Katsu Kokichi essay
Life of a Delinquent Samurai
Japan in the early 1800’s was relatively structured and under control. The Tokugawas had already been ruling for about 200 years and had things pretty much the way they wanted them. Katsu Kokich was a Samurai who was born in 1802. Kokichi did not share the same structured childhood and life as many people in nineteenth century Japan, but his abilities to think outside the box and take risks made him a better-rounded person. The class Katsu was born into had the largest impact on his identity. The social hierarchy went from Samurai, to farmers, to artisans, to merchants.1Social hierarchy was so serious that the government even put out a list of rules regarding how certain classes can dress and act, forbidding merchants from wearing wool capes, having lavish weddings, and building three story houses.2 Katsu relished his birth class and sometimes used it to take advantage of those around him. As a child, he learned horse riding and swordplay before he could read or write. Most Samurai male children were educated and literate, and did not spend all day skipping school to go riding or compete in fencing. He wrote about multiple fights he was in, most of which he was vastly outnumbered and yet still managed to win. His dog was attacked when he was 17 and when he went to beat up the other dog’s owner, “the boys from Kamezawa-cho sent for help, and pretty soon forty or fifty kids…showed up…we managed to drive them away.”3 This showed his warrior mentality, and the probable exaggeration showed his confidence and his stubbornness, neither of which he outgrew. Katsu never acted without thinking about the consequences, whether they might be house arrest or even getting locked in a cage.
Another factor that impacted his identity formation was his family. He respected his father and always listened to him. He did not like was his adopted grandmother, though. He wrote that she was, “nasty to me, too, and nagged and scolded day after day.”4 Both
Japan in the early 1800’s was relatively structured and under control. The Tokugawas had already been ruling for about 200 years and had things pretty much the way they wanted them. Katsu Kokich was a Samurai who was born in 1802. Kokichi did not share the same structured childhood and life as many people in nineteenth century Japan, but his abilities to think outside the box and take risks made him a better-rounded person. The class Katsu was born into had the largest impact on his identity. The social hierarchy went from Samurai, to farmers, to artisans, to merchants.1Social hierarchy was so serious that the government even put out a list of rules regarding how certain classes can dress and act, forbidding merchants from wearing wool capes, having lavish weddings, and building three story houses.2 Katsu relished his birth class and sometimes used it to take advantage of those around him. As a child, he learned horse riding and swordplay before he could read or write. Most Samurai male children were educated and literate, and did not spend all day skipping school to go riding or compete in fencing. He wrote about multiple fights he was in, most of which he was vastly outnumbered and yet still managed to win. His dog was attacked when he was 17 and when he went to beat up the other dog’s owner, “the boys from Kamezawa-cho sent for help, and pretty soon forty or fifty kids…showed up…we managed to drive them away.”3 This showed his warrior mentality, and the probable exaggeration showed his confidence and his stubbornness, neither of which he outgrew. Katsu never acted without thinking about the consequences, whether they might be house arrest or even getting locked in a cage.
Another factor that impacted his identity formation was his family. He respected his father and always listened to him. He did not like was his adopted grandmother, though. He wrote that she was, “nasty to me, too, and nagged and scolded day after day.”4 Both