Who Is Katsushirō (Katsushiro)?
The husband kept away for seven years
Katsushirō is the hero of "The House Amid the Thickets" (Asaji ga Yado), a story in Ueda Akinari's Ugetsu Monogatari. He lives in the village of Mama in Katsushika District, Shimōsa Province. He hated farm work and let the family fortunes slide, so he sets out to trade and win them back.
In Episode 7, he sells his remaining fields, buys silk, and travels to Kyoto with the merchant Sasabe no Sōji. He promises his wife Miyagi that he will be back by autumn. On the way home, though, he is attacked by mountain bandits and falls ill with a fever in Ōmi, and with rumors of war in the east he stays away for seven years. When he finally gets home, a lamp is burning and Miyagi welcomes him. The next morning he finds the house in ruins and learns that Miyagi died long ago.
The story of a husband who does not come home and a wife who keeps waiting captures the sorrow of an age of war.
