PicoBlog

It is difficult to say why it was that the cover art caught my eye in the early 2000s, when I was scanning through some manga titles. I was a curious child, one who liked some superhero stories, but always, always there was towards the middle years of adolescence a growing obsession with mythology, history and fairy-stories. I had started with those sorts of stories, felt I had outgrown them, moved on to my father’s approval to the EU of Star Wars then to his disappointment moved to the more expensive (to his mind) books of myths & fantasy though he was pleased when I did still foray into SW, or Japanese stuff or BD.

He was French, and thus his tastes ran more towards the American and the French stuff, but Japanese stuff like this was better than Greek Myths. As I tended to gobble them and the Norse Sagas up too much, and he felt I should embrace more the French legacy and thus BD was what he might have preferred for me, or his favourite Sci-Fi universe (he loved Scifi like the Terminator, DC & Star Wars, along with Westerns).

That said, when I happened upon Vagabondo, and began skimming through the first issue rather idly, it was love at first sight. I was a great lover of Yugioh (He liked horror so approved), and I had grown tired of other anime, and found most were too nonsensical and over the top to the point of being tedious. But Vagabondo was different. It was like Bande Dessinee, except Japanese. To my young mind, determined to read about Samurai, to enjoy classic lit (I had already read Musashi by Yoshikawa Eiji, so the realization that this was an adaptation pleased me immensely).

So I began reading, convinced that this would pale in comparison to Yoshikawa-sensei’s masterpiece that had kept me awake, reading for days on end sometimes. I was wrong. Vagabondo was not only a worthy adaptation, it was better. On top of that, my dad who loved Samurai movies (his favourite was I think Last Samurai, which remains special to me) was immensely pleased with the choice and found a curiosity about Japanese history far cheaper and far more appropriate for me than mythology (which I continued to read, on the internet hahaha).

Inoue Takehiko was a master of story-telling as well as art. I loved this title not from the beginning, but close enough. I must admit that chapters which had torn my heart asunder, but failed to draw tears, under Inoue’s pen tore them from my eyes or came close (I was never really one for tears).

This was my intro to the greatest manga of all times. I call it that for it is what it is. When I was young I didn’t like the title-art and was more pulling it out from a group out of mockery, but then was pleased with the summary, then began to read rather eagerly.

Now, this is my biography of sorts in regards to Inoue-sensei’s masterpiece. His incredible work, his magnum opus is from the first page amazing to look upon with art that draws more from BD I think than American comics. It has so much attention to detail, so much beauty in every hair-strand and every detail that you almost feel you can step into the page to touch the fabric, and the hair of the heroes.

And who are the heroes? They are at the start Shinmen Takezo and his best friend Hon’iden Matahachi. And these two have very different destinies; one is destined to become Musashi the greatest hero of Japanese history and folklore, the other is to be a shadow for a time before he becomes Musashi’s biographer and the last person to retell his great tale.

From the beginning Inoue tackles the story with a psychological sensitivity that is remarkable, and a respect for the beliefs of pre-modern Japan. The historical side is completely accurate in the clothes, in the norms and in the attitudes of the characters. What is more is that he retains the references that Yoshikawa threw in to for example Mitsunari, the Western Army and the battle of Sekigahara.

Now if you’re wondering what these names refer to, allow me to explain; Ishida Mitsunari was the right-hand man of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the man who united Japan after her Sengoku Jidai (her Warring States period that saw the country devastated by civil war in the 15th & 16th centuries). Toyotomi united her through a mixture of force of will, cruelty and brilliance, he then sent a great many of his armies off to slaughter Korea in the Imjin Wars of the 1590s. Wars that greatly weakened his side’s military capabilities, while his enemies gathered strength beneath the banner of his former rival Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Towards the end of his life, Toyotomi seemed to have lost his edge, and appointed as he lay dying a regency council to rule for his then under-aged son, one led by Tokugawa. Tokugawa immediately began scheming and made moves to begun Shogun (his liege lord Hideyori was only Kwampaku a lesser title, as that of Shogun had lost power some time ago). The only force that opposed Tokugawa was a civil-servant who had been Toyotomi’s most loyal follower Ishida Mitsunari.

