Heart of a Samurai Quotes

In three days they had not caught a single fish. Their families would go hungry. Manjiro swallowed hard when he thought of the empty rice bin at home. (1.1.4)

That night, lying in his bunk, Manjiro couldn't help trying the new words. "Buttons," he whispered. "Pockets. Shoes. Bread." Bread was hard to say. He tried again and again. "Captain," he said. "Wh...

Manjiro was afraid, but he said, "My father told me that a person should always put his heart in order before falling asleep. Then he will be unencumbered by fear." Manjiro tried to put his heart i...

But the snail had created such a beautiful design in the sand, like a kare-sansui, a Zen garden. Yet not created, Manjiro realized—traced. The snail had taken its long, arduous journey to traceâ€...

How does a snail move when it has no feet? he wondered. And where was the tiny creature going with such purpose? Manjiro watched it, losing himself in its slow, graceful movement. (1.2.16)

Manjiro had never thought of such things. He had always known what work he would do. Of course, he would have liked to bring honor to his family, and he remembered how he'd once said he wanted to b...

"Even if we should get home, you know very well you can't be. You weren't born into a samurai family. You were born a fisherman's son and you will be a fisherman, and any sons you have, they also w...

"Even if we should get home, you know very well you can't be. You weren't born into a samurai family. You were born a fisherman's son and you will be a fisherman, and any sons you have, they also w...

"What lies there," he wondered aloud, "across the sea?" "Nothing you want to know about," Denzo said, hurrying to hoist the sail. "Barbarians live there. Demons with hairy faces, big noses, and blu...

In Japan there was an artist named Hiroshige who made beautiful pictures of everyday scenes. Manjiro had seen some of these prints: two men seeking shelter from rain that fell in cold, slanting str...