The Samurai's Tale — Erik Christian Haugaard

I shall begin my tale on that day when I lost not only my father, but my mother and my two older brothers as well. . . . In the morning of that day my name had been Murakami; I was a bushi, a knight's son whom every woman in the village would fondle and spoil. Before the sun set I had been given the name "Taro," a servant's name, and I was of no more importance than that name implied.