Kazuo Koike

Born May 8, 1936 (Akita Prefecture, Japan)
Japanese author, illustrator

"Comics are carried by characters. If a character is well created, the comic becomes a hit."

Kazuo Koike is regarded as one of the greatest manga writers in history. Lone Wolf and Cub, a portrayal of the life and times of samurai created by Koike and artist Goseki Kojima (1928–2000), set the standard for the samurai genre, according to Frederik L. Schodt, author of Manga! Manga! The pair balanced the story of a samurai (an elite military or professional warrior) seeking revenge for political wrongdoing and the murder of his wife with the tender relationship between father and son. Throughout the saga, Ogami Itto, the masterless samurai, [a ronin, or warrior, who follows his own code after losing or gaining the disfavor of his master] travels with his son, Daigoro. While Itto's stoic and single-minded quest to restore honor to his clan reveals his ferocious skill as a warrior, Itto's relationship with his son offers a unique perspective on the samurai's motivation and his moral center. As with most samurai stories, Lone Wolf and Cub is full of action-packed fighting sequences, some lasting dozens of pages. But "the contrast between human bonds and violence on the battlefield is a favorite theme of all samurai stories, and it is the glue that holds this one together," according to Schodt. "Its authors took the time and space to tell their tale in its every moment, often devoting many pages to scenes that wouldn't last three panels in a monthly American superhero comic book. We come to know the players, large and small, as we meet them, as they reveal themselves to us. Koike and Kojima tell their story masterfully and artfully, portraying a man, a boy, and a country on their journey into Hell," as renowned graphic novelist Frank Miller (1957–; see entry) described the series on the Night Flight Comics Web site.

Devoted to detail

Koike set Lone Wolf and Cub in the Edo period (1603–1867), most specifically in the era of Tokugawa Ietsuna, who reigned from 1651 to 1680 as the fourth shogun [ruler of Japan] of the Tokugawa shogunate. At this time in Japan, feudal lords ruled over the countryside with samurai warriors to protect and defend them. Koike's carefully researched stories take readers back to a time that epitomizes "traditional" Japanese culture. Each of the Lone Wolf and Cub volumes begins with a type of history lesson or factual account. Readers learn about such things as the steps of seppuku, an honorable suicide reserved for samurai; the fighting techniques of various schools of martial arts; the restrictions and responsibilities of men in society; the procedure of o-tameshi, in which a decapitated body is ritualistically cut into sections; and even the degrees of frostbite, among other things.

Through these realistic examples of life during the Edo period, Koike highlights the role of the samurai in keeping order in society by following the bushido, or the way of the warrior. Bushido gave structure to society during the feudal period in which Koike set Lone Wolf and Cub; samurai provided strong, unselfish, and unwavering protection for their lords, placed little value in material possessions, and devoted their lives to their lords. Koike's samurai warrior embodies the ethics of bushido. Although he has lost his clan and has been framed by corrupt men, Ogami remains faithful to his code of conduct as he works to restore his honor.

Best-Known Works

Graphic Novels in Translation

(With Goseki Kojima) Lone Wolf and Cub 28 vols. (2000–02).

(With Goseki Kojima) Samurai Executioner 10 vols. (2004).

Becomes a giant in the industry

Devoted as he became to manga, which takes up all the time of some manga creators, Kazuo Koike led a rich and varied life. Koike was born on May 8, 1936, in the Akita Prefecture of Japan. Little is known about his education or family life because Japanese typically keep these details of their lives private. Koike's work, however, revealed that he had many interests; he worked for a time at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and as a professional Mahjong player. His recreational interests included the traditional aspects of bushido, as well as a lifelong love of golf (which culminated in his launching a golf magazine in 1987).

The Way of the Warrior

Kazuo Koike infused Lone Wolf and Cub with the tradition of bushido, the "Way of the Warrior." This code of conduct traces its roots deep into Japanese history and includes religious elements from Buddhism and Confucianism. William Scott Wilson, who translated a biography of the most famous Japanese samurai, Miyamoto Musashi, noted that bushido developed in Japan with the emergence of a distinct class of ruling warriors in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. These warriors developed a strict code of conduct that emphasized their role in both protecting and serving their society but also helped to fulfill them as human beings. Thus bushido incorporated mastery of the martial arts and teachings of self-sacrifice with appreciation of art, literature, and beauty in the everyday. Ruling Japan for more than six centuries, samurai warriors had a strong influence on the political, philosophical, and artistic aspects of Japanese society, as Wilson noted on the Kodansha International Web site. When the Japanese government incorporated restrictions on sword-wearing and limited samurais' power in the 1800s, samurai could no longer live as they once did. Samurai were effectively gone from power in Japan by 1868, when Japan came to rely solely on its constitution and parliament for governance. The underlying ethics of bushido, however, form the foundation on which Japanese culture continues to stand. It is an important part of what is known as the "spirit of Japan," according to Frederik L. Schodt in Manga! Manga!

