OBJECTIVES

• To be able to learn what

samurai women were like.
• To have an insight in regards
with Japan’s Tradition of
arranged marriage
• To be able to share thoughts
and ideas about Japanese
culture throughout the
discussion period.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
 Lydia Minatoya was born In Albany, New
York in 1950. She received her PhD in psychology
from the University of Maryland in 1981 and is
currently a college professor. She has written about
her experiences growing up as an Asian-American
and her travels of self-discovery in Asia in Talking to
Monks in High Snow: An Asian-American Odyssey
(1993). She has also published a novel, The
Strangeness of Beauty (1999), about several
generations of Japanese Americans who return to
Japan just before World War II and view the conflict
from the perspective of insiders who are also
outsiders.
VOCABULARY
FINDINGS
 SAMURAI

The samurai (or bushi) were japanese warriors. They were members
of the important military class before japanese society changed in
1868. The word samurai comes from the japanese verb samurai,
which means to serve someone and look up to them.
 INSURRECTION

a violent uprising against an authority or government.

 WARSHIP

A ship equipped with weapons and

designed to take part in warfare at
sea
 BOISTEROUS

(Of a person, event, or behavior)

noisy, energetic, and cheerful; rowdy.
 MATCHMAKER

A person who arranges relationships

and marriages between others
BACKGROUND OF THE
STORY
 Minatoya (the memoir Talking to High Monks in the Snow,
1992) debuts in fiction with a pleasantly told, highly detailed, risk-
free, and autobiographical “I-story of Etsuko in the years between
the world wars.

The story opens in 1921 in Seattle, where the widowed

Etsuko lives with her sister Naomi and Naomi’s husband Akira.
Naomi dies during childbirth, and after a few years Akira decides
that the child, Hanae, must return to Japan to relearn her native
culture.
 Accompanying Hanae to Kobe, Etsuko faces an
uncomfortable reunion with her own cold and distant mother,
Chie, who abandoned her soon after her birth. Hanae haltingly
enters Japanese culture; the nationalist fervor in Japan swells;
and Etsuko participates in antiwar activities.

As the war fever grows, Etsuko and Chie achieve a

modest peace and join various pacifist groups, while Hanae
studies her way to the head of her graduating class of 1939.
 In ancient times, arranged marriages were
considered the norm in Japanese Society. According
to Monica Bincsik(2015) the social structure of the
edo period (1516-1868) developed under the strict
control of the Tokugawa Military regime. This
arranged marriage was done with the help of the go-
between or a matchmaker.

According to the New Encyclopedia(2014)

Omiai - is a traditional Japanese Custom whereby
unattached individual are introduced to each other to
consider the marriage. The word "omiai" is used to
describe the entire process as well as the first meeting
between the couple with the matchmaker and couple's
parents present.
CHARACTERS
• CHIE
• MOTHER OF CHIE
• FATHER OF CHIE
• KAN
• MOTHER OF KAN
• UNCLE OF KAN

THEME:
• ARRANGE MARRIAGE
SUMMARY
In which recount Fuji history

Fuji are samorai, warriors that belong to elite

category of Shi families who traced back their ancestry in
about 800 years ago in order to serve and conserve the honor
of their names.

Japan was divided between 250 continually warring

warlords who want to attain power over others. During those
war, birth into a samorai family is a boy meant to be battling
at the age of 13. At a very young age, he is expected to be
trained to be fully enough to be in war. He was also
expected to be tested to know how far he has become.
 Samurai daughters also undergo training and studies to
have a well ability to build alliance by means of marriage.
In 1180, Tomoe Gozen bravely fought by his husband's side and
fight off enemy forces and received praises for her victory.
In their time, committing suicide is better than having a defeat.

There was a samurai Hosokawa Jako who did a great

spying mission and successfully mapped the encampment of the
enemy.
Those great things implied how great samurai really are.
Despite of heritage courage and honor, samurai become obsolete
because of Tokugawa Leyasu reneged a promise and ruled Japan
for fifteen generation.
 Tokugawa shoguns controlled the sovereign in
order to maintain take a tight hold to their power such as
taking off of the wives and children of the samurai and
other lesser lords.

During the reign of Tokugawa, the lives of

samorai had changed. They were chained under control
and limits and take off their power.
 Samorai men were trained for war and they became more
the intellectual than the warrior class.
Tokugawa regime was finally stumbled when the American
cannon fired among them.

Chie's father is one of those who joined to the revolution.

They rejoiced for their victory but in latter, samurai was declawed
because of egalitarianism. However, they retained their social
status.

Chie's father became a landowner farmer, selling and

renting plots of the vast fuji estate.
The house of Fuji is female, no men were involved. Fuji's name
came into embarrassment because of inability to give rise to a boy.
And as is customary in high families that lack a male heir, Chie
took a yoshi. As eldest daughter, she married a man who's willing
to change his surname to hers, and that was Kan.
 Riding from a red rickshaw, Chie descended with an
alluring stance that captures each one's attention around her.
Chie together with her parents attended a meeting for arrange-
marriage.

They've talked about the elegance of the restaurant while

waiting for their meets.

Seated around the law banquet table, Chie saw a slender

young man with his family. The talks weren't that easy and fine
but in the latter time, Kan claimed Chie because of his ardent
feelings. He also said, "I'm only a humble farmer, maybe I lack
of refinement, but I'd serve you faithfully."

Across the table, Chie saw the big smile she would grow
to know so well.
GUIDED QUESTIONS:
1. How would you describe Chie?

2. Were you surprised about anything when you read the

history of the fuji family? Why were you surprised?

3. Why is it valuable to point out that samurai women used

to be trained for battle?

4. How does this change or alter the way you look at

samurai?

5. How does this change or alter the way you look at

women?

6. Do you think Chie and Kan will have a happy marriage?

Why or Why not?

7. What insights about Japanese society did you get from

the story?