Katsu Kokichi was a samurai who died in 1850. (Musui is his “retirement name.”)
It’s a great little autobiography because he’s an obnoxious little shit and a massive failure. The translator’s prologue goes on about how the Japanese editor of the work had to do a ton of work to even make it readable, and there’s a ton of slang.
He runs away from home multiple times, gets into fights, and bullies people. He starts with a prologue that tries to say how he’s all Buddhist now, but really he was a dumbass who was constantly in hopeless debt.
It’s a very “human” primary source.
