![]() In one episode, his characters explain how soy sauce is made in another, the characters (and readers) learn about the nine-tailed fox, a mythical creature believed to bewitch travelers. He also possesses the generous spirit of an educator, keen to share what he has learned about Japanese history, religion, and folklore with those who read his comics. ![]() He depicts the towns, architecture, clothing, weapons, and other objects in each scene with meticulous attention to detail-evidence of his extensive, scholarly research. In his tales of Usagi’s exploits, he honors the culture of his Japanese ancestors, painting rich visual and narrative portraits of an important time in the country’s history. ![]() Usagi Yojimbo in Shoyu factory.Ĭlearly, honor and loyalty are qualities that are important to Sakai himself. Each of these tales is built up carefully scene by scene, reaching its conclusion at a satisfying pace for any age.Ĭlick to enlarge. By defeating him, they release the girl from servitude and unite her with her mother. In one riveting episode, Usagi and Gen help Sakurai rescue a young girl who has been sold by her poor family to the owner of a gambling establishment. Themes of loyalty, honor, and generosity are explored with both drama and humor in a series of episodic tales of Usagi’s journey from town to town. His sidekick Gen, a rhino bounty hunter whose motives are more often financial than noble, is equally as appealing, as are the many minor characters they encounter, like the feisty and noble-spirited female cat Sakura, who can defend herself against any number of male ruffians. The loyal and honorable Usagi Miyamoto is engaged in a warrior’s pilgrimage in order to better himself. His characters, all anthropomorphized animals, are so thoughtfully evolved that it is easy to forget that they are animals. It is in these three aspects of Usagi Yojimbo where Sakai succeeds the most. My work has been inspired by films like Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and the Hidden Fortress and Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy-not just the characters and themes but also the pacing of my story-telling.” “I am a big fan of Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi Inagaki. “My influences come more from Japanese cinema than Japanese manga or anime,” he explains. Usagi Yojimbo, however, actually has very little in common with contemporary manga other than the Japanese content and black-and-white imagery, as Sakai himself has been known to point out. With content ranging from action-adventure and romance, to sports, historical drama, fantasy, and even business, Japanese manga are typically printed in black and white, their pages packed with the exploits of expressive, big-eyed characters from real and imagined realms. The popularity of Usagi Yojimbo may be in part linked to the growing appeal here in the U.S. These stories of a masterless rabbit samurai who occasionally sold his services as a bodyguard quickly acquired an enthusiastic following.Ĭovers of Stan Sakai's "47 Ronin" (L) and "Usagi Yojimbo Book 26: Traitors of the Earth" (R) In 1984, the character was included in an anthology, and three years later, the first full comic book of the adventures of Usagi Yojimbo was published. One day when he was idly doodling, Sakai drew a picture of a rabbit with his ears tied together in a samurai’s topknot, or chonmage, and Usagi Yojimbo was born. He decided to move to Los Angeles, the center of the American animation industry and increasingly comic book illustration, and after a few semesters at Art Center College of Design, he began drawing and lettering for comic books.Īt some point in the early 1980s, he had the idea of creating a comic book about a samurai based on Miyamoto Musashi (c.1584-1645), a renowned swordsman of superhuman strength. Sakai studied art at the University of Hawai‘i and soon knew that he wanted to write and illustrate for a living. Though he didn’t read Japanese, his mother read him Japanese comic books, or manga, like Astro Boy by the “father of Japanese manga,” Osamu Tezuka (1928-89). As a child, he devoured DC and Marvel comic books and was particularly fond of Spider-Man and Batman. He had grown up in Hawai‘i, a third-generation Japanese American exposed to both Japanese and American culture. The idea of creating a comic book about a rabbit samurai came to Sakai in the early 1980s, shortly after he had moved to Los Angeles.
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