The Legend of Kamui

The iconic series that launched the alt-manga bible GARO becomes available in English for the very first time.

At long last, manga titan Shirato Sanpei's groundbreaking epic makes its way into English. Celebrated as a watershed of both the Japanese counterculture and dramatic, longform storytelling in manga, The Legend of Kamui serves up clashing swords and class struggle to create a timeless political allegory set in feudal Japan. This ten-volume series is a must-have for fans of samurai and ninja manga and anime, and of other giants of postwar manga like Tezuka Osamu, Mizuki Shigeru, Tsuge Yoshiharu, and Lone Wolf and Cub's Kojima Goseki.

It's the 17th century in Japan. Child outcast Kamui lives on the fringes of a miserably stratified society. Fueled by pure grit, rage, and a dash of cunning, his only way out is to take up the mantle of ninja. Follow scrappy peasants, cold-blooded ninja, and disgraced and exalted warriors as they navigate the unforgiving hardships of a violent yet hopeful age. With its vivid and critical attention to social injustice and environmental issues against a backdrop of heart-pounding action and romance, this multilayered gekiga drama not only redefined ninja and samurai fantasy, it also offers astonishing parallels with the modern day.

Originally serialized between 1964 and 1971 in the legendary alt-manga magazine GARO, The Legend of Kamui is translated by social historian and decorated academic Richard Rubinger with Noriko Rubinger.

Author: Shirato Sanpei
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Published: 01/14/2025
Pages: 600
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 2.44lbs
Size: 8.76h x 6.35w x 1.44d
ISBN: 9781770467293


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/06/2025
Library Journal 02/01/2025 pg. 67
Booklist 02/01/2025 pg. 53

About the Author
Sanpei, Shirato: - Shirato Sanpei was born in Tokyo in 1932. His father, Okamoto Tōki, was an oil painter whose artistic endeavors exposed the young Shirato to a variety of perspectives. Okamoto notably instructed Kurosawa Akira in painting and design before the latter became a filmmaker. After a seven-year stint as a kamishibai artist, Shirato would begin working in the kashihon manga market in 1957. Kaze no Fujimaru, an animated series based on an original story by Shirato, began to be broadcast in 1964. This was the first animation for which the young Miyazaki Hayao was in charge of original drawings. The Legend of Kamui debuted that same year in the pages of Garo--a manga periodical founded by Shirato--and now best known as a launching pad for other revered manga talents like Mizuki Shigeru and Tsuge Yoshiharu. Shirato died in 2021.