Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond is the epitome of great art – it has everything. A bit of romance, drama, excitement, suspense, and action fill the pages of the manga. Inoue’s adaptation of Eiji Yoshikawa’s original story is amazing, though it’s definitely not for everyone. Personally, Inoue’s art is graphic and can even be a bit weird.
The way the manga depicts war, especially traditional Japanese warfare, with flying heads, guts, and limbs in the heat of battle, is so realistic that it’s almost sickening. So, if blood isn’t your thing, you’d be better off leaving the manga on the shelf. But for those who don’t mind a little blood, it’s definitely worth reading.
At first glance, the manga might seem like just another samurai story, but it’s actually much deeper, which some readers might find annoying. One issue is that it features a wide range of characters, both good and bad. This is something that happens in many mangas, where the number of characters feels overwhelming.
But unlike the typical manga characters, the people in Vagabond have complex emotions, desires, despair, and fear. The story brings all of this to life, and it’s clear Inoue put a lot of effort into creating this vivid world. Each character has motivations behind their actions, and their mix of good and bad traits adds to the realism that the art creates.
In a standard fighting story, death and violence are inevitable for the protagonist, and it’s rarely given much thought. But in Vagabond, when Musashi kills someone, both he and the reader stop to think about the truth and the artistry behind his actions. You can feel the weight of those deaths.
Takuan, the monk in the story, points out that everyone Musashi kills was once a person, with a life full of dreams, hopes, and families. They weren’t just enemies; they were human beings, living their lives, just like anyone else.
This ties into the main storyline: Musashi’s growth. He starts as a reckless young man charging into the battle of Sekigahara, looking for unmatched power. But as he matures, he becomes a wiser, more thoughtful adult who knows when to pick his battles. The contrast between Musashi and Matahachi, as well as Inoue’s portrayal of their journey, is beautifully done. They start out as two friends with similar goals, both striving to be the best in Japan.
However, they soon took different paths to reach their goals. Matahachi digs himself deeper into trouble, while Musashi rises above the setbacks he faces, growing stronger to unbelievable levels. After surviving countless duels to the bitter end, only one swordsman remains in Musashi’s way: Sasaki Kojiro, a mute and deaf swordsman who truly lives for the sword.
When readers first meet Musashi in Vagabond, he’s known as Shimen Takezo. He’s strong and can kill samurai quickly. At the start, Takezo and Matahachi both wanted to make a name for themselves. Takezo wanted to be stronger than everyone else, so he set out to become invincible, determined to be the best. Essentially, he was like a beast, a demon child. People even said he was the child of the devil from his teenage years.
Takezo took countless lives to make a name for himself as the most unbeatable swordsman. For him, the sword was everything—it was his life. He had nothing else to live for; it was all he had. When Takezo leaves his village, we meet a monk who will become a key influence on him: Takuan.
Takuan sums up Takezo’s character at that time, telling him he has a “cat’s heart.” No matter how physically strong Takezo was, he wasn’t mentally strong. Takezo didn’t understand what Takuan meant and wouldn’t for a long time.
Later, when Musashi heads to Yagyu to kill him, he questions what it really means to be invincible under the sun. If he kills him, will he become invincible? But invincibility is just a word. Musashi has taken up the sword to surpass his father, wanting to be known as unrivaled under the heavens.
Musashi’s father feared his son because he was worried people might challenge his title as the strongest in the world. His father held on tightly to that title, but it made him enemies, isolating him. The downside of being invincible is that it turns everyone against you.
If the reader looks deeper, invincibility is really just a word. People often praised Musashi’s father as invincible, but even in his old age, Yagyu was stronger than him.
Musashi’s father slept with the sword out of paranoia, while Yagyu defeated Musashi using only the back of his sword. Musashi realized that Yagyu had something he lacked—true infinity. Musashi felt lost because he never understood that the world was infinite. So, he began searching for another way to become unrivaled, understanding his power in a new way, even if it meant slightly changing his approach.
When Musashi first returned to Kyoto to fight the Yoshioka brothers, it was the first time he met Sasaki Kojiro. Musashi had gotten stronger, moving past his evil spirit, but he still had the drive to thrive and fight. His hunger for strength never went away; he still wanted to grow even more. While fighting one of the Yoshioka brothers, Musashi gets injured. To heal his wound, he meets Kojiro, a swordsman who has perfected the way of the sword.
Kojiro is essentially one with the sword, the peak of a swordsman. He doesn’t just love the sword; he loves the way of the sword. He can see the path of the sword, even with just a twig. The sword’s path is his only goal in life—he’s one with heaven when he holds a sword.
