{"id":10347,"date":"2010-10-16T14:22:18","date_gmt":"2010-10-16T18:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=10347"},"modified":"2014-05-18T11:44:16","modified_gmt":"2014-05-18T15:44:16","slug":"vagabond-based-on-eiji-yoshikawas-musashi-english-adaptation-by-yuji-oniki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/vagabond-based-on-eiji-yoshikawas-musashi-english-adaptation-by-yuji-oniki\/","title":{"rendered":"Vagabond (VIZBIG 1: vols. 1-3) by Takehiko Inoue, based on Eiji Yoshikawa\u2019s Musashi, English adaptation by\u00a0Yuji\u00a0Oniki"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2010\/10\/Vagabond-BIG-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-28689\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2010\/10\/Vagabond-BIG-1.jpg\" alt=\"Vagabond BIG 1\" width=\"336\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a>Who knew blood and gore could fly off a printed page? The opening three-volume compendium of this international bestseller showcases some of the most graphic (pardon the pun) violence in pen and ink \u2026 don\u2019t read this alone at night. Those unblinking corpses hacked to bits will most definitely haunt your nightmares!<\/p>\n<p>Based on the novel <em>Musashi <\/em>by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eiji_Yoshikawa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Eiji Yoshikawa<\/a>, mega-award winning <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itplanning.co.jp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Takehiko Inoue<\/a> (whose <em><a href=\"http:\/\/shonenjump.viz.com\/manga\/slamdunk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Slam Dunk<\/a><\/em> is one of the most popular manga of all time, which has sold over 100 million copies worldwide!) captures the violent adventures of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Miyamoto_Musashi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Miyamoto Musashi<\/a>, quite possibly the most celebrated samurai ever. Yoshikawa\u2019s classic samurai tale has been the basis of numerous television series and films, including the 1955 Oscar-winning film released as <em>Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto<\/em> in the U.S., starring none other than 20th-century legend Toshir\u014d Mifune, certainly the epitome of the celluloid samurai (anti-)hero.<\/p>\n<p>But I digress &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Inoue&#8217;s first three volumes follow the metamorphosis of a 17-year-old thrill-seeker who still has his given name, Shinmen Takez\u014d, into the philosophizing samurai dedicated \u201cto the way of the sword\u201d hell-bent on becoming \u201cthe mightiest of fighters\u201d as Miyamoto Musashi.<\/p>\n<p>His journey begins with miraculously surviving the gruesome Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. His childhood best friend, Hon\u2019iden Matahachi, has also managed to survive; having fought on the losing side, the pair must escape the roaming \u201crefugee hunters,\u201d find shelter and food before they, too, fall dead. They happen upon a widow and her daughter who save their lives. When the ruthless bandits who murdered the widow\u2019s husband return, Takez\u014d discovers a powerful bloodlust that can\u2019t be defeated \u2026 but at what cost?<\/p>\n<p>When Takez\u014d returns to his home village alone (don&#8217;t worry \u2013 Matahachi still lives), he&#8217;s a wanted man. Betrayed, hunted, then captured, he falls under the control of a compelling, mysterious monk, Takuan (whose legacy lives on in the pickled yellow radish bearing his name \u2013 bit of a dubious honor, huh?), who recognizes Takez\u014d\u2019s physical prowess, but admonishes him for his shriveled heart and soul.<\/p>\n<p>Takuan takes Takez\u014d to the brink of death so that he might abandon his tortured deathwish \u2026 and reclaim life as Miyamoto Musashi: \u201cNever forget where you came from, the place you grew up,\u201d Takuan reminds him before Musashi&#8217;s journey into the world begins anew. With \u00a0insight and honor, his plan to become \u201cinvincible under the sun\u201d commences \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Inoue adds an &#8220;author comment&#8221; on the dust jacket flap of the Japanese release of vol. 3, that his manga is &#8220;just for entertainment,&#8221; but who doesn&#8217;t want their history to be entertaining, albeit memorably bloodied? Japan&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sengoku_period\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sengoku Period<\/a> (late-15th to mid-16th centuries) \u2013 depicted here\u00a0\u2013\u00a0was marked by warring states destroying one another until <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tokugawa_Ieyasu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Tokugawa Ieyasu<\/a> emerged in the definitive leader and united the country.<\/p>\n<p>The Tokugawa era (also known as the Edo Period) \u2013 marked by Tokugawa shogun rule\u00a0\u2013would last until 1868, when Japan&#8217;s so-called &#8216;modern&#8217;-era began with the Meiji Restoration (disintegration of shogunate power and restoration of imperial rule). For further &#8220;entertaining&#8221; historical manga, be sure to check out the gender-bender <a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?s=%C5%8Coku&amp;searchsubmit=Find+%C2%BB\">\u014coku<\/a> series.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Young Adult, Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2008 (United States)<br \/>\nMUSASHI \u00a9 Takehiko Inoue<br \/>\nOriginal Japanese edition published by Kodansha Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who knew blood and gore could fly off a printed page? The opening three-volume compendium of this international bestseller showcases some of the most graphic (pardon the pun) violence in pen and ink \u2026 don\u2019t read this alone at night. Those unblinking corpses hacked to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,73,76,66,31],"tags":[32,6608,58,75,3217,189,11,24,3218,39,42,3219,662,2754],"class_list":["post-10347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-graphic-novel-manga-manwha","category-japanese","category-translation","category-young-adult-readers","tag-adventure","tag-bookdragon","tag-coming-of-age","tag-death","tag-eiji-yoshikawa","tag-father-son-relationship","tag-friendship","tag-historical","tag-musashi","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-series","tag-series-vagabond","tag-takehiko-inoue","tag-yuji-oniki"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Vagabond (VIZBIG 1: vols. 1-3) by Takehiko Inoue, based on Eiji Yoshikawa\u2019s Musashi, English adaptation by\u00a0Yuji\u00a0Oniki - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/vagabond-based-on-eiji-yoshikawas-musashi-english-adaptation-by-yuji-oniki\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vagabond (VIZBIG 1: vols. 1-3) by Takehiko Inoue, based on Eiji Yoshikawa\u2019s Musashi, English adaptation by\u00a0Yuji\u00a0Oniki - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Who knew blood and gore could fly off a printed page? 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