Musui's Story

When Katsu retires, he becomes a lay Buddhist priest by submitting a request to his commissioner. This was a common practice that did not involve either discipline or special training. At this point, the author changes his name to Musui, hence the title of this book.

During retirement, Katsu continues engaging in money-generating schemes to stay afloat. One of his jobs is working as a retainer for his landlord Magoichirō Okano, for whom he previously found a wife. Attending a gambling session with dozens of wealthy merchants, in which Katsu claims not to participate, the author is suddenly inspired to engage in usury: “The gambling gave me the idea of lending money to friends and acquaintances at high interest. It was a profitable arrangement, as I soon found out” (111).

This chapter features two illustrations: one of Nihonbashi and another unlabeled image of what appears to be an open-air marketplace (112-13, 116-17). The Nihonbashi image depicts a bustling crowd scene of the Nihonbashi part of Tokyo (Edo) around the Nihonbashi River and its historic bridge. Dozens of people go about their daily tasks, and the water is full of boats. The marketplace scene features an everyday scenario with men and women out and about, shopping, transporting goods, and interacting with each other.

In many ways, Katsu’s lifestyle remains the same. He continues frequenting the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters, where he not only spends time with the courtesans but also picks fights on purpose. At the same time, he participates in pilgrimages and visits many shrines, including the Katori and Kashima Shrines, as well as the Nose Myōken Shrine when traveling through his landlord’s fiefdom in the Osaka area.

The author spends a significant portion of this chapter describing an extended incident that takes place between his landlord, Magoichirō Okano—his landlord—and Jōsuke Ōkawa, a man hired to manage Magoichirō’s finances. Jōsuke appropriates substantial amounts of money, 30 ryō, from Magoichirō. He then burns his accounting books when Magoichirō is inebriated, making it difficult to prove theft. This situation escalates to the point of involving multiple family members. Jōsuke petitions the senior commissioner Bingo-no-kami Ōta with his grievances, as the latter is on the way to work at the Edo Castle. Petitioning an official on his way to work is a criminal offense at this time, and Jōsuke is placed under guard. Neither side concedes their demands. The author claims that he was asked to deescalate the argument. Katsu gathers signatures from the Okano family members and tells them that Jōsuke’s mischief is ultimately the family’s fault: “Personally, I think that Jōsuke cheated the accounts by taking advantage of the total lack of supervision. But it was Magoichirō who was responsible for the loss of the account book” (126).

Katsu ultimately convinces Jōsuke to settle by paying him partially and promising him a full payment of his stipend. Happy with this resolution, the Magoichirō’s family “greeted me with smiles and made a big fuss,” Katsu boasts (127). However, the amount of money promised to the thieving Jōsuke has to be raised. As a result, Katsu acts as a retainer for the Magoichirō family and travels to their fief in Settsu Province, today’s Osaka Prefecture. This trip is not authorized by the government and causes Katsu problems later.

Upon arrival, Katsu requests some money from the villagers. He operates under the assumption that the villagers lent 500 ryō. However, the farmers claim to have already lent more than 700 ryō. The discrepancy is substantial, and the two sides cannot agree.

To convince the farmers, Katsu engages in several forms of manipulation. For instance, he uses as leverage a favor he once did for a friend, Yauemon Shimoyama, who is employed by the Osaka magistrate. Katsu receives a message and boxes of food from the magistrate, which impresses the villagers led by Shin’uemon. The author brags, “It was really funny” (131).

After this, Katsu impresses the villagers even more with divine intervention. Heading to the Nose Myōken Shrine on a beautiful day, Katsu claims that he could control the weather: “Then let me tell you that I’ve been devoted to Myōken-sama for many years and that every time I pray, it pours” (132). The weather indeed changes, and it begins to rain. While everyone else gets wet, Katsu spends the time tucked away in a palanquin. The author claims that this supernatural incident truly impresses the villagers:

You are a man of truly strange and wondrous powers. You knew all along to mean only one thing—that the gods pay special attention to your prayers. Yes, indeed, the honorable bannermen of the shogun are really different. The likes of us could pray for a hundred days, and this would never happen (133-34).

None of these measures lead to raising the necessary amount, however. As a result, Katsu publicly announces that he will commit hara-kiri:

But I, Kokichi, failed to raise the money, and having accomplished nothing, I cannot go back to Edo. In atonement, I have decided to commit hara-kiri tonight. My request is simply this—that all of you here see to it that my corpse is delivered by appropriate officials to my son in Edo (139).

Katsu removes his kimono and requests his head to be cut off, as was the custom after this suicide ritual. The villagers beg Katsu to stop: “They besieged me weeping and sobbing” (140). The villagers collect the necessary amount of money and give it to the author by morning. Katsu then punishes some of them:

I demoted the village officials who had been particularly defiant to the status of plain water-drinking peasants and replaced them with men who served in Gōsetsu’s time. To those who had lent money, I granted the privilege of bearing surnames, and to Shin’uemon, I gave a set of ceremonial robes, a house, and a plot of land with a yield of almost one koku of rice (141).

Delivering the money to his landlord, Katsu boasts that the family “talked as if I were a living god” (142).

Because Katsu’s trip to Settsu was unauthorized, his commissioner places him under house arrest for approximately six months. Not too long after, the commissioner sentences Katsu to another house arrest because of his illegal activities in Yoshiwara.