57 pages • 1 hour read
Katsu Kokichi, Transl. Teruko Craig, Illustr. Hiroshige UtagawaMusui's Story
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1843A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Childhood”
In the first chapter, Katsu describes his childhood. He is born to his father’s concubine in her family’s home because he no longer favors her. For the first seven years of his life, he is raised by his father’s wife in the Otani family. After being handed over to the latter from the concubine, he also has a wet nurse. Despite having a different biological mother, Katsu considers his father’s wife to be his real mother. He laments that he was a troublemaker causing his mother much grief: “I grew up a real hell-raiser” (11). His mother suffered from health problems such as palsy, and he made things more difficult.
Because he is an active child, Katsu gets into fights. One such incident leads him to be punished by one of his father’s men: “He tied me to one of the posts in the veranda and whacked me on the head with a wooden clog. To this day I have a bald spot and a dent where he struck me” (10).
After another particularly difficult fight with multiple boys at age seven, Katsu wants to commit hara-kiri—a ritual suicide of the samurai by disembowelment. However, he is stopped by a rice dealer. The author suggests that the incident earns him the respect of the neighborhood boys.
At age seven, the author is adopted into the family of the girl Nobuko, whom he is supposed to marry later. His first name is changed from Kamematsu to Kokichi. In this way, the author becomes Kokichi Katsu. The biggest problem in this new family is the grandmother: “My grandmother by adoption had been known for her mean disposition from the time she was a young girl. It was said that she drove both of my adoptive parents to an early death” (14).
His adoptive grandmother never misses a chance to scold him, and she “served up the most awful meals” (14). Over time, she makes his life “as wretched as possible” (20).
When he turns nine, Katsu begins taking judo lessons. At age 11, he starts studying the art of swords under Jinzaemon Udono, a swordmaster. The following year, Katsu begins school. He hates studying and continues to get into trouble. For example, he steals money from his mother.
Chapter 1 Analysis
The author begins the first chapter by pointing out that his foolishness should be a lesson to his descendants and other “scoundrels and fools” (9). Using his impropriety as a learning experience is a recurrent theme for Katsu. It is not yet entirely clear whether Katsu truly believes this line of reasoning or uses it as an excuse. However, his apparent honesty when describing his less-than-perfect behavior indicates a certain level of authenticity.
After this point, the author continues his narration with less formal, more colloquial language than in the Prologue. Katsu believes himself to have been a naughty troublemaker causing problems for his caregiver—his mother. However, the behavior he describes appears to be developmentally appropriate for a healthy, young child pushing boundaries. Therefore, he seems to be using the critical comments he may have heard about himself from frustrated caregivers while accepting them at face value.
It is difficult to speculate about the psychological effects of being taken away from one’s biological mother—his father’s concubine—and then given to his father’s wife only to be adopted out again at age seven. Whereas these actions were customary and accepted in 19th-century Japan, such caregiver instability may have negatively impacted Katsu. It should be noted that because both adoptive parents were deceased at the time of this transfer, the author is able to continue living in the Otani home.
The emphasis on gender-specific education is another theme in Katsu’s memoir. At age seven, young samurai boys can carry short swords with blunt edges. The author is also enrolled in martial arts and learns to use weapons while studying under a swordmaster. Furthermore, Katsu’s attempt to perform hara-kiri on himself at the tender age of seven after an unsuccessful fight with the neighborhood demonstrates how the military-style societal role and the values of being a protector and a soldier were ingrained in 19th-century Japanese boys’ minds.
Not only the strictly defined gender roles but also the class-based social hierarchy was important to Japanese society in the late Edo period. For example, when describing life with his biological Otani family, Katsu mentions all the men who were his father’s helpers, such as his retainer Reheiji. When the Katsu family adopts him, he underscores the importance of social status: “My adoptive father’s older brother, Aoki Jinbei, who served at Edo Castle as a member of the Great Guard, acted as sponsor” (12). The Edo Castle—today part of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo—was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate and a key location for the military government of Japan. During this time of peace, the samurais, by and large, did not engage in military activities but usually worked in the vast bureaucracy. As a young child, Katsu already knew that his adoptive family was somewhat close to the source of power. Later, the author remembers being mocked by children for having the hereditary stipend of only 40 bales of rice as was customary for his social class. However, he knew not to retaliate by fighting and kept quiet because one of the children mocking him was the commissioner’s son. Even as a young boy, the author was keenly aware of showing deference to someone of higher social status.
