Module 3

Samurai
Daughters
The Strangeness of Beauty
[Excerpt]
By Lydia Minatoya
(USA)

Members

Ahmad Marwad
Arthur Cabeje
Hussein Ashrafi
Mohamed Jacbang
Vocabulary
Samurai – a member of a powerful Japanese warrior.
Obsolete – old/out of date.
Shrewd – having or showing a sharp power of judgement.
Literati – well educated people who are interested about literature
Egalitarianism – a belief in human equality.
Ostentation – attracting or seeking to attract attention.
Boisterous – noisy/cheerful.
Eaves – a lower border of a roof that overhangs the walls of a building.
Vocabulary
Innocuous – harmless/not offensive.
Haughty – being arrogantly superior.
Bumpkins – someone who is basic or socially awakward.
 Characters
Chie – The main character
Chie’s father
Chie’s mother
Kan – Chie’s husband

Tomeo Gozen – the most famous female samurai.

Hosokawa Jako – a samurai who spy on enemy’s tent.
Tokugawa Ieyasu – a warlord.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi – a Tokugawa’s old ally.
 Summary
The story about a female samurai warrior who after several failed
arranged marriages her parents and herself was on a route to find
another man, it takes place in Kobe, Japan in a tea house on an
afternoon in 1888. The whole story of the Fuji family shows that they
do not welcome the western culture because they want to retain the
Japanese traditions and culture.

Chie is the female samurai warrior in this story who is a matriarch

figure, which means that she is used to having her own way of living,
she made a lot of outrageous actions in front of her husband Kan
which made her parents completely dislike her, but at the end Kan
chooses to marry her and carry the family name of Chie.
the Fuedal Japan Era was known for having diverse regions of
warlords that fight for central power. They prioritize the family name
over everything, such as the samurai taking measures like suicide
instead of surrendering the battle. Death in battle was honored and
such, the samurai warriors never concede. The children of samurai
warriors were never really subjected to the freedom we have now.
The sons were raised to become heir's of the family name, warriors
and also philosphers while the daughters were raised as military and
politcal offers for an alliance by forcing an arranged marriage
between their children and provide a male heir. The Tokugawa
shogunate began when the warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu murdered the
son of his old ally Toyotomi Hideyoshi who took control over Japan.
The shogunate lasted for 15 generations and abolished the system
of trade and barter. The women and children were moved
to the Edo court and the samurai warriors spend one year in the field
while the next with their family. When the shogunate lost to the
American warships, the Tokugawa shogunate fell and started the
Boshin Civil War where Chie's father supported the emperor, with the
civil war ending, the Tokugawa shogunate ended with it as well. Chie
was born later in that year and to maintain the Fuji family honor, they
would need a male heir. The Fuji's were cursed with the inability to
have a male heir and forced to have arranged marriages to maintain
the family name. The previous generations were mostly adopted from
relatives or married to their daughters that take up their wife's
surname. Thus, Chie had to marry a second son that is ready to throw
away his family name and take her's, that man was Kan.
 The End
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