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 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Adult Years”
In “Adult Years,” the author describes his life between his early twenties and age 37. During this time, Katsu has three more children with his wife after his first-born Rintarō. The family lives in Edo (Tokyo). This chapter is accompanied by a map of the relevant places in the Edo area to improve the reader’s understanding of the narrative (70). The author makes repeated attempts to obtain an appointment with the shogunate to no avail. As a result, he continues to hustle, making money by dealing swords and using other, more questionable methods. He also faithfully continues to visit the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters. His two brothers Hikoshirō, the official head of the Otani household, and Saburōemon, continue to get the author out of trouble.
At first, Katsu visits commissioner Kōzukenosuke Ōkubo and, after previous failures, “begged him to recommend [him] for a post” (71). The young man came clean and “even submitted a list of the misdeeds” (71). The process of government staffing at that time usually involves in-depth investigations by the shogunate, and Katsu is informed that he will be investigated.
Once again, the commissioner’s office tells Katsu to wait for a government appointment because he repented for his poor behavior. Yet nothing comes of this promise. The author laments, “Often enough my name was entered on the rolls of candidates, but not once was I given a post. And that I found very galling” (72).
Katsu’s older biological half-brothers are better socially positioned than him, and he feels the pressure to keep up: “I was anxious to find official employment. But I also had to dash about making money” (74). As a result, he continues his involvement with all aspects of swordsmanship—from schools to appraisals. Occasionally, he is reasonably successful:
At the end of the month I made eleven ryō selling a Sukekane of Bizen sword to Matsudaira Hōki-no-kami for Matabei, a clerk at the shogunate warehouse. I got an extra five ryō from Matabei as a tip. Every night I went to the secondhand goods markets in Kanda and Honjo, and being a pretty sharp bargainer, I soon set aside a tidy sum (95).
The author even attempts to organize a sword association for fellow swords appraisers and swordsmen “in which members could pay dues and take turns buying a sword” (85). He also aids others. For example, Katsu helps Hayata Kobayashi set up a practice hall and a business as a sword dealer. This narration is accompanied by an illustration, “A Swordsmith and His Assistants,” created by a well-known artist Keisai Kuwagata (85). The illustration depicts two men forging swords in a natural setting and with a sword stand in the background. The images are stylized in appearance and the men’s exaggerated movements. The illustration helps the reader imagine different aspects of the sword business in Katsu’s lifetime. Another illustration by the same artist, “A Secondhand-Book Stall” depicts a small outdoor book stall with books on the ground and artwork on a stand (96). Several samurai are checking out the books and artwork. The figures and their movements are similarly stylized. At the same time, there is a certain air of naturalism to this scene.
At this time, Katsu’s father, Heizō Otani, passes away from what appears to be a stroke. This death seriously affects the author, and he mentions it several times throughout this chapter: “I lost heart completely” (74). He further laments, “Ever since my father died, I’ve had no one to turn to” (107). The author expresses equally strong emotions when his eldest son, Rintarō, is attacked by a mad dog. Initially, the medics are unsure whether the boy will survive his injuries. The author visits a local shrine daily and pays penance by throwing buckets of cold water on himself. He also prays. Other tragedies also strike the author’s extended family. Chūzō, the son of his brother, Saburōemon Matsusaka, is murdered in the street, and Katsu cannot save him.
Next, the author begins to dabble in the indigenous Japanese religion, Shinto, after his friends display an interest in its practices. He helps the priest, Hyōgo Yoshida, of the Marishiten cult set up an association for his shrine, calling it the Day of the Boar Association. Katsu claims to have gathered up to 160 paying members of different social classes—swordsmen, merchants, and farmers.
At one Shinto celebration, the men are drinking, and Katsu gets into an argument with the Shinto priest over what he describes as the priest’s rude behavior: “You’re nothing but a back alley Shinto priest and probably don’t know any better. I rebuked you yesterday because you were unspeakably rude to me—an honorable bannerman of the shogun” (77). Such incidents, frequent for Katsu, usually end in gossip and altercations. This particular event leads to Katsu’s confrontation with the priest’s nephew, Ōtake. Yet, in the end, everyone makes up and continues drinking.
