Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai - Softcover

Katsu Kokichi

  • 3.52 out of 5 stars
    919 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780816512560: Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0816512566 ISBN 13: 9780816512560
Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 1991

Synopsis


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 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.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Katsu Kokichi was a low ranking samurai who lived during the last decades of the Tokugawa period of Japan. Upon his retirement he wrote an autobiography that offers modern readers a richly detailed account of daily life in Edo during the early nineteenth century.

From the Inside Flap

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 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.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
University of Arizona Press
Publication date
1991
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0816512566
ISBN 13 
9780816512560
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
208
Rating
  • 3.52 out of 5 stars
    919 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780816510351: Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0816510350 ISBN 13:  9780816510351
Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 1988
Hardcover