Kokoro

More about the book

Thieves, gamblers, prostitutes, confidence men: these and other such types mingled with priests, merchants, and ordinary citizens along the great trunk road between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto in early 19th century Japan. This colorful cast of thousands eddies and swirls around ne'er-do-well narrator Katsu Kochiki (1802-1850). Written after he had retired and adopted the name "Musui" (dream-besotted), Katsu's memoirs provide a rich and often amusing account of everyday life in Japan when it was still isolated from the rest of the world.