Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai
by Katsu Kokichi
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Description
A series of picaresque adventures set against the backdrop of a Japan still closed off from the rest of the world, Musui's Story recounts the escapades of samurai Katsu Kokichi. As it depicts Katsu stealing, brawling, indulging in the pleasure quarters, and getting the better of authorities, it also provides a refreshing perspective on Japanese society, customs, economy, and human relationships. From childhood, Katsu was given to mischief. He ran away from home, once at thirteen, making his show more way as a beggar on the great trunk road between Edo and Kyoto, and again at twenty, posing as the emissary of a feudal lord. He eventually married and had children but never obtained official preferment and was forced to supplement a meager stipend by dealing in swords, selling protection to shopkeepers, and generally using his muscle and wits. Katsu's descriptions of loyalty and kindness, greed and deception, vanity and superstition offer an intimate view of daily life in nineteenth-century Japan unavailable in standard history books. Musui's Story will delight not only students of Japan's past but also general readers who will be entranced by Katsu's candor and boundless zest for life. show lessTags
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Author Information
1 Work 276 Members
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1988
- People/Characters
- Katsu Kokichi; Katsu Kaishū; Otani Heizo; Katsu Nobuko; Otani Hikoshiro
- Important places
- Edo, Japan; Kyoto, Japan; Yoshiwara, Japan; Tokaido Road, Japan
- First words
- Confined to my house by the order of my superiors, I spent the past year or so reading all manner of writings -- tales of war, records of the house of Tokugawa, and the like.
Confined to my house by the order of my superiors, I spent the past year or so reading all manner of writings-tales of war, records of the house of Tokugawa, and the like. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)So be it.
- Original language
- Japanese
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 275
- Popularity
- 116,459
- Rating
- (3.53)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
