Musui's Story Essay

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Musui’s Story by Kokichi Katsu Musui’s Story is the autobiography of a samurai from Tokugawa, Japan in the nineteenth century. Musui did not embody what the life of a samurai typically was in this time period, he runs away from home twice, spends money on prostitutes, resorts to thievery and brings shame to his family. Although samurai started off much differently than they were in the Tokugawa period, most of them being uneducated land owners who farmed in between battles, the expectations of the samurai changed later on. A Tokugawa samurai’s life came with certain expectations, they were supposed to be masters of the sword and well versed in literature, hold a government administrative job or law enforcement job, live an honorable life, and actively practice their religion. Musui did not lead the life of a respectable samurai life during the Tokugawa period. His birth mother is a concubine who gave him up to a wet nurse, and at seven years is he adopted into the Katsu family. He is a very high spirited child, getting into fights and disobeying his father and his grandmother constantly. He has a very troubled youth, running away twice and spending much of his time as a beggar or a laborer. He focused most of his time learning how to fight and learning the ways of the sword, often starting fights sometimes with large groups of men. Musui frequents the Yoshiwara or the “pleasure district” which is a place where men can hire prostitutes. He spends most of his adult life in and out of debt and has a hard time holding a respectable job, resorting to thievery and trickery to keep out of debt. Musui’s conduct and frequent bouts with debt shame his family to the point where they put him in a cage as penance for all of his wrong doings. At the age of thirty-seven Musui relinquishes his family headship to his son Rintaro. Even after he retires Musui spends most of his

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