Mitsunari, gathered together supporters mostly from the West of Japan, while Tokugawa as lord of Kanto (for all intents and purposes, he was based in Edo (later renamed Tokyo), was to gather forces from Eastern Japan.

Hence the names the ‘Western’ Army and the ‘Eastern’ Army. Mitsunari’s plan though depended upon the incompetent Uesugi Kagekatsu, heir to the most brilliant military commander of another generation, Uesugi Kenshin (who passed away under mysterious circumstances decades ago). All Kagekatsu had to do was just bring his army up behind that of Tokugawa, and victory would be clinched.

The trouble was that a cruel warlord by the name of Date Masamune had begun attacking Uesugi’s lands of Echigo, on Tokugawa’s orders. Now, the natural thing to do would have been to order the peasants behind castle walls, to leave Echigo to weather the storm and to make for the fields of Sekigahara. This was even more natural as Date had quickly decided to scamper back home, after his initial assault.

Kagekatsu though was not a natural creature or thinker, as he and his rather overrated friend Naoe Kanetsugu decided to stupidly turn around and give chase after Date. They chased him around for awhile, only to then realise belatedly by the time that Date was comfortable back in his own home that they had cost their side the war. Tokugawa had through a combination of corruption-tactics and great sang-froid as the French might describe it (level headedness) tricked some of the enemy lords (or corrupted them, later he didn’t fulfil all his promises to them humorously) into betraying the rather uncharismatic Mitsunari.

A tragic figure, Mitsunari was to hold off the enemy as long as he could, then flee, and then be captured, humiliated and tortured before being killed horribly. Tokugawa was hardly merciful and had little love for his rival (or the Toyotomi for that matter).

That said, how does this affect Musashi? Apparently he had fought in the year 1600 for the Western Army, escaped and decided to go on a great pilgrimage for the next fourteen years or so, becoming the most famous man to wield a blade at that time. It is really an interesting story (do look it up).

I’m summarising a lot (I promise to do articles on the history later, hopefully starting next Sunday). But the important thing to bear in mind is that Sekigahara was the most important battle in 1600 in some ways, as it changed the destiny of Japan which was opening up, Christianizing, with the victory of Tokugawa over the Toyotomi, Japan became isolationist, they in time renounced most of the outside world and turned towards stabilising Japan and trying to find a place for the Samurai beyond just endless fighting, turning them into a kind of bureaucratic class who did poetry, art or so goes the story. The Samurai of the Edo-jidai were very different from those of the Heian-jidai that’s for sure.

Musashi though stands at the centre of this story. His is the most important journey, and in this manga, we start with him unconscious on the battlefield of Sekigahara, having passed out just before he gets up to go search for his friend Matahachi (who is purely fictional), and then the two venture off only to run into men scouring the battlefield for Mitsunari and other survivors, with Takezo killing them all.

In the end Takezo vomits, as he and his friend have been eating grass to cool their stomachs, and he passes out just as a young girl of fifteen is seen looming over him. This is Akemi, who in the book plays the role of long-term love-interest to Matahachi but doesn’t in the manga (there is a very complex journey here, you really have to read the book), with Akemi immediately taken with Takezo. In both adaptations of the story, she comes to resent Takezo though, as he’s not interested in her and sees her as a kind of little sister.

Akemi in the manga is quite tragic though, I won’t say how as that is a journey I intend to have us undertake in the podcast (and accompanying articles). She has a mom, who is a snake, is the most toxic mother I’ve ever seen in literature and is named Oko, and one I would not go near for all the money in the world.

I’ll give a proper rating of this first volume as Japanese comics tend to be released in volume format, with this first one really one that is expansive and immense but truly worth reading.

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