![]() ![]() Usagi often shows kindness to strangers and more than returns the kindness that others show him. ![]() While willing to sacrifice his own life for duty, honour and those to whom he is loyal, he is not willing to sacrifice the lives of others for the same. He does not allow himself to be constrained by any one virtue and attempts to apply them all equally, although like anyone, he does fail at times. At times he is a little rash and impulsive, but he is often compassionate, loyal, dutiful and reasonable. ![]() It is hard to forget that Usagi is a rabbit, but it is easy to forget that he isn't real.Įxemplifying Bushido - 'Way of the Warrior' - Usagi lives his life honourably. It is these dichotomies that make him seem so real to us, because much of real life is contradictory. USAGI YOJIMBO STATUE FULLHe is highly skilled and very intelligent, though few people recognise his full potential. He has many friends, although often he has to deal with life on his own. He is hot-tempered when dealing with personal issues, but can be cool, calm and very morally upright. He is a little naïve, although clever and wary. Usagi is a character that many of us can identify with easily on some level. It is this personal aspect of his stories, where he admits that he is telling us the things that he has learned about himself, that only adds to the depth, richness and beauty of his art. Having grown up in Hawaii, Stan did not always experience the full range of Japanese culture and has chosen Usagi's story as one of the ways of exploring his own heritage. In these, he takes the reader on his or her own journey, separate from Usagi's. In some of the comic books, he also presents the historical notes that he made during his research for the stories. He draws upon historical controversies to present alternate history stories that accurately reflect the Japanese culture and mythological thinking. He uses in-depth research to bring his readers into Japanese life and immerses them in the culture. He pulls his story ideas from many sources, such as ancient Japanese myth, common samurai folk stories and popular culture. Sakai's ability to weave a story around these characters using simple, but well-drawn, sequential art is astounding. These people are perhaps missing the point somewhat. Many people, when they first look at Usagi Yojimbo, are very caught up on the fact that there are no 'people', just 'animals'. The country is by no means in a state of chaos, but it is still a dangerous time. The shogunate is bringing order to the land and has unified Japan for the first time, though parts of the country are still unaffected. Having just emerged from a civil war that established Tokugawa Ieyesu as Shogun, it is a tumultuous country. The comic book Usagi Yojimbo 1 is the story of a ronin, a master-less samurai, on his Musha-Shugyo 2 in 17th Century Japan. As with so many things in this world, something great was born by chance, accident and a little bit of goofing around. One day in 1983 the author, Stan Sakai, was considering a story based upon the legendary samurai, when he doodled an anthropomorphic rabbit samurai with his ears tied up in a traditional samurai topknot. The main character, Usagi Miyamoto, is based upon the historical figure of Miyamoto Musashi. He was a rabbit samurai from a parallel universe living in feudal Japan. The reason they are close to the heart of this entry is because in one of the episodes of the cartoon series, they included a guest anthropomorphic character who was from a different world. They made it big in the mid- 1980s and early 1990s, first sparking a black and white comic book craze, then moving onto the big screen and Saturday morning cartoons. Disney and Warner Brothers studios have generated numerous icons of an anthropomorphic nature that children watch nearly every day.Ī little closer to the heart of this entry, and a fairly well-known phenomenon, were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Anthropomorphism isn't just the stuff of religion though it also permeates pop culture. Deities are obviously not human, yet we have attributed many human characteristics to them. When something is anthropomorphic it means that it isn't human, but we've given it human qualities. Anthropomorphism is one of those words that most of us rarely hear in our daily lives, yet have seen numerous times. ![]()
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