Kumo

First Published: April, 2000 by Dark Horse Comics

• Miyamoto Usagi
• FIXME Unknown character char-sasuke

Kumo & Sasuké Demon-Queller

Spider Goblins, sometimes called Earth Spiders, are not uncommon in Japanese folklore.

Minamoto no Yorimitsu (944-1021 A.D.) had fallen ill and was brought medicine every midnight by an unfamiliar youth. As his illness worsened, he began to suspect the servant of some evil. One night he attacked the boy, who fled, but not before throwing a sticky spider web at him, entwining him. Yorimitsu's four loyal lieutenants tracked the servant to a cave, where, in his true guise of a Spider Goblin, he battled them. The monster was killed, and Yorimitsu immediately recovered.

In another story, Kurogumo-oji (Prince Black Spider) was taught magic by the Spider Goblin of Katsurayama to prepare himself for an assassination attempt.

There are two major inspirations for the creation of Sasuké:

Chung K'uei had vowed to the Chinese Emperor Kao-tsu that he would free the world of demons and monsters. The legend was imported to Japan during the Kamakura Period (1185-1392 A.D.) and was integrated into Japanese folklore as Shoki (the Japanese reading of Chung K'uei's name). Early woodcut prints depict Shoki as a huge, bearded figure dressed as a Chinese scholar with a double-edged sword, subduing demons.

The other source was Sarutobi Sasuké, a legendary ninja whose exploits are shrouded in mystery and magic. Sasuké, a farmer's son, studied ninjutsu, the art of invisibility, under the mountain hermit Tozawa Hakuunsai. Japanese folklore took the art of invisibility literally and imbued the ninja with magical powers such as transformation, weather manipulation, and, of course, invisibility. Toads and frogs are often associated with these ninja/wizards. They [the toads] have the ability to hypnotize and to belch deadly gas from their mouths.

References

• Japanese Ghosts and Demons by Stephen Addiss, 1985, published by George Braziller, Inc. of New York;
• Japanese Mythology by Juliet Piggot, 1969, published by the Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd. of London, New York, Sydney, Toronto, and England;
• Ninja: The True Story of Japan's Secret Warrior Cult by Stephen Turnbull, 1991, Firebird Books of United Kingdom, gives a comprehensive look at the ninja of history as well as of folklore.

The story opens with Usagi traveling on a crowded road. He asks a man eating a meal under a tree just off the roadway where an apparently little-used path leads. The path leads in the direction Usagi wants to go, but the man warns it is ?Better to stick to the main road, samurai.? However, Usagi is in a hurry to return to Sanshobo?s temple, so he takes the path.

Some time later, Usagi is alone on the path, somewhere within a forest, and spiders are seen crawling all over the trees and onto the path. Usagi is oblivious to them until he feels them scurrying atop his hat. Usagi is then shocked at the vast number of spiders. He follows a tokage?s terrified ?Yeek! Yeek!? and finds it trapped within a large mass of spider webs. After helping the tokage to escape, he spots someone?s corpse hanging in sheets of webbing spread across a tree. Usagi decides it is time to hurry on.

A while later, Usagi emerges from the forest and enters a small town, which is crawling with spiders. Usagi makes his way to an inn, where Usagi comments to those inside ?You sure have a lot spiders around your town.? The serving girl relates they started showing up about a week past and are ?everywhere,? but they simply regard them as an annoyance. However, after Usagi tells the girl of the dead body in the spider webs near the town, panic ensues and nearly all of the inn?s patrons depart hurriedly to barricade their homes against the spiders.

At this point, a mysterious ronin, Sasuke, introduces himself to Usagi and invites him to sit with him for a drink. Usagi and Sasuke exchange information on their routes into the village and how both are infested with the spiders. Sasuke comments, ?They have us trapped here,? but Usagi does not think the spiders capable of such an intelligent act. Sasuke takes his leave, saying he will soon see Usagi again since they cannot go very far.

That night, while sleeping, Usagi is bitten on the forehead by a spider. He then hears the sound of a large crash and screaming coming from below his room in the inn. He rushes down to find a large section of the inn wall broken open, and the innkeeper exclaims his daughter is missing and implores for Usagi to help. The innkeeper believes brigands have taken his daughter, and Usagi tells him to round up some volunteers to help track down the brigands.

As Usagi inspects the large hole in the wall, Sasuke arrives and states spiders are the culprits. At first Usagi thinks he is being ridiculous, but slowly he seems to be convinced, though the villagers who come to help are not and think they are being made fools of as they follow the trail of huge ?spider tracks? out of the village. That changes when the group is attacked by a huge spider goblin. The spider goblin is defeated, but the villagers run screaming back to town.

A short while later, Sasuke and a very nervous Usagi reach the entrance to a cave that emits ?the stench of Evil.? Inside the cave, Sasuke reveals himself to be some sort of sorcerer as he lights their way with a magical ball of light. Usagi is even more shaken by this knowledge, but continues to follow Sasuke to help save the abducted girl.

Finally the girl is found trapped within large sheets of spider webs. However, before she can be rescued from them, the Kumo-Onna (spider woman) and her horde of giant spiders attack. It seems the Kumo-Onna and Sasuke are familiar with each other. Sasuke summons a giant frog, freaking out Usagi even further, and then the battle is on.

During the battle, while coming to Sasuke?s aid, Usagi is hit by venom spit by Kumo-Onna, and he collapses, feeling his body ?wasting away.? In the end, however, Kumo-Onna is defeated as Sasuke?s giant frog devours her.

The scene switches back to the inn, where Usagi awakens to find three days have passed. In turns out Sasuke brought both the innkeeper?s daughter (the serving girl) and Usagi back to town on the back of the giant frog, and Sasuke gave Usagi herbs that restored his health. Sasuke left the day before Usagi awakened to take care of ?some trouble up north? and the spiders are also all gone. With a hard look in his eyes, Usagi hopes to never meet up with Sasuke again.

Last change: 19. May 2003

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Usagi Yojimbo, including all prominent characters featured in the stories and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Stan Sakai and Usagi Studios. Usagi Yojimbo is a registered trademark of Stan Sakai. Names, characters, places, and incidents featured in this publication either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric content, is coincidental.