At this time, Katsu discovers shadow lotteries organized by a tailor from Kuromon-chō. These lotteries are illegal and offer cash prizes to match the numbers drawn in the official counterparts. The Tokugawa shogunate forbade lotteries and other forms of gambling. However, the government made exceptions for lotteries carried out by religious institutions as a way to raise money, for instance, for repairs. Katsu’s friend Kazue Tokuyama asks Nanpei Tonomura to recite incantations for the gods to help provide the correct numbers. Tonomura summons a woman who acts as a spirit medium as she recites some numbers.
Katsu, too, believes that he could use the same communication method with the spirit world to get the winning combination. As a result, he gets into an argument with the tailor. Ultimately, Katsu finds a woman to act as a medium and recite some numbers too. From then on, “everyone came to me for incantations—I charged less,” Katsu boasts (84). Overall, Katsu makes 90 ryō from shadow lotteries.
Besides engaging mediums to get the accurate numbers in an illegal lottery, Katsu also embraces religion more formally:
I took up religious austerities and penances. I began by going to the Fuji Inari Shrine in Ochiai for a hundred nights. I went next to the Inari Shrine in Oji for a hundred nights and after that to the Inari Shrine in Handa for other hundred nights. I also carried out the cold water penance. Squatting half-naked in front of the shrine altar, I poured bucket after bucket on myself for five or six hours at a stretch. That lasted 150 days, and much of it during the winter, too (84).
Despite his dedication, the author neither lands a government post nor improves his living situation. He moves several times in the discussed period. For example, Tetsugoro Yamaguchi is his landlord for a time, while Katsu settles his debts for him. The author tells him at one point that he cannot be a district administrator. The landlord feels offended and evicts Katsu’s family. As a result, the author simply keeps the rents he collected for his landlord in retaliation. The author also continues to engage in disreputable behavior, such as frequenting the red light district.
One particular incident stands out. Katsu writes a letter to Masanosuke, another son of his brother Saburōemon. The latter intercepts it and is enraged to the point of consulting Hikoshirō, “What ever made you fill Masanosuke’s head with all this vicious nonsense about the district office? You are wicked and utterly without scruples.” (103) The author, however, convinces both brothers, Saburōemon and Hikoshirō, that the letter in question was forged. Saburōemon even apologizes to Katsu for questioning him.
Eventually, the author’s less-than-honorable behavior frustrates his brothers so much that he is summoned to Hikoshirō’s house. Expecting nothing good, Katsu gives his wife instructions about the children before heading out. Upon arrival, the author encounters the entire family in tears. He is told that a cage is waiting for him in the garden as a form of punishment: “I decided I might as well do what I want and die. Well, I no longer wish to cause my brothers trouble, so if I may enter the cage now—” (107).
The chapter ends with the author giving his son, Rintarō, only 15, the official headship of the family. He retires around the age of 37.
Chapter 5 Analysis
Even though this chapter describes the author’s adulthood, many of the same maladaptive behavior patterns from his teenage years remain intact. Between his early twenties and the late thirties, Katsu continues to lead a less-than-reputable lifestyle by indulging in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters, gambling, lying, and manipulating his family and associates. He engages in this behavior while having three more children with his wife.
His family life and his wife are barely mentioned in this chapter. In fact, his sisters-in-law have more coverage as they try to talk him out of his poor choices and restrain their husbands—his brothers—from responding too harshly. In this chapter, however, the author reveals his emotional side as he discusses the tragedies in his family: his father's death, his son’s extensive injuries from a dog attack, and the murder of one of his nephews. His suffering appears genuine.
However, in other ways, his relationships with many family members remain poor. At one point, Katsu does not speak to his brother Saburōemon Matsusaka, a district administrator, for ten years. Whereas Saburōemon usually remains in the background, the author’s oldest brother, Hikoshirō, continues to bail him out of trouble, admonish him, and attempt—unsuccessfully—to set him on the right path. Once the author’s father passes away, Hikoshirō, the head of the Otani household, solely fulfills a fatherly role in Katsu’s life without his appreciation or understanding thereof. Hikoshirō attempts to steer his younger brother away from poor life choices: “Well, I’ve heard other things about you—that you spend all your time carousing in the Yoshiwara. Most people your age have given up these things. But you are incorrigible” (103).
