ryu turned to stone and Jack spun round.
‘What are you doing?’ asked the Zen teacher, leaning upon his walking stick in the darkness, a quizzical look in his eyes.
‘I was…’ began Jack, glancing back at the standing stone, ‘practising my kata.’
‘On a stone?’
‘No, not really,’ replied Jack, deflated. ‘I was imagining it was Dokugan Ryu. I was about to kill him. Get my revenge.’
‘Revenge is self-defeating. It will eat away at you until there is nothing left,’ observed Sensei Yamada, speaking the truth as if it were as obvious as the moon in the night sky.
‘But he killed my father!’
‘Yes. And he will undoubtedly pay for that sin, if not in this life then in his next. But do not believe for one moment that possession of that sword makes you all powerful. You must never forget your bushido. Rectitude, your ability to judge what is wrong and what is right, is the keystone to being samurai.’
He took Jack by the arm and led him slowly along the path towards the old pine tree in the corner of the garden, its bough weighing heavily upon its wooden crutch.
‘Benevolence, your compassion for others, underpins all of them. There is no place for anger or rage in the Way. In real budo, there are no enemies. Real budo is a function of love. The Way of a Warrior is not to destroy and kill, but to foster life.8 To protect it.’
He stopped by the old pine and faced Jack.
‘Jack-kun, as Masamoto-sama said, you’ve only just begun to learn the Way of the Warrior, but you must also learn the Way of the Sword. Kendo.’
Sensei Yamada smiled enigmatically, his sharp eyes twinkling like miniature stars, then he disappeared into the veil of darkness beyond the tree, leaving Jack all alone under a Japanese sky.
As Jack glanced up, a shooting star trailed across the heavens.
The little meteorite flared brightly then died, the path it had burnt in the sky fading like the embers of a fire.
In that instant Jack was struck by a moment of satori, enlightenment as bright as the star itself. He too was on a journey whose destination was unknown and whose fate was uncertain. But he had set his course and there was no going back.
He had chosen… the Way of the Warrior.
NOTES ON THE SOURCES
The following quotes are referenced within Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior (with the page numbers in square brackets below) and their sources are acknowledged here:
1 ‘The path of the warrior is lifelong. Yet mastery is often simply staying the path.’ [Page 154] Richard Strozzi Heckler (strozziinstitute.com). (By permission of the author)
2 ‘From every tiny bud springs a tree of many branches. Every castle commences with the laying of the first stone. Every journey begins with just one step.’ [Page 155] Lao Tzu, philosopher and founder of Taoism. (Material in the public domain)
3 ‘It’s good to have an end to journey toward but it’s the journey that matters, in the end.’ [Page 156] Excerpt from The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, copyright © 1969, 1997 by Ursula K. Le Guin, published by Ace Books. (By permission of the author’s agent)
4 ‘Given enough time, anyone may master the physical. Given enough knowledge, anyone may become wise. It is the true warrior who can master both and surpass the result.’ [Pages 158–159] T’ien T’ai, Buddhist sect. (Material in the public domain)
5 ‘In order to be walked on, you have to be lying down.’ [Page 168] Brian Weir. (Original source unknown; no evidence of publication)
6 ‘Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.’ [Page 172] Excerpt from ‘No Peaceful Warriors!’, Gnosis: A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions, copyright © 1991 by Ambrose Hollingworth Redmoon (born James Neil Hollingworth).
7 ‘The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.’ [Page 237] Molière, French playwright and actor. (Material in the public domain)
8 ‘In real budo, there are no enemies. Real budo is a function of love. The way of a Warrior is not to destroy and kill but to foster life, to continually create.’ [Page 315] Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. (From Budo Secrets, by John Stevens, copyright © 2001 by John Stevens. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., shambhala.com)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A special thanks must go to the following people who have been instrumental in the formation of The Way of the Warrior: Charlie Viney, my agent, for his early encouragement of the Young Samurai concept and his continued commitment to making my first novel a reality; Sarah Hughes, my editor at Puffin, for her ruthless eye and samurai-like abilities to hone my manuscript into a battle-hardened book; Pippa Le Quesne for her expert guidance and incisive suggestions while editing the initial drafts; Tessa Girvan at ILA for taking on the world; the Sasakawa Foundation and the Society of Authors for awarding me the Great Britain Sasakawa Award 2007 and enabling me to travel to Japan to carry out essential research for the book; Akemi Solloway Sensei for organizing such a wonderful and supremely informative cultural trip to Japan, arigatō gozaimashita; the fantastic Puffin team for their hard work and enthusiasm; Steve Cowley and all the sensei at his Martial Arts Academy for helping me achieve my black belt in taijutsu; Hiroko Takagi for her Japanese translation; Katherine Hemingway for her Japanese insights; Matt Bould for his attention to detail; my mum and dad for their unwavering support and belief in me; and my wife, Sarah, for being my first reader!