Musashi realizes that Kojiro has something Musashi no longer has: his connection to eternal life. From the beginning of the story, Musashi’s been focused on getting stronger. But as he grew up, he lost something he had as a child—his connection to eternal life. When he looks at Kojiro, he sees someone who has what he once had and aspires to be like him, with a sword.
In short, Musashi’s life has been a pattern of uselessness, killing, and death. Whenever he meets someone, he fights and kills them. This cycle keeps repeating as he strives to gain strength. But now, he starts to reflect on his life and what he’s doing. After all, what he’s doing now is no different from what he did before.
Killing and death have become a mental force, and the only time Musashi grows stronger is when he learns and matures as a person. Killing others doesn’t make him stronger—it only drags him into a death spiral, making him no more powerful than before. Of course, he achieved invincibility under the sun.
But in the end, he becomes paralyzed after escaping with a deep leg wound from the Yoshioka massacre. He’s reached the end of the spiral of murder and death. Every time he tries to escape it, he realizes there’s no need to chase it anymore. He’s always been caught in it, and it never brings him any happiness.
Musashi’s hunger to get stronger ultimately paralyzes him. The path he chose left him unable to continue his journey. In his mind, he prayed to the way of the sword, but his devotion only hurt him more, reaching the end of the spiral and making things worse.
In short, Miyamoto Musashi’s focus on himself is part of what makes Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond so interesting and full of art. He’s a truly enigmatic figure, and you have to consider the reasons for that, especially in how the story’s been adapted in media. In addition to Eiji Yoshikawa’s Musashi, which the manga is based on, being a semi-fictional work serialized in the 1930s, it’s become one of the most iconic stories of a legendary figure. Another example is Hiroshi Inagaki’s famous Samurai Trilogy from the 1950s, which was based on Yoshikawa’s novels.
Part of this might be because Musashi’s story was dramatized and filled a gap in history. Even though the reader doesn’t know all the details of Musashi’s life, the mystery lets the audience fill in the blanks and enjoy the story more. The most notable aspect of Musashi’s legacy is his book, The Book of Five Rings.
It’s a text about fighting in general and swordsmanship. But it’s more than just a battle guide—it’s full of morals and valuable lessons about conflict and life. It also shows Musashi’s direct, unconventional approach to both war and life.
In many portrayals, Musashi is shown as arrogant and detached. This comes from the impression he gives in his book, where he takes a very practical, no-nonsense approach to battle. For him, the only thing that mattered was winning.
So, honor and aesthetics weren’t important in that sense. Folklore often talks about how Musashi broke from tradition and used tactics that were unheard of. One example is the legendary duel between Musashi and Kojiro, where Musashi showed up late for their scheduled fight. Some accounts say he overslept, while others think he did it to make his opponent anxious and impatient.
His unconventional behavior made him famous, and it became more accepted in Japanese society over time. Known for his strong sense of honor and defiance of social norms, Musashi’s spiritual and personal success, despite being an outsider, made him an enigmatic figure in Japan.
People respected him widely, and his legacy still endures today. The spiral of conflict gave Musashi a purpose, but it didn’t make him happy. In Vagabond, Takehiko Inoue fills the art of life with a sense of joy. Musashi smiles, he’s happier, and he celebrates the spiral of life.
Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond also reflects traditional Japanese painting and art. Most Japanese manga artists use pens with ink for drawing comics. Along with pens, they also commonly use brushes to create fine lines, enhancing the natural flow of the artwork.
This drawing technique was common during the Edo period, called suiboku-ga, or ink wash painting. One of the celebrated artists from that time was Miyamoto Musashi, who was known for his unique monochrome ink paintings. His work features strong, bold brush strokes.
You can see this in the manga too; Inoue uses strong ink strokes, with subtle shading on the objects in the illustrations to make them look more realistic. Artists try to bring the characters to life with sweeping lines that are sharper than usual. Inoue adds even more dramatic shading to emphasize the illustrations.
The monochrome style with its characteristic ink strokes gives the panels a varied, dynamic look. On top of that, the illustrations include vertical and diagonal shading lines, along with black blocking in the background. The objects in the story have a solid, complete feel, making each panel’s illustration stand out.
References
- Inagaki, H. (Director). (1954). Samurai Trilogy [Film series]. Toho Company.
- Inoue, T. (Artist). (1998–2006). Vagabond (Vols. 1–37). Kodansha.
- Musashi, M. (2004). The Book of Five Rings (W. Scott Wilson, Trans.). Shambhala. (Original work published 1645)
- Yoshikawa, E. (1935). Musashi. (D. R. K. Thomas, Trans.). Kodansha. (Original work published 1935)