As he grows older, the author does not completely forgo self-reflection:
Hikoshirō had heard right, though. For the last three or four years I had fallen into dissolute ways and been spending most of my time in the Yoshiwara. So much so that the roughnecks who prowled through the quarters had become my underlings, and no one dared defy me. Naturally, this took huge amounts of money, but I was determined not to fall into debt, and o I hustled every night at the markets. I just barely stayed ahead (106).
However, Katsu’s self-reflection is limited. His primary concern is his excessive spending on the courtesans rather than how his behavior negatively affects his family members, especially in terms of reputation. The fact that he seems to be spending quite a bit of time away from his wife and children while engaging in self-indulgence rather than earning money is also glossed over.
The eldest brother also points out Katsu’s personality and behavior flaws: “And what’s this you’re wearing—a woolen haori? Tell me, what makes you think you can act so arrogantly?” (103). Wearing wool is considered a luxury during this period, and Katsu often struggles financially. While Katsu’s clothing choices may seem a minor criticism, they point to his prioritizing himself over his family’s needs. The previous chapters also contain other descriptions of his arrogance, such as his boasting about always winning sword fights.
Another way the author’s arrogance is evident is through his documentation of his good deeds. He lists several examples of helping the Sakyo family, finding a wife for Magoichirō Okano, the son of one of his landlords, and even bargaining for his bridal dowry. The author brags:
I always put giving to others first, helping neighbors as a matter of course and those in need according to who they were. Perhaps, because of this, even in the leanest years of the Tenpō famine, I had one-sixteenth of a ryō of spending money each day (97).
The Tenpō famine was a major famine that lasted from 1833 to 1837. Katsu points out that he is always treated very well no matter where he travels because he always helps out other swordsmen in any way he can. Whereas all of these incidents may be genuine, the author’s tone is excessively boastful and self-congratulatory.
The story of the letter to his nephew is one of the most remarkable examples of manipulation in which the author successfully lies to his brothers. From the outset, Katsu admits to writing a letter to his nephew. However, when his brothers Saburōemon and Hikoshirō are enraged by the “vicious nonsense about the district office” (103), Katsu denies ever writing the letter. He lies so skillfully about the document being a forgery that Saburōemon even apologizes to him. In modern parlance, this form of manipulation would be called gaslighting.
The author is also manipulative when it comes to generating pity in his family members: “I appreciate my brother’s concern. This time, though, may I suggest that you get some candles to light for me, because I’ve already made up my mind to stay in the cage for good and not come out even if I’m forgiven” (106-07). He acts apologetically, but always when it is too late. This behavior certainly comes across as him feeling sorry for himself rather than being concerned about how his actions affected the family.
The author’s inability to get a government job is another recurrent theme in this chapter. The author portrays his lack of state employment as a failure: “I realize that all the relatives look down on me because I haven’t received an appointment” (105). In contrast, both Saburōemon and Hikoshirō are employed by the shogunate and are accomplished in their own right. Herein lies the tension between the rigid social structure of the Tokugawa shogunate and its subjects’ reliance on official appointments and Katsu’s misadventures and unstable lifestyle that, no doubt, contributes to his inability to get a job according to his hereditary social status. Indeed, his inappropriate behavior, such as his frequent visits to Yoshiwara, appears to be, in part, escapism from his frustrations with his employment situation and the social pressures associated with it. He deals with this stress in the worst possible ways, generating a vicious cycle that lasts a lifetime.
Finally, a noteworthy undercurrent found throughout the entire text, but especially here, is the interplay between Shinto and Buddhism in Japan. Shinto is Japan’s indigenous religion with elements of animism. Shinto believes that spirit-like entities, kami, occupy all things. In contrast, Buddhism came to Japan around the 6th century. Its teaching is more complex, comprising the ideas of overcoming suffering, the impermanence of the physical world, karma, and reincarnation. It is common in Japan to practice elements of both religions even today. This practice is evident in Katsu’s writing. He begins his autobiography by mentioning his daily recitation of the Buddhist Lotus Sutra. In this chapter, however, Katsu gets involved in various aspects of Shinto, such as organizing a group for a shrine and more questionable practices like using a spiritual medium to recite numbers for an illegal lottery.