NOTES ON THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE
A short guide to pronouncing Japanese words
Vowels are pronounced in the following way:
‘a’ as the ‘a’ in ‘at’
‘e’ as the ‘e’ in ‘bet’
‘i’ as the ‘i’ in ‘police
‘o’ as the ‘o’ in ‘dot’
‘u’ as the ‘u’ in ‘put’
‘ai’ as in ‘eye’
‘ii’ as in ‘week’
‘o’ as in ‘go’
‘ū’ as in ‘blue’
Consonants are pronounced in the same way as English:
‘g’ is hard as in ‘get’
‘j’ is soft as in ‘jelly’
‘ch’ as in ‘church’
‘z’ as in ‘zoo’
‘ts’ as in ‘itself’
Each syllable is pronounced separately:
A-ki-ko
Ya-ma-to
Mas-a-mo-to
Ka-zu-ki
Glossary
abunai danger
arigatō (gozaimasu) thank you
bokken wooden sword
bushido the Way of the Warrior
Butokuden Hall of the Virtues of War
Butsuden the Buddha Hall
Chō-no-ma Hall of Butterflies
daimyo feudal lord
futon Japanese bed: flat mattress placed directly on tatami flooring, and folded away during the day
gaijin foreigner, barbarian (derogatory term)
gomennasai sorry
hai yes
hajime begin
hashi chopsticks
Hō-oh-no-ma Hall of the Phoenix
ikinasai let’s go
iye no
kami spirit
kata a prescribed series of moves in martial arts
katana long sword
kenjutsu the Art of the Sword
ki life force
kiai literally ‘concentrated spirit’ – used in martial arts as a shout for focusing energy when executing a technique
kihon waza basic techn
iques
kissaki tip of sword
konnichiwa good day
kyujutsu the Art of the Bow
matsuri festival
ninjatō ninja sword
niwa garden
ofuro bath
ohayō gozaimasu good morning
randori free-sparring
rei call to bow
saké rice wine
satori enlightenment
saya scabbard
seiza sit/kneel
sencha green tea
sensei teacher
shinobi shozoko the clothing of a ninja
Shishi-no-ma Hall of Lions
shoji Japanese sliding door
shuriken metal throwing stars
sohei warrior monks
sumimasen excuse me; my apologies
tabi Japanese split-toe socks
taijutsu the Art of the Body (hand-to-hand combat)
Taka-no-ma Hall of the Hawk
tantō knife
tatami floor matting
torii gateway
tsuba hand guard
uchi strike
wakarimasen I don’t understand
wakizashi side-arm short sword
wako Japanese pirates
yame stop!
zabuton cushion
zazen meditation
Japanese names usually consist of a family name (surname) followed by a given name, unlike in the Western world where the given name comes before the surname. In feudal Japan, names reflected a person’s social status and spiritual beliefs. Also, when addressing someone, san is added to that person’s surname (or given names in less formal situations) as a sign of courtesy, similar to Mr or Mrs in English, and for higher status people sama is used. In Japan, sensei is usually added after a person’s name if they are a teacher, although in the Young Samurai books a traditional English order has been retained. Boys and girls are usually addressed using kun and chan respectively.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Map
PRLOGUE ASAMOTO TENNO
YOUNG SAMURAI THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR
1: FIREBALL
2: RIGGING MONKEY
3: DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA
4: LAND OF THE RISING SUN
5: SHADOS IN THE NIGHT
6: FEVER
8: OFURO
9: KIMONOS AND CHOPSTICKS
10: ABUNAI!
11: SENCHA
12: THE DUEL
13: FATHER LUCIUS
14: THE SUMMONS
15: YAMATO
16: THE BOKKEN
17: GAIJIN
18: BEST OUT OF THREE
19: MASAMATO’S RETURN
20: AKIKO
21: NITEN ICHI RYŪ
22: THE TOKAIDO ROAD
23: BUTOKUDEN
24: SENSEI
25: THE SHINING ONE
26: DEFEATING THE SWORD
27: A REASON TO TRAIN
28: THE DARUMA DOLL
29: SENSEI KYUZO
30: TARGET PRACTICE
31: KAZUKI’S WAR
32: HANAMI PARTY
33: THE TARYU JIAI
34: YAMADA’S SECRET
35: THE SWITCH
36: THE DEMON AND THE BUTTERFLY
37: THE JADE SWORD
38: THE SOUND OF FEATHERS WATERFALL
39: THE APOLOGY
40: STAYING THE PATH
41: GION MATSURI
42: DOKUGAN RYU
43: KENDO — THE WAY OF THE SWORD
NOTES ON THE SOURCES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTES ON THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE