Young Jack Fletcher is English, the son of the pilot of a ship known as the Alexandria. The master of the ship has heard of the islands of Japan and is determined to make his way there to trade and sell, in defiance of the fact that it is open only to the Portuguese.
A storm blows them off course, but the ship is able to take shelter in a cove. While they make repairs, the crew is killed by men wearing dark costumes. Jack manages to survive, and the leader of the men in black reveals he is looking for the Rutter, the book in which Jack's father keeps all the infomation on the routes he has sailed and the stars he has followed. When his father promises to give up the Rutter in return that Jack be left alive, the Leader kills Jack's father, and Jack notes that he has a single green eye.
Jack, getting free, manages to hide the Rutter, and tries to make it to the mainland, but is struck down, only to be saved by a man with half his face covered in scars. When he awakens again, he is in Japan, being treated by the people there. Jack has been primed by stories of the cruelty of the Japanese people, especially the warrior class, the Samurai. So when, barely healed, he is confronted by a samurai, he remembers the single piece of advice given to him by the Old Sea Dog who told him such tales, and bows as low as he can to avoid being killed. This makes the Samurai laugh, and Jack escapes any violence.
Soon enough, Jack learns some Japanese, and is told, by an old Portuguese Jesuit Priest, that the warrior who saved him, Masamoto, a famous Samurai, is adopting him. It seems that Masamoto's eldest son was killed two years before Jack came to Japan, and his appearance two years from the day of his son's death, plus Jack's bravery, makes the warrior think that his appearance was foredestined. So Jack will be trained, and if he proves worthy, become a samurai.
However, Masamoto's younger son, Yamato, doesn't take the news very well, and he hates Jack. But when he starts teaching Jack to use the bokken, or wooden sword, Jack eventually wins his acceptance with Yamato. But when Jack travels to Kyoto to enter the school of swordsmanship run by Masamoto, Yamato seems to abandon not only Jack, but his cousin, the lovely female samurai Akiko.
Can Jack fight back against the Japanese youths who see him as nothing more than a Gaijin, an outsider barbarian? And can he win back Yamato's friendship, or will the acceptance of Jack by Masamoto be the final nail in the coffin that pushes them apart forever? And what of the Rutter? Jack still has it, but Dragon-Eye, the ninja who killed his father, still wants it, and will stop at nothing to steal it. What is in it that makes it so valuable, and how did Dragon-Eye know that Jack's father had it? Will Jack ever return to his sister in England, or will he no longer want to? Where will Jack find his ultimate home?
That's a lot of questions, but this looks like the first book in a series, so it's obvious that those questions will be answered eventually. The idea of a Western boy being adopted into a Japanese household is intriguing, and the idea seems like it could possibly happen, storywise at least. I'm not sure if would have happened in the real world, but its at least plausible here.
I didn't feel any real sense of isolation, as if Jack felt like he was the only person in an alien world, but then, I know at least a bit of Japanese thanks to my obsessive interest in Anime, so perhaps readers will get that feeling more than I did. Jack seems to miss the food he's used to more than the sound of someone speaking in English, while it seemed to me he should be missing both. But that's all small potatoes.
In the end, the story is entrancing, with its glimpses of what Japan was like back then, and how kids treat each other no matter where they are. The friends they make, the cliques they form, and what it means to be an outsider in a very alien world. I'm waiting to see great things from Jack, and I want to see more. A lot more. I have so many questions I want answered and I love Jack's Point of View of the land of Japan and Japanese warrior culture. I highly recommend this book, especially for viewers who love sword and historical anime and manga. How would they have survived in Jack's situation?
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