Biography
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. From childhood Katsu was given to mischief. He ran away from home, once at thirteen, making his way as a beggar on the great trunk road between Edo and Kyoto, and again at twenty, posing as the emissary of a feudal lord. He eventually married and had children but never obtained official preferment and was forced to supplement a meager stipend by dealing in swords, selling protection to shopkeepers, and generally using his muscle and wits. Katsu's descriptions of loyalty and kindness, greed and deception, vanity and superstition offer an intimate view of daily life in nineteenth-century Japan unavailable in standard history books. Musui's Story will delight not only students of Japan's past but also general readers who will be entranced by Katsu's candor and boundless zest for life.
- Akira Kurosawa
Akira KurosawaFilmmaker Born: 23 March 1910 Died: 6 September 1998 Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan Best known as: Legendary Japanese movie director Akira Kurosawa was an unsuccessful painter who turned to making movies in Japan in the late 1930s. He got the...
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Biography
Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai
Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai Review
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. From childhood Katsu was given to mischief. He ran away from home, once at thirteen, making his way as a beggar on the great trunk road between Edo and Kyoto, and again at twenty, posing as the emissary of a feudal lord. He eventually married and had children but never obtained official preferment and was forced to supplement a meager stipend by dealing in swords, selling protection to shopkeepers, and generally using his muscle and wits. Katsu's descriptions of loyalty and kindness, greed and deception, vanity and superstition offer an intimate view of daily life in nineteenth-century Japan unavailable in standard history books. Musui's Story will delight not only students of Japan's past but also general readers who will be entranced by Katsu's candor and boundless zest for life.
- Akira Kurosawa
Akira KurosawaFilmmaker Born: 23 March 1910 Died: 6 September 1998 Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan Best known as: Legendary Japanese movie director Akira Kurosawa was an unsuccessful painter who turned to making movies in Japan in the late 1930s. He got the...
- Yeager: An Autobiography
Yeager: An Autobiography Review See more picture @ amazon.com General Chuck Yeager, the greatest test pilot of them all -- the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound . . .the World War II flying ace who shot down a Messerschmitt jet...
- An Autobiography
An Autobiography Review See more picture @ amazon.com Trollope's autobiography, despite causing him problems with critics after his death for his attitudes to writing, is considered one of the most significant autobiographies of its period. ...
- Assata: An Autobiography
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- The Autobiography Of A Hunted Priest
The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest Review See more picture @ amazon.com Foreword by James V. Schall, S.J. Truth is stranger than fiction. And nowhere in literature is it so apparent as in this classic work, The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest....