Koike, Kazuo 1936–

PERSONAL: Born 1936, in Japan. Hobbies and other interests: Golfing, Kendo, archery.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Dark Horse Comics, 10956 SE Main St., Milwaukie, OR 97222.

CAREER: Manga writer, poet, and fiction writer. Host of television programs; movie producer and screenwriter; founder of a golf magazine; Gekiga-Sonjuku school for writers and artists, founder.

AWARDS, HONORS: Eisner awards; Harvey awards for Best Presentation of Foreign Material, 2001, and for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work, and for Best Presentation of Foreign Material, both 2002, all for Lone Wolf and Cub.

WRITINGS:

"CRYING FREEMAN" SERIES MANGA COLLECTIONS; TRANSLATED FROM THE JAPANESE

Crying Freeman, illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, Viz Communications (San Francisco, CA), 1990.

Shades of Death, illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, Viz Communications (San Francisco, CA), 1992.

Portrait of a Killer, Part 1 illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, Viz Communications (San Francisco, CA), 1992.

Portrait of a Killer, Part 2 illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, Viz Communications (San Francisco, CA), 1992.

Journey to Freedom, Volume 1, illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, Viz Communications (San Francisco, CA), 1995.

Journey to Freedom, Volume 2, illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, Viz Communications (San Francisco, CA), 1995.

Abduction in Chinatown, illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, Viz Communications (San Francisco, CA), 1996.

A Taste of Revenge, illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, Viz Communications (San Francisco, CA), 1996.

The Killing Ring, illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, Viz Communications (San Francisco, CA), 1996.

"LONE WOLF AND CUB" SERIES MANGA COLLECTIONS; ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AS "KOZURE OAMI"

The Assassin's Road (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2000.

The Gateless Barrier (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2000.

The Flute of the Fallen Tiger (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2000.

The Bell Warden (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2000.

Black Wind (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

Lanterns for the Dead (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

Cloud Dragon, Wind Tiger (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

Chains of Death (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

Echo of the Assassin (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

Hostage Child (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

Talisman of Hades (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

Shattered Stones (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

The Moon in the East, the Sun in the West (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

Day of the Demons (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

Brothers of the Grass (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

The Gateway into Winter (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2001.

The Will of the Fang (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

Twilight of the Kurokuwa (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

The Moon in Our Hearts (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

A Taste of Poison (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

Fragrance of Death (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

Heaven and Earth (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

Tears of Ice (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

In These Small Hands (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

Perhaps in Death (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

Struggle in the Dark (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

Battle's Eve (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

The Lotus Throne (originally published in Manga Action, 1970–76), translated by Dana Lewis, illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR), 2002.

Contributor to Manga chō shinkaron (title means "Comic Evolution"), Kawade Shobo Shinsha (Tokyo, Japan), 1989. Adapted Lone Wolf and Cub series for film as Baby Cart Assassin, produced in Japan, c. 1972.

ADAPTATIONS: The Lone Wolf and Cub series was adapted for U.S. television, 2002; the Crying Freeman series was adapted for film in France, 1995; Lone Wolf and Cub was adapted as four stage plays and five recordings.

SIDELIGHTS: The work of versatile Japanese graphic novelist Kazuo Koike has seen a renewal of interest on an international scale in the manga (Japanese comic book; translated as "irresponsible pictures") series he created with illustrator Goseki Kojima, who died in 2000. Lone Wolf and Cub—set in seventeenth-century feudal Japan—was first serialized in Japan beginning in 1970, and by the late 1980s it had sold some eight million copies there. Published in the United States as a series of twenty-eight book-length collections in 2000–2002, Lone Wolf and Cub has also been adapted for television. In addition, Koike's Crying Freeman series attained popularity during the 1990s. Koike has also written screenplays, poetry, and fiction; hosted television programs; and mentored young Japanese artists and writers—including Rumiko Takahashi, of Ranma 1/2 fame—at his Gekiga Sonjuku school.

Koike was born before World War II into a family steeped in the Japanese tradition of bushido, the Way of the Warrior. "So, it was natural for me to understand Hagakure Bushido, based on the idea of Buddhism and Confucianism," he said in an interview with Frank Miller for Comics Interview magazine.

Japanese manga are pocket-sized—usually about four by six inches—black-and-white comic books with about 300 pages. The most popular print medium in Japan, they are as popular as television with people of both genders and all ages. Each of the twenty-eight volumes of the English version of Lone Wolf is some 300 pages long, with glossaries and notations.

Koike's main character in Lone Wolf and Cub is Ogami Itto, a former samurai warrior and the Shogun's executioner, assigned to help samurai and their lords commit seppuku, ritual suicide. Executioners used an extremely sharp sword to cut off the head, leaving a flap of skin at the neck to prevent the head from falling from the body after the samurai had disemboweled himself. Bushido, the Warrior's Way, dictated that each samurai be as sharp in spirit as his sword was sharp, and each type of sword stroke had a mystical significance.

