Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

I am at something of an impass, at the moment. Here's the deal:
I'm going to do a samurai comic, but I have two ideas that I like equally and I can not decide which one I should follow.
1) Kyudo no Michi (Way of the Bow and Horse): Well, most people don't even realize that there was another "way" before Bushido (way of the warrior), so I figure this would be a good section of fertile ground.
2.) Samurai over England (or Ronin Knight): I like this idea a lot. It's about a samurai who, because he was framed by his lord's murderer, is banished from Japan. He winds up going to England where he avenges his lord, and then decides to stay.
What do you all think? I can't decide. Kyudo no Michi is more plausible, but I like Samurai over England a little better. I can't decide which to go with.

Logan Myrddin wrote:I am at something of an impass, at the moment. Here's the deal:
I'm going to do a samurai comic, but I have two ideas that I like equally and I can not decide which one I should follow.
1) Kyudo no Michi (Way of the Bow and Horse): Well, most people don't even realize that there was another "way" before Bushido (way of the warrior), so I figure this would be a good section of fertile ground.

True. Me, for one

Logan Myrddin wrote: 2.) Samurai over England (or Ronin Knight): I like this idea a lot. It's about a samurai who, because he was framed by his lord's murderer, is banished from Japan. He winds up going to England where he avenges his lord, and then decides to stay.

This is unlikely; if a samurai was framed, I would guess that he would be ordered to commit seppuku (self sacrifice).

I would propose a samurai that is being hijacked by englishmen! He would have to kill them first before he could attempt to travel back to restore his honor. Of course, the englishmen would like to keep him in a zoo (taking away his weapons, etc). He would be shown around at courts and things like that.

Another idea might be the one used in a movie I saw a while ago (but I don't remember the title): A samurai accompanied an Japanese abassador who was killed in an ambush. Now the samurai has to track down the criminals. Since he knew nothing about the land, he "worked" together with a bounty hunter.

First, the bounty hunter wasn't very pleased by the idea: he would have to split the bounty, he didn't trust the stiff samurai and the samurai didn't trust the bounty hunter, so he kept him more like a prisoner but through circumstance, the bounty hunter realized that honor was driving the samuari even if he couldn't understand it.

Of course, the samurai didn't survive: After killing the bandits, he had to commit suppuku because he had dishonored himself being unable to save the ambassador! This is something which the bounty hunter absolutely couldn't understand and he tried to stop the samurai till the end but without success, of course.

The movie really rotated around the idea of the two different styles of living: The honor of the samurai; his whole life pretty predictable and his determination to pull the thing through at all cost (except at the cost of his honor, of course) and the care-free bounty hunter, filty, lying, uncaring for anything but his own interests.

For those who know the movie: It took place in the Wild West, the bounty hunter was some kind of cowboy.

Logan Myrddin wrote: What do you all think? I can't decide. Kyudo no Michi is more plausible, but I like Samurai over England a little better. I can't decide which to go with.

Well, good luck. If I can help you in any way, just ask. My problem is that I seem to be unable to come up with good ideas to start a story but when someone tells me something, I can usually continue the story.

sounds like Red Sun with Toshiro Mifune and Charles Bronson. Another movie featuring a samurai outside of Japan was Journey of Honor (if I remember the title right) which had a Japanese party being sent to Spain to visit the Pope and also to try and obtain guns.

Toshiro Mifune is an awesome actor.

G

steve wrote:sounds like Red Sun with Toshiro Mifune and Charles Bronson. Another movie featuring a samurai outside of Japan was Journey of Honor (if I remember the title right) which had a Japanese party being sent to Spain to visit the Pope and also to try and obtain guns.

Red Sun might be right even if I remember the story to be different Oh well...

Of course the whole thing is fiction, so it's not a BIG deal either way, but another thing to keep in mind about the whole "English Samurai" concept is that for a VERY long time Japan has been (continues to be really) very insular and thus the concept of a Samurai or any (high ranking) Japanese going to England really is kinda unrealistic. Consider that foreigners of any sort were not really allowed IN Japan until just last century and by the time of inter-cultural mingling the "samurai" class was pretty trashed. Conceptually, it'd probably be better to either go to "another universe" (like Usagi does) or else set it near modern and use a character that's just REALLY into the whole "samurai" concept. But a feudal era samurai going to Feudal era England is just really unlikely. (if only for geographic reasons of distance PLUS the vast roman empire as well as other regional conflicts/armies in the way)
But, creatively speaking, do what you enjoy.

Unless I'm completely mistaken (perfectly possible) a samurai of some sort did travel to Italy near the very first of the japanese-eurpoean interactions. Stayed there for a couple of years and then returned. I had a friend who had considered using this historical event for the basis of a book.

Ah... thanks Garret. Unfortunately, you seem to be a good six months too late!! I've already solved my samurai history problems, and I couldn't take on another book right now (I have four continuous series in the works, and one novel, so I've got enough to write for a good five more years at least. The continuous series will probably be one book a year each for ten or so years. They're supposed to be comics written like books, but the two have proven mutually exclusive-- you get one type of gag in one, and another in the other. However, I seem to be succeeding at getting the feel of a comic book in my books.) Thanks, though.

The early 17th century Samurai excursion to Europe is slightly problematical for writers, since there's not a lot of wiggle room in the documentation. The Japanese end of things kept very close eyes on WHO went. The Europeans (for whom this was much like a ship-load of ET's showing up on the porch of the UN) wrote down pretty much everything they did-- there were people in parts of the Baltic who might not quite know where Spain was, but they knew there were Japanese people there. It's not impossible to overcome if you declare at the outset that you just don't care; "INSPIRED by true events", like that one with Toshiro Mifune and John Rhys Davies that wasn't "Shogun", works well enough. Picky buggers will still send letters about inaccuracy, but whaddya gonna do?

Toshiro Mifune was, indeed, an awesome actor. His website is pretty cool too (well, his fan-club's; I expect he's not taking too active an interest in it).