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 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Some Other Incidents”
This chapter continues with the narrative of Katsu’s life in retirement by highlighting two incidents: one with swindlers and another with his wife. He laments forgetting “scores of other adventures” beyond the ones already mentioned in the memoir (155). The author also continues with his inappropriate lifestyle: “I was also in a great many other fights, but I’ve forgotten most of them” (154).
The first incident involves the so-called confidence men—swindlers who use psychological techniques to manipulate people and defraud them. Katsu encounters a “fine-looking samurai” (147) at the Myōken Shrine in Kita Warigesui where a certain amount of money is raised for the shrine. This man pretends to be an official in charge of finances and is thus entrusted with the safekeeping of the money, only to take off with it.
Heiuemon Takeuchi, Katsu’s friend, described these swindlers as follows:
Well, a confidence man ordinarily dresses in fine clothes and goes around visiting places like shrines and temples and lecture halls where pilgrims are bound to congregate. He wants to impress people, so he pretends to be very devout. He also lets it be known that he handles money for temples and monasteries and the like. Before you know it, he’s duped people into giving him money—fees for arranging loans, for instance. Then he moves out of his lodgings and goes elsewhere to practice his tricks (148).
These confidence men were evidently common enough for the author’s friend, Imai Sanjirō, to be defrauded by another one named Kanbutsu Saitō. Katsu is able to bust this particular confidence man and help Imai get his money back: “You’ve got to deal with these men on their own level. Money is their business, and if you’re open with them, they’ll be open with you” (151).
The next incident involves the author’s infatuation with a particular woman: “In desperation I told my wife about it” (151). The author claims that his wife promises to get this woman for him. Beyond his frequent visits to the Yoshiwara pleasure district, Katsu’s friends think he is “prone to woman trouble” (152) just by looking at his facial features.
Katsu told one of his friends about being smitten:
I told him about my infatuation with a woman and my wife’s determination to get her for me. He was speechless at first but then started to give me counsel, saying how fortunate I was to have such a devoted wife and how I should take better care of her in the future. I thought about it for a moment. He was right. I was clearly in the wrong (153).
His friend talks him out of pursuing this woman, and he rushes home, arriving just as his wife is about to leave, apparently to get his romantic crush for him. Katsu is relieved at the happy resolution of these events: “It wasn’t the first time she got me out of trouble” (153). With his newly found appreciation for his wife, Katsu decides to stop beating her because she has gotten sick lately and to “treat her like the retired lady of the house” (153).
Chapter 7 Analysis
The “Some Other Incidents” chapter appears to have been written to include information that the author neglected to mention previously. Rather than editing the previous chapters, he puts these incidents into a separate category.
The story about confidence men is part of Katsu’s recurrent theme of doing good deeds for his friends and associates. Here, by using his intelligence and wit, he is able to get his friend’s money back. At the same time, Katsu outsmarts one of the greatest manipulators in the business. As a result, the author boasts about being a helpful friend and an intelligent, street-smart man.
This chapter is also the only part of the autobiography that contains more than a passing mention of his wife, Nobuko. To the present-day reader, the context of having his wife obtain his love interest for him is, at the very least, surprising. However, this situation also shocks the author’s friend: “He was speechless at first but then started to give me counsel” (153). It becomes apparent that Katsu not only visits the Yoshiwara courtesans regularly but also pursues other women with little concern for his wife and family. His wife, in turn, remains dutiful and loyal.
The author also reveals that domestic violence is also part of their daily life: “After that I tried to be more gentle and considerate to my wife. Until then not a day had passed without my hitting her for one reason or another” (153). Katsu even hypothesizes that his beatings are the reason for Nobuko’s failing health: “Maybe it’s because of these past beatings, but she’s suddenly become very sickly over the last four or five years. I know what—from now on I’ll treat her like the retired lady of the house!” (153).
His promise to treat his wife better after what appears to be decades of physical abuse comes across as naïve, if not shocking. Katsu’s admission also underscores the fact that even though Nobuko is of lower-noble status, she has very few options in the patriarchal Japanese society other than to remain in this harmful situation. The casual nature with which the author brings up the treatment of his wife may also point to the fact that his behavior, while inappropriate, is not out of the ordinary.
