When Musashi was first published in periodically from 1935- 1939 Musashi reached a massive popular audience, the second part of Musashi which was published from 1952-1956 was similarly successful in finding an . The author of the work Eijii Yoshikawa won the 1960 “Cultural order of Merit award” audience. A collected edition was published in 1957 and has sold upwards of 140 million copies, (cultural order of merit) is the highest title available for a man of letters
Musashi before the publication of Eiji Yoshikawa’s novel was known mostly as a martial philosopher in the vein of “Tsun Tsu” who wrote the art of war, The events In his earlier life are not historically documented by any means to the same extent as the time in which he wrote most of his work in later life and was considerbally more famous. Most of the book is based in this period of Musashi’s life, as a result much of the book while based on documentary evidence its not historical document in itself, the “Musashi” in the novel is very much the work of Eijii Yoshikawa. “Musashi” was published weekly in the Asahi Shinbun newspaper, In some editions Musashi’s philosophical works are included in the volume so making it possible cross reference and see the points at which the Yoshikawa’s character Musashi is aligned with his philosophical teachings.
The first volume of “Musashi” ended in 1939 perhaps due to the political sensitivity of the time. Much of Musashi’s philosophical thought has its basis in the Chinese classics, and the assertion of Japanese uniqueness especially in relation to China was an important part of the state ideology at the time. However it could be argued that Musashi’s ideas as to both personal and general military organization were influential in the forming of Japanese military identity, in many ways. The second part of the novel began to be published in 1952 after the American occupation and perhaps keyed into a feeling of re-connection with Japans martial traditions that were suppressed under the occupation, and a reassertion of Japanese myth in a popular modern format.
THe was a resurgance in popularity in Musashi in the early 70’s helped along by the wave of martial arts culture that hit at the time. In Eiji Yoshikawa’s “Musashi” there was a ready made accomplished distinctly “Japanese” martial arts fiction. that already had strong cultural roots. The martial arts wave that hit in the 70’s gave a new perspective to Eiji Yoshikawa’s “Musashi” and resulted in it being translated into even more formats, specifically a very successful film adaptation in 1973 and the book was subsequently re-published. During this period the work found a new generation of readers and reached a new level in the popular public consciousness to the extent where Eiji Yoshikawa’s version of “Musashi” seems to have almost parallel significance to Musashi’s philosophical work themselves.
Vagabond is the most recent aadptation Mangaka'd Takehiko Inoue and published by kodansha and its 28 volumes have sold 22 million copies. Doesn't deviate from the Musashi, but the artwork is distinct, and seems just as influenced by early 90's mostly american comics specifically Jim Lee, as well as Chinese comics generally, done in ink surprisingly, relatively dense, with some reasonable heavy brush action when its getting esoteric which doesn't happen all that often. Its adapted toward the Seinen genre so theres more emphasis on the fight manga and the philosophy of Myamoto isn't quite as focused upon in the same way as in the original Tome of the novel which often came bundled with Musashi's main philosophical work: "The Five rings".
