The Tower

First Published: March 1988 by Fantagraphics Books

• Miyamoto Usagi
• Spot

Tokagé

The most often asked question I get at book signings and conventions is: "What are those little dinosaur/lizard things that always appear in the backgrounds?" The second most asked question is: "Are you ever going to do a story about them?"

What can I say? I love dinosaurs. I love their shapes and I love to draw them. They've appeared somewhere in all my stories except one. I call them "tokagé" which, in Japanese, simply means "lizard." They're omnivorous and are the scavengers of Usagi's world, taking the place of rats and other vermin in ours. They're also cute and cuddly and are enchanting pets.

You're holding the answer to the second question in your hands.

- STAN SAKAI

After 'borrowing' some sashimi from a restaurant, a lone tokage (Spot) is chased to the top of a tall observation tower by a somewhat vexed restaurant owner. By the time Usagi Yojimbo happens through the town, this has drawn quite a crowd.

Annoying the restaurant owner by taking the tokage's side, Usagi goes to rescue the animal and finds himself stranded at the top of the tower by the restaurant owner, who removes the tower's ladder rungs. Usagi slowly befriends spot, but their luck seems to go from bad to worse as the elements become more harsh and the restaurant owner more belligerent. There is tension built through comedy, reaching a climax when the restaurant owner borrows an axe and sends Usagi and Spot plunging to toward the ground. Naturally, things go amiss for the restaurant owner and Usagi leaves the town with a new travelling companion.

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.