The coming of age of a boy who would be one of the greatest Samurai warriors Japan would ever know.
Creative Staff
Author: David Kirk
What They Say
Inspired by the true story of sixteenth-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto, David Kirk has crafted a rich, absorbing novel of one young man’s coming of age at a crucial turning point in Japanese history.
Thirteen-year-old Bennosuke is deeply disconnected from the rest of his village. When he was five, his mother died, and his father, a powerful samurai, has been traveling the country in service to his lord ever since. Raised by his uncle, a monk, who has tried to teach his charge to eschew violence and martial glory and embrace knowledge and peace, Bennosuke worships his absent, renowned father, Munisai. Subject to shifting alliances beyond his control, Munisai has become indebted to the odious Nakata clan. This escalating feud forces him to return home to his village—followed by his enemies. Now Bennosuke will be forced to confront harsh truths about his family history and his own place in it—and to choose between the paths of samurai and monk.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
There are few figures in Japanese history that have inspired as much myth and legend around their lives as Musashi Miyamoto. He’s become a legend, a paragon of what it means to be a samurai. His legacy has been mined by Japanese authors seeking to tell their own versions of the story of his life, from novelists to film makers to manga artists. Eventually that fascination crossed the ocean and we ended up with a plethora of English language nods and allusions in various works.
At this point there’s little a ‘westerner’ could do to mess up or disgrace a historical figure who is already been a character in video games and portrayed in less than favorable light several times before. Especially since Child of Vengeance is up front about it not being a historical account, but a work of historical fiction.
Most of what I know about the real Musashi Miyamoto was gleaned off of internet articles after reading many volumes of the manga Vagabond, which is a highly romanticized adaptation of another fictional account of the man’s life. David Kirk decided to start his story of Musashi before he comes of age, focusing on a time in the real Musashi’s life that we know little about, to tell a story of what shaped a young warrior’s values and honor.
The first half of the story focuses less on the boy who would be samurai and more on his father, the man known as Munisai Shinmen. He is a man haunted by his violent past despite his current reputation as the right hand man of Lord Shinman. Wounded in battle and questioning Lord Shinmen’s growing interest in money and comfort rather than honor, Munisai makes the difficult decision to return home and train his son, Bunnosuke. A boy who, for the last five years, Munisai has mostly ignored.
Bunnosuke aspires to live up to his status as a samurai, but doesn’t really know what it means to be one. He fears the father he barely remembers while the rest of the village shuns the boy of the man who they fear. And we learn that they have every right to fear the wrath of Munisai.
The samurai once slaughtered half the village in a drunken rage after his wife took revenge on him for her ill treatment at his hands. The story doesn’t focus too much on the disparity between the classes, but it’s there in the arrogant ways that men like Munisai think of peasants, or don’t think of them. That subhuman treatment makes the slaughter of an entire village an incident easily glossed over fact of life. (Although, if such an incident had truly occurred I doubt Munisai would have been able to escape justice. At the very least it would have meant that Munsai would have been impacting his material worth.)
Bennosuke remains ignorant of his father’s past, he had been told by his uncle, the priest Dorinbo, that the fire was accidental and that his mother’s death was as well. His shunning remains a confusing yoke which Bennosuke carries until his father finally returns home. On Munisai’s heals is the son of the lord Nakata, who bares a perceived slight against the older samurai and wishes to make an example of him. Bennosuke finds himself drawn deeper into the sins of his father until they become his own. He’s told only two things, to be a samurai and to seek vengeance at all costs.
Kirk deviates from historical record rather dramatically for his Munisai and Bennosuke. The tragic family backstory he creates gives Bennosuke a more external reason to seek to become a swordsman, vengeance. The author would like us to believe that Bennosuke has a choice to turn toward either an enlightened life of religion or one of the sword, but he doesn’t really give him one. It’s clear that even if he had chosen to give up the sword that the Nakata clan would have pulled him into a life of bloodshed. Perhaps Kirk is trying to create a more sympathetic protagonist over the typical portrayals of Musashi, who usually comes across as something of an enlightened thug.
There are certainly elements of that Musashi present in Bennosuke. The young samurai’s first victories don’t shy away for the visceral, brutal and inelegant duels in the history books. Death is ever present in the story, effecting every character and every action. For every dignified death is a sudden and brutal cut down. As we are exposed to Bennosuke’s inner conflict we discover a scared young man trying to live up to his heritage and to his own idea of what it means to be a samurai. It’s humanizing in a way that is usually absent from these tales, and more accessible for the reader to relate to.
The author doesn’t go onto detail about the more mundane elements of life in Japan at the time, bringing up only the elements of history that are relevant to the plot. It keeps the story moving rather than bog it down with minutia. Kirk opted to use english words rather than have a glossary for things like swords and clothing, although sometimes that leads to odd choices of what to translate and what to leave in Japanese. For example, he sticks with kimono but doesn’t use katana, instead translating it to long sword. The only time I wish he had used Japanese was when he discusses the world at large, because he stuck with using Japan, China, and Korea as the country names. This was probably done so that readers would know instantly where he was talking about, but it’s anachronistic and pulled me out of the story. It’s like referring to the United States in a story set in the same time period, it’s a country that simply didn’t exist at the time in that form.
The ending of the book is sudden and something of a tease. Bennosuke accomplishes the goal he set out to do, but the victory feels hollow, and he is left reflecting even as a new set of enemies promises revenge. It’s clear Kirk has a sequel in mind, and the hook at the end provides a look at what will likely follow.
In Summary
Child of Vengeance accomplishes what it sets out to do, telling a good samurai coming of age story with an attention to detail and an eye for action. Bennosuke is a well realized young man stuck in the most difficult of positions, trying to discover what it means to be a samurai and a man in his world. Sure, it’s not the most historically accurate historical fiction I’ve read, but it gets the facts right where they count and the rest is, as we say, artistic liberty. Plus, it was a surprisingly fun read and while I never felt the stakes were particularly high for the lead, the events surrounding his actions were compelling enough to keep me reading on. I’d recommend it as a good starting point for anyone who might not be as familiar with samurai and bushido, and for anyone who wants something a bit different in the teenage angst department.
Content Grade: B+
Released By: Anchor Books
Release Date: December 3rd, 2013
MSRP: $15.95