Bushido permeates Japanese culture in a way very similar to the moral codes of the American cowboy in the United States. They continue to inform the ideal attributes of Japanese men. Koike related in an interview with Frank Miller that he "was born to a family steeped in Bushido tradition. So, it was natural for me to understand Hagakure Bushido, based on the idea of Buddhism and Confucianism." Koike also practiced aspects of bushido, including the art of Kendo (samurai swordsmanship) and archery.

Professional manga writing began for Koike in 1968 when he took a job creating scripts for Takao Saito's Golgo 13 series. The Golgo 13 manga has been likened to a more violent and explicit version of the James Bond stories. But Koike soon created his own series. In 1970, Koike began publication of Goyoukiba with illustrator Takeshi Kanda. That same year, Koike teamed with Goseki Kojima and began publishing what would become their seminal work, Lone Wolf and Cub. The weekly Manga Action magazine readership of between one and two million eagerly awaited each new episode. The story enjoyed such popularity that Koike and Kojima continued it for approximately eight thousand pages without losing the support of fans. Although the twenty-eight volumes comprising the story of Lone Wolf and Cub were completed by 1976, the volumes remained in print and had sold more than eight million copies by the time U.S. publisher First Comics translated the first volume for publication in America in 1987.

The Artist of Lone Wolf and Cub

Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima came to be known as "The Golden Duo" for Lone Wolf and Cub. Koike's text and Kojima's art worked together to portray the poignant and gripping samurai story. And the two would go on to work on other successful manga series, including most notably Samurai Executioner. Born on November 3, 1928, Kojima developed his artistic skills without formal instruction. By the time Kojima graduated from junior high school, he was making his living as a painter of movie theater advertising posters, and he would not stop working until his death.

Kojima broadened his opportunities for work by moving to Tokyo in the 1950s. There he started producing work for the manga industry. He began by making art for manga enjoyed by the huge population of lower-income people who were devastated by the disruption of World War II (1939–45; war in which Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, the United States, and their allied forces defeated Germany, Italy, and Japan). He made art used by performers of kami-shibai, a practice of telling manga stories on the street. Driving around the city on his bicycle, Kojima even narrated stories of his own for about ten years. He also developed a large fan base for his manga in the kashibon market, a network of rental bookstores that served people unable to buy personal copies of manga. He published his first manga series for the mainstream magazine market in 1967, and quickly became popular among fans who could purchase manga.

Kojima began his collaboration with Kazuo Koike in 1970. Their work on Lone Wolf and Cub catapulted them to fame in Japan, and later around the world. Kojima and Koike related to Frank Miller in a 1987 interview that they were great friends and helped each other to produce their best work: Koike influenced the composition of some of Kojima's pictures, and Kojima inserted some dialogue into Koike's stories, especially the tension-breaking comments from Daigoro. Kojima told Miller in Comics Interview: "It's worked, I think. He gave me freedom and I appreciated it. If Mr. Koike is the writer, I am the movie director and cast."

Kojima's fame did not rest solely on his collaboration with Koike, however. He produced numbers of other manga and collaborated with other manga creators as well. He oversaw the launch of Manga Japan magazine in 1994. And he was working on graphic novels based on the films of Akira Kurosawa in the last years of his life. Kojima died on January 5, 2000.

In the meantime, Koike had grown to be a giant in the Japanese manga industry at a time when the manga industry had eclipsed other forms of entertainment to become the most popular entertainment form in Japan. By 1972, Koike had begun to adapt Lone Wolf and Cub into six films. The pressure of producing weekly episodes of his manga and writing scripts of film adaptations of his series forced Koike to hire help. To keep up with his intensive production schedule, Koike opened Studioship, and by the 1980s the studio had more than forty full-time employees working on creating comics, running an art school, and publishing. Supported by Studioship, Koike continued producing various manga and adapting his stories for film and television into the 2000s.

