Hagakure: The Code of the Samurai (The Manga Edition)

by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Sean Michael Wilson (Adapted by), Chie Kutsuwada (Illustrator), William Scott Wilson (Afterword)

Overview

Based on William Scott Wilson's definitive translation, adapted by scriptwriter and comic book/manga author Sean Wilson, and with lively drawings by well-known illustrator Chie Kutsuwada, this first-ever graphic treatment of what's considered the most influential of all samurai treatises is sure to delight manga fans, martial arts enthusiasts, and students of Japanese culture.

Reminiscent of The Arabian Nights in structure, Hagakure is a collection of tales and anecdotes that offer instruction and insight into the philosophy and code of behavior that foster the true spirit of Bushido – the Way of the Warrior. A young, upcoming samurai seeks the advice of an older, seasoned warrior who has become a Zen monk. The ambitious young samurai humbly begs to learn from the old master, who consents. So begins a series of eventful meetings.

At each sitting. the master tells his young student tales of samurai past. Tales of famous warriors are recited, as well as ignoble gaffs. With brutal, unrelenting samurai justice, wrongs are righted and judgment is enacted. With each incident, the young novice learns what it means to be a samurai. Learns what courage and right thought are. Learns the harsh realities and subtle wisdom of his age.

Writer Sean Wilson and illustrator Chie Kutsuwada both bring ample experience in the genre to this project. And, as an added bonus, William Scott Wilson, the translator of the original Kodansha International version of the book, provides an illuminating Afterword.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9784770031204
Publisher:	Kodansha USA
Publication date:	01/03/2011
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Sean Michael Wilson has written a number of new and forthcoming comics and manga books and has also edited AX: Alternative Manga, a collection of cutting-edge Japanese manga in English. He lives in Japan but travels abroad frequently to attend comics, manga and anime conventions.

Chie Kutsuwada is the respected manga artist of Shakespeare's As You Like It and other works. She has lectured and taught manga workshops around Britain at such venues as Victoria & Albert Museum and the British Library. She lives in the U.K.

Editorial Reviews

The original Hagakure encompasses some 1300 aphorisms, stories, and how-to's from aging former samurai Yamamoto, transcribed over seven years in the early 1700s by the young Tashiro Tsuramoto. As a philosophical and literary work, the language, challenges, and contradictions posed by the diverse entries recall the White Queen's line about believing six impossible things before breakfast. So readers should prepare for widely various and inconsistent bits: from healing a wound with horse dung, avoiding yawning in public, rushing into revenge attack without consideration for consequences, and raising chaste daughters, to living only in the present. Unfortunately, reducing the Hagakure to comics has meant selecting only a dramatic 34 of the 1300, mostly about killings and suicides. Thus the original appears somewhat misrepresented, even with an afterword about context. VERDICT With all good intentions and competent art, this adaptation based on William Scott Wilson's translation reduces the original work to a gorefest. As a result, much of the period's cultural oddness for moderns and the setting for the many tales about violent deaths is lost. For adult collections where translations of the original are popular.—M.C.

Library Journal