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Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai | 
 enlarge | Authors: Katsu Kokichi, Teruko Craig
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy Used: $5.61
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Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 130606
Media: Paperback
Pages: 178
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0816512566
Dewey Decimal Number: 952.0250924
EAN: 9780816512560
ASIN: 0816512566
Publication Date: July 1, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Softcover. Cover is creased. Page corners are creased. Brown stain on the top outside page corner. Ships the next business day, with tracking and delivery confirmation sent to your email.
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Product 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 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 One of a kind look into a Japanese Samurai January 29, 1997
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
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
 A very important book. October 25, 2005
Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
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.
The life of a low-life September 29, 2003
wiredweird (Earth, or somewhere nearby)
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
Katsu Kokichi (the name used by the younger Musui) was a brutish, petty man. His autobiography is a series of repeating vignettes, stealing from the people who tried to help, running afoul of the law without quite ruining himself or his family, leading neighborhood protection rackets, spending himself into deep debt, and beating his wife. At age 21, he was still running away from home when things got tough, in a day when a 15-year-old might be head of a household. Somehow, though, he never reached a status I could call 'evil' - his wrongs were all too small and meaningless. Although the translation is very readable, I found the book hard to read. I am sad to say that I've known people like Katsu, seemingly bent on screwing up their lives and never wholly succeeding. Katsu's story hit just a little too close to home for me to enjoy the reading. I was morbidly fascinated, though, by the similarity of today's losers to a fallen samurai of the early 19th century. The translation is modern and well-written, a very good rendering of a very unpleasant man. I do not fault the translation, just the material being translated. Still, Musui's story is an interesting contrast to writings by more honest and educated writers. It fills in the grubby flip-side of Japanese history of the era. It's not a view I like to see, but it's honest in a strange way. Even when he conspicuously lies to his reader, Katsu still reveals his true self. This is not a book that will appeal to everyone, but some readers will find value in it.
Times may change but people rarely do March 18, 2005
H. D. Villarreal (Austin, TX)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Sometimes we ask ourselves what life must have been like in other places and other times. This book is the most realistic examples of such an account I have ever read. The scenes are so comical and hilarious you feel sorry for the guy for all his misfortune but at the same time can't help laughing at the manner it which its presented. It reminds me a lot of Voltaire's Candide or in modern references a much older version of the Sopranos. If you get a chance read this book, you'll definitely find a lot of laughs and a plethora of timeless lessons of a hard life tucked beneath the surface.
Record of a Scoundrel April 11, 2007
Zack Davisson (Seattle, WA, USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Who writes an autobiography? Most people who write them are people of note, movers and shakers in their realms and time-periods, people with something to say. Rarely do we get to read the autobiography of a general loser, someone who is by no measure a good person, and someone completely beyond admiration. Welcome to Musui's world.
Musui, also know as Katsu Kokichi, was a low-ranking samurai and general good-for-nothing who never thought beyond his immediate needs, and did his best to attain something for nothing when ever possible. He started out bad, as a schoolyard bully who used his status as a samurai to push around lower-ranking kids. The older he got, the worse he got, and all means to control him or teach him respect failed, including his father locking him in a cage and forcing him to read classic military treatise. He was eventually adopted off into another family, which brought along with it a bride and a meager salary. It was never enough to keep up with his habit of visiting prostitutes in the Yoshiwara pleasure districts, so he was soon a leader amongst the black market, working with local extortionists and hoodlums, selling swords and working every possible kind of confidence racket.
Now, everything in this book should be taken with a grain of salt. Katsu was a grand liar with an enormous ego, who bluffed his way into money and out of trouble on a regular basis. His tales of his exemplary swordsmanship, his acts of kindness, his ability to drink bottle after bottle of sake without ever getting drunk, smacks as more wish-fulfillment than the true character of an unrepentant rouge. The translator, Teruko Craig, has added some notes on the accuracy of Katsu's tales, and surprisingly some of the most fantastic adventures are backed up by other sources. I suppose it is up to the reader to determine what is fact and what is fiction.
Teruko Craig has worked a minor miracle with this translation. Because of Katsu's sketchy literacy, and limited vocabulary, he has had to pull out all the stops in making a readable text that still maintains the flavor of Katsu's way of writing. The result is a very enjoyable, readable book that brings a nice balance to the world of the samurai. We have all read of the honor and integrity. It is nice to have some of the Low along with the High.
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