In A Grove

Content Warning: This section refers to sexual assault and suicide.

“Ah, what is the life of a human being—a drop of dew, flash of lightning?”

The priest’s observation is a rare moment of poetic language in a story otherwise filled with cold, hard details, and it makes him one of the few characters to directly react to the death of the samurai. Although he expresses sadness over the news, the quote hints at the importance of Reputation and Legacy in a world where life itself is fleeting.

“True, when I caught him, he had fallen off his horse, and he was moaning and groaning on the stone bridge at Awataguchi.”

This detail speaks to the unknowable nature of the true events. Tajomaru appears here to be injured; the policeman assumes he was thrown from his horse, but it’s impossible to say whether that is true. Even before the three main characters present their accounts, the story establishes the theme of Truth and Reading the “Negative Space”.

“That settles it, then. I am sure this Tajomaru fellow is the murderer.”

This quote exemplifies the bias that can create an unreliable narrator. It is common for people to jump to conclusions about those who have reputations as criminals. However, even if readers can’t trust Masago or Takehiko to give fully accurate accounts, both supply reasonable explanations for how Tajomaru could have acquired the samurai’s possessions without murdering him.