Educating manga creators ranked among Koike's top priorities. Opened in 1977, Koike's Gekiga Sonjuku school for manga became comparable to the national universities for its competitive enrollment process and rigorous coursework. The school's alumni included such popular manga creators as Rumiko Takahashi (1957–), originator of Ranma 1/2; Yuji Horii (1954–), originator of Dragon Quest; and Keisuke Itagaki (1957–), originator of Grappler Baki. Koike felt so committed to helping young people develop their talents that he accepted a professorship at Osaka University of Arts in 2000. Even though he had to commute several hours to teach his course, Koike reported that he enjoyed it tremendously, and he continued to teach into 2005.

Works come to America

Koike's work was first introduced in English translation to American audiences in 1987 by First Comics, a Chicago publisher. Counting Lone Wolf and Cub among his influences, legendary American comic creator Frank Miller helped market the first volume by drawing the cover and writing the volume introduction. The issue met with great success and required multiple reprintings. Although First Comics went out of business in 1991 before printing all twenty-eight volumes of Lone Wolf and Cub, the popularity of the series among American readers was evident and Dark Horse Comics took up publication of the series in 2000, issuing all twenty-eight volumes in a variety of formats from pocket-sized volumes to larger graphic novels.

Dark Horse built on its success of marketing Lone Wolf and Cub by introducing English translations of other of Koike's works, including The Samurai Executioner, Crying Freeman, and Lady Snowblood. Crying Freeman and Lady Snowblood, which Koike created with different illustrators, are marketed for mature readers in the United States because of the more explicit treatment of violence and sex in their volumes. The Samurai Executioner, which Koike created with Kojima, engages Lone Wolf and Cub fans with the background story of the one character described as Ogami Itto's equal, Yamada Asaemon.

Yamada Asaemon fell honorably to Itto's sword in volume five of Lone Wolf and Cub, but since he was the only character ever described as an equal to Itto, his background seemed an interesting focus for another manga series. Koike and Kojima created Samurai Executioner to tell the story of Asaemon or, as he is also known, Kubriki Asa or Decapitator Asaemon, before his fatal duel with Ogami.

Like Ogami Itto, Kubriki Asa is a stoic samurai. His life as the Shogun's decapitator reveals the brutal justice of the Edo period and provides readers with more insight into the honor of bushido. The capture and punishment of criminals provides the basis for most of the series' action. "It's like a history lesson, art education, and pulp sensation, all wrapped up in one fantastic series," according to the Dark Horse Comics Web site. Dark Horse published all ten volumes of Samurai Executioner starting in 2004.

Inspires others

Koike and Kojima's samurai stories inspired others. Mike Kennedy began Lone Wolf 2100 as a modern look at the samurai tale. He noted his debt to Lone Wolf and Cub in an interview on the Dark Horse Web site. "The original Lone Wolf and Cub is arguably the most influential and recognized comic book title in the world, and I followed it religiously when First Comics brought it to the States in the '80s. The muddied ethics, the strictly coded logic, the gray morality—it was fantastically gripping historical drama surrounded by amazingly visceral action sequences." While reviewers applauded Kennedy's attempts with Lone Wolf 2100, he failed to reach the quality of Koike's storytelling. Silver Bullet Comics reviewer Michael Deely noted in his review of Lone Wolf 2100, that it is "no Lone Wolf book." But he added that Koike's shoes are hard to fill, Koike having created, with Ogami Itto, "one of the most magnetic and compelling characters in all of comicdom."

For Lone Wolf and Cub, Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material and two 2002 Harvey Awards for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work and for Best Presentation of Foreign Material. Koike and Kojima were inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Industry Hall of Fame in 2004.

For More Information

Books

Gravett, Paul. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. London: Laurence King, 2004.

Schodt, Frederik L. Manga! Manga! Tokyo: Kodansha, 1983.

Web Sites

Deely, Michael. "Lone Wolf 2100 # 1." Silver Bullet Comics.http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/reviews/102230023234089.htm (accessed on May 3, 2006).

"Interviews: Mike Kennedy." Dark Horse.http://www.darkhorse.com/news/interviews.php?id=759 (accessed on May 3, 2006).

Kazuo Koike.http://www.koikekazuo.jp/english/profile_e.html (accessed on May 3, 2006).

"The Lone Samurai: An Interview with William Scott Wilson about Bushido." Kodansha.http://www.kodansha-intl.com/books/html/en/477002942X.html (accessed on May 3, 2006).

"Lone Wolf and Cub." Night Flight Comics.http://www.night-flight.com/lwac.html (accessed on May 3, 2006).

"Samurai Executioner, Vol. 5." Dark Horse Comics. http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-294 (accessed on May 3, 2006).