Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai [Hardcover]

Kokichi Katsu (Author), Teruko Craig (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1988 | ISBN-10: 0816510350 | ISBN-13: 978-0816510351 | Edition: 1st

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This charming book...portrays Tokugawa society as it was actually lived, instead of as it was portrayed in moralizing tracts and governmental ordinances. Attractively translated by Teruko Craig, it depicts the life of a man born into a family with the hereditary privilege of audience with the shogun, yet he shamelessly consorted with the riffraff of Edo, ran a protection racket, lied, cheated, and stole....Craig is to be commended for the felicity of her translation and for her clear presentation of a complex social order in the Introduction....Anyone interested in Japanese history and society or in how people interact with each other in whatever age or place will enjoy reading this book." —Monumenta Nipponica Musui's Story"Tells the life of Katsu Kokichi, a samurai on the lower fringe of his class who gave up the aspirations expected of him to mix with the scruffier elements of the Edo streets. . . . Teruko Craig has my applause for selecting what may be a unique document, translating it so gracefully, and supplying it with an informative introduction and annotation. . . . Enjoyable reading." —Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japenese "This valuable translation provides many insights into Japanese life. . . . Teruko Craig is to be commended on the vivid picture of this slice of Tokugawa life." —Journal of Royal Asiatic Society "A delightful little book. . . . And is one of those one sit cover-to-cover reads." —American Asian Review "Fruit from an esoteric branch of literature to be sure, but also a colorful, involving glimpse of the gritty side of a distinctly foreign culture." —Kirkus Reviews

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English, Japanese (translation)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 178 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press; 1st edition (April 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816510350
• ISBN-13: 978-0816510351
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,324,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very important book., October 24, 2005

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai (Paperback)

Katsu Kokichi's autobiography shows the gritty, dark, realistic side of Tokugawa society. This samurai, who was always down on his luck, mostly because of his own rotten ideas and unethical actions, lied, cheated, stole and ran around with the riffraff of Edo. He ran away from home, twice, once at the age of 14 and once at the age of 21. The second time he was running away from his OWN household - his wife and his bills. He once lived as a begger, travelled a lot (well, ran away a lot) and learned a lot about how to get money without doing any real work.
This book is important as a piece of first person history into the real lifes and people of the 19th Century Japan. It showed how many Samurai lived during the time of peace, trying to take odd jobs, make some money and still dress, act and give the impression of being warriors. A must for any history library.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of a kind look into a Japanese Samurai, January 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai (Paperback)

This book is the reprinted translated diary of a Samurai in Japan in the early 1800's. It gives the reader a unique look into Japanese society at that time. The samurai in question, Katsu Kokichi, is not a very good samurai which makes this book all the more interesting to read. The reader is drawn into the dilemmas of Katsu and his times. The book also includes beautiful ink drawings and full color plates of tokyo and its environs. This adds to the fullness of the story. This book is perfect for anyone who likes autobiographies or who is interested in Japanese and Asian culture

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This fast-paced read gives an in-depth, personal account of what it was like to be a samuari during the peaceful Tokugawa Era., September 17, 2006

By 

Timothy Freeman (Utica, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai (Paperback)

This easy to read autobiography by Katsu Kokichi is a revealing glimpse of the day to day life and struggles of a Japanese samauri in the late Tokugawa era. Filled with fast-paced adventures and heart wrenching hardships one gets the sense that people in this time period knew how to survive. If Katsu's life could be drawn out in a horizontal timeline it would be characterized by peaks and valleys marking his prosperous highs of fiscal fortune and widespread popularity and his debt ridden lows of illness and incurred filial dishonor. Juxtaposing stories of the highlights of his successes as a swordsman, teacher and local sage are tales of poverty, shame and rakishness--Katsu is such an incorrigible youth that his family locks him in a cage for three years during his early 20s.

The author seems to recognize his best trait saying in his Prologue that, "surely Heaven must have blessed me because even in the midst of my errant ways I helped people out, giving money unstingily and rescuing them from difficulties." Nevertheless, he cannot help but look back on his life in his reitrement with guilt-ridden scorn, telling his progreny to, "read carefully what I have set down and take it as a warning." This book gives an in depth, personal look at what it was like to be a samuari in the Tokugawa era, a 200 year-long age of peace in Japan that lasted from approximately the late 16th Century until 1868. What is a warrior to do when there are no wars to fight and no domestic uprisings to quell? How is a samauri supposed to survive off of a modest government stipend while there are a limited number of jobs he can do? Musui's Story answers these questions and much, much more.