A Look at Musui’s Story
Ideals no matter whose ideals they are, serve as maps of reality. Reality is way bigger than the dreams and aspirations created by anyone. Like the map used for navigation, ideals are inevitable to succeed in life. This is what a reader could find by reading Musui’s Story.
Ideals of a certain culture serve as guidance for everyday life’s journey. As expected, the ideals of the samurai are supposed to guide every samurai to face reality and the world full of twists and turns. But there are many things in the world which people cannot control. As such, the life supposed to be guided by the samurai ideals could go into the wrong way and lead the people to a life that is totally disparate from what is supposed to be. is way too different from reading a critique, for to read the former is like living with the writer and witnessing the real story bit by bit in the eyes of the writer.
In Musui’s Story, the readers are given the chance to encounter the real occurrences. The book contains events of the author’s life, which is open for criticism. It is the author’s eyewitness account and the readers are seated inside the court either as mere audiences or judges. The big difference is that the spirit of the author of the book that could equate his past with words he had written as he comprehended and decipher the meaning of every detail or events in his life. His interpretation of his life is a pure view of his life here on earth. On the contrary, secondary writers never encounter the life of the subject and they only base their text on the text they have gathered. They mostly create an interpretation of an account that is similar to the interpretation of the one who has first-hand experience.
This book, the autobiography, is history in the simplest sense. It is set on the historical time of Tokugawa, during the time of the feudal system where the work of a samurai when being done in satisfaction were rewarded according to the bond being created between the samurai and the Lord. Feudalism is an agreement that is somehow still considerate of the laborer (Lawson, 100). This is how the autobiography had shown the social history of Tokugawa period. As the protagonist, Musui, wrote the details of his life with enough honesty somehow, showing pride or something that was not right which shows inferiority of his character rather than the superiority of his intelligence.
This autobiography which features many writings about the greatness of the unbeatable, undefeatable and the protagonist’s capacity as the author shares his ideals, dreams, beginnings, future, and follow his beliefs, riumphs and victories and even the flaws that he boldly tells. His story tells more than the facts that the real person carries with him. It is the experience, the unique human experience that he has which needs to be shared with other people in order to other humans as way of communicating and reaching for other souls which likewise have unique stories in their hearts.
In addition, this autobiography may have been written by a hopelessly flawed man, living in a hopelessly flawed world. However, his story is told not to discourage his fellow flawed humans but to encourage them to move on and fight regardless of the imperfection of the world. By reading this book, the audience can take part in the sufferings of the author, and become his companion in every step of the way. Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, the autobiography is still open for criticism and readers can either believe what they can perceive or ignore them, as if everything is just a product of imagination. Also, the reader can also choose to do soulful reading and come up with self-realizations based on the morals and beliefs presented in the story.
