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

"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 "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 Japanese "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. . . . one of those one sit, cover-to-cover reads."--American Asian Review "A colorful, involving glimpse of the gritty side of a distinctly foreign culture."--Kirkus Reviews

The author, a Japanese samurai of the nineteenth century, looks back on his life and shares his observations on Japanese society