A Look at Musui’s Story Free Essays - PhDessay.com.
Musui’s Story is an extraordinary autobiography of a samurai named Katsu Kokichi who lived during the last decades of Tokugawa period of Japan. It is special because the book provides readers with a vivid insight of the life of a samurai during the period.
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.
The novel, Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai, captures the life of a samurai during the Tokugawa period. In this book one can observe the rather complicated life of Katsu Kokichi, but more importantly his transformation.
The life of Musui, a.k.a. Katsu Kokichi (1802-1850), falls somewhere between the image of samurai presented by history books and that found in comic books. A brawler, a skilled swordsman, a rebel, a hustler, he sets down the incidents of his life in a framework of repentance—as a cautionary tale—but with a braggadocio and gusto that belies his regret.
Feudalism was a contrasting system dealing with political and military relationships existing among members of the higher social class, Kings, Lords and other owners of large lands in Western Europe during the Middle Ages.
Musui's Story is an autobiography about a samurai during the Tokugawa era in Japan. To be perfectly honest, I found the re-telling of Katsu Kokichi's life to be rather bland and unnecessary for a publication.
Story is a samurai 's autobiography that portrays the Tokugawa society as it was lived during Katsu Kokichi 's life (1802 - 1850). Katsu Kokichi (or Musui) was a man born into a family with hereditary privilege of audience with the shogun, yet he lived a life unworthy of a samurai 's way, running protection racket, cheating, stealing, and lying.