The Temple of a Thousand Tears

Author notes

Chapter 4: Into the Valley of Eternal Lament 11

trevoramueller

on Jan. 13, 2008

Revelations abound, as we slowly learn more about the swordsman. One of the x-mas gifts that I received this year was the book Hagakure, which means "In the Shadow of Leaves." The book is a collection of 300 quotes taken from a retired samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo over the course of seven years. Yamamoto became a Buddhist monk in 1700 after the Shogunal government prohibited the practice of seppuku. The book has some excellent quotes, some of which helped to inspire this very story, and some of which I will share with you.

"Learning is a good thing, but more often it leads to mistakes. It is like the admonition of the priest Konan. It is worthwhile just looking at the deeds of accomplished persons for the purpose of knowing our own insufficiences. But often this does not happen. For the most part, we admire our own opinions and become fond of arguing."

This quote is pretty apparent on this page here, where we learn that the swordsman is becoming aware of the fact that he's been a bad samurai over the years.