When Tokugawa unites the Japanese provinces under his dictatorship and brings an end to the provincial wars, thousands of samurai are left without employment, becoming ronin, or masterless warriors. Itto is one of these, and he wanders the countryside on the "road to damnation" (Meifumado) with his three-year-old son, Daigoro, whose mother has been killed. Itto becomes an assassin for hire as he vows revenge against Retsudo Yagyû and his clan, who killed Itto's wife and accused him of plotting to overthrow the Shogun, destroying his good name. He becomes known as the Baby Cart Assassin, and Daigoro grows up with the constant violence of his father's way of life, often becoming involved in the fights in some small way and even seeming to help his father. Father and son form a bond that is apparent in the wordless frames of the series, when just a look tells the whole story as the two tense for battle.

Roger Sabin, in a review of Lone Wolf and Cub for the London Observer, noted that the art resembles Japanese scroll paintings and said the series "deserves its reputation as a classic." Marc Bernardin, in a review for Entertainment Weekly commented, "You're just as liable to come across … black-and-white tone poems … as you are an action sequence that fully realizes the chaos of combat." In a review of Volume 1, The Assassin's Road, Warren Ellis, for Art-bomb, described the series as changing the comics medium "the way Kurosawa changed film" and said it should be compared to "a Criterion DVD release of something central to its artform." In a review of Volume 2, The Gateless Barrier, Peter Siegel praised Koike's painstaking research of the historical period and called the series "a highly addictive read." The second volume explores the plight of women in seventeenth-century Japan and brings Itto face to face with his ability to kill even the Buddha. In a review of Volumes 22-25, Steve Raiteri, in Library Journal, said Koike's writing "has amazing depth and power" and called the story "riveting, sometimes shocking." He called Kojima's drawings "some of the most impressive realistic Japanese artwork yet seen in America." In these later volumes, Itto arrives in Edo (Tokyo) to face Retsudo in a duel, but an insane food taster who wants to kill them both intervenes.

In his Dark Horse Comics Web site biography, Koike was quoted as saying, "Comics are carried by characters. If a character is well created, the comic becomes a hit." He has certainly proved this theory with his work.

Koike and illustrator Ryiochi Ikegami's Crying Freeman has also achieved international acclaim, although it is even more violent than Lone Wolf and Cub and has more adult themes. It is the story of a young Japanese boy who is indoctrinated into a Chinese cult of master assassins. The boy is marked as a killer by a huge and colorful dragon tattoo that covers most of his body. Sex and violence abound in this series, which Eddy von Mueller, in the Bloomsbury Review, called brutal, horrifying, and gruesome. "One of the principal paradoxes that confront Westerners when viewing the Japanese is that their scrupulous politeness can coexist with pervasive images of violence and savagery," von Mueller commented. Although Crying Freeman has been well received in the United States, some comic book stores have banned it because it carries violence, especially against women, to such an extreme.

In the interview with Miller, Koike spoke about his role as a mentor to new Japanese talent. "You can't teach comics," he said. "You have to pull one's talent out, that's all. If you teach, you are just imposing your style on a person. In my school, we help a person to recognize his own talent, what he is the best at."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Bloomsbury Review, September, 1992, Eddy von Mueller, "Children of the Floating World: Manga and Popular Culture in Japan," p. 23.

Entertainment Weekly, July 19, 2002, Marc Bernardin, "Father Knows Best: A Boy and His Dad Walk a Bloody Path to Redemption in the Epic Japanese Comic Lone Wolf and Cub," p. 68.

Library Journal, March 15, 1990, Keith R.A. DeCandido, review of Lone Wolf and Cub, p. 55; January, 2003, Steve Raiteri, review of Lone Wolf and Cub: Heaven and Earth, Tears of Ice, In These Small Hands, and Perhaps in Death, p. 84.

Observer (London, England), September 2, 2001, Roger Sabin, "Side by Side in the Fantasy League" (review of Lone Wolf and Cub), p. 16.

ONLINE

Artbomb, http://www.artbomb.net/ (August 12, 2003), "Creator Profile: Kazuo Koike, Biography"; Warren Ellis, review of Lone Wolf and Cub: The Assassin's Road; and Peter Siegel, review of Lone Wolf and Cub: The Gateless Barrier.

Comics Interview, http://www.mightyblowhole.com/ (April 12, 2006), David Anthony Kraft and Frank Miller, "Interview with Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima."

Dark Horse Comics Web site, http://www.darkhorse.com/ (August 12, 2003), "Harvey Awards."

Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/ (December 16, 2003), "Kazuo Koike."

Mangamaniacs, http://www.mangamaniacs.org/ (August 12, 2003), review of Lone Wolf and Cub.