57 pages • 1 hour read
Musui's Story
A 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 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “I Ran Away Again”
In this chapter, Katsu describes the decision to run away from home the second time. In this instance, he is already a married man with a toddler son, Rintarō. The author mentions pawning his possessions, including a sword he received from his father as a gift. He only raises 3.5 ryō in this way, some of which he immediately spends in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters the night before the escape.
Katsu heads to the Tōkaidō post road. Eventually, in Odawara, he runs into Kiheiji, the coolie who knew him as a beggar. Katsu spends some of his money to go drinking with Kiheiji and some of his friends from the fishing boat where he worked during his initial escape from home.
After this, Katsu wants to head toward Hakone and lies to the officials about his status as a traveling student of swordsmanship so he can be let through. Even though he does not have a travel permit, the lie works, and the officials let him go. Katsu continues to lie throughout his journey whenever it benefits him. When crossing the Ōi River, Katsu pretends to be someone else: “I am the honorable Harima-nokami” doing “very important business” (65).
When he arrives in Kakegawa in the province of Tōtōmi, Katsu lies again about bringing an important message to Itsuki Nakamura, the head priest of the Amanomiya Shrine (the author mistakenly calls it Amanomori). As a result, Katsu receives the favorable treatment of being transported in a palanquin.
The purpose of this particular trip is to visit his friend, the priest’s son, Tatewaki Nakamura, for whom he did a favor. Indeed, Namakura senior thanks Katsu for looking after his son back in Edo. Katsu decides to stay in this area until the end of the hot season. He is well taken care of and learns swordsmanship on the side.
Ultimately, Katsu’s nephew, Shintarō, arrives to find him and bring him back to Edo. Upon arrival, the runaway husband is placed in a cage the size of three tatami mats (each mat was three by six feet) inside the home. During his captivity, Katsu engages in introspection: “I also reflected on my past conduct and came to the conclusion that whatever happened had been my fault” (68). He explains that he still lacks basic literacy: “I taught myself to read and write and spent hours pouring over military manuals” (68).
Katsu also communicates with several family members through writing, including his father and his older half-brother. His father wrote:
‘Kokichi,’ he said. ‘I hope you realize that you’ve been behaving very badly because I am ordering you to stay home for a while. I want you to think long and hard about your life. You’ll find the answers won’t come easily, so you might as well take your time straightening things out—a couple of years even. And since people ought to have a measure of learning, it wouldn’t hurt if you looked at some books, too (68).
His father talks Katsu out of relinquishing the headship of the family in favor of his young son, three-year-old Rintarō. Katsu decides to pursue a government appointment once again per his father’s advice. His brother, Hikoshirō, is also fed up with Katsu’s behavior but believes he would benefit from a government job. Katsu gathers the necessary resources for such a job and even borrows some money.
Chapter 4 Analysis
In this chapter, Katsu continues with the theme of evading responsibility. Here, however, the stakes are higher: by this point, he has a young wife and a three-year-old son at home. Yet avoiding the pressures of adulthood and his well-being is far more important to the author than taking care of his growing family. His self-centeredness is also evident in the absence of information—Katsu’s young family is only mentioned in passing. The context is not his concern for their well-being but rather his desire to retire and make his three-year-old son the formal head of the household.
To get his desired outcomes, Katsu continues to lie. The author records several instances describing the various forms of manipulation he employed. These instances include lying to the authorities to explain his lack of a travel permit and to get preferential treatment to cross the Ōi River and be carried in a palanquin to see the priest Itsuki Nakamura. Lying seems to come naturally to Katsu. The author’s narrative does not engage in introspection regarding pretending to be someone else to manipulate people. At the same time, the narrative is surprisingly honest in its admissions.
The reader also learns about how Katsu’s irresponsible behavior affects his family. His communication with his father and his older half-brother demonstrates how social propriety, social status, and familial respect were important to Japanese society in the late Edo period. Katsu’s father begs him, “I would also like to see you render some filial piety toward your adoptive family” (69). His father is also extremely concerned about other people’s perceptions and the way his son’s behavior reflects upon the rest of the family: “I would also like to see you serve in some government post, however briefly, and put a stop to the gossip about you” (69).
For this reason, Katsu’s punishment of being caged seems like the last resort for a frustrated family. This punishment is also quite severe considering that the previous instances of Katsu’s misadventures, including his theft of the government’s budget money, barely led to a slap on the wrist. His father had the best intentions of saving his son from facing the consequences. However, his enabling only exacerbated this type of behavior.
Unlock all 57 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: