H-Japan New Book: "Bloody Stumps Samurai" and the Buraku Question in Manga

Discussion published by Ryan Holmberg on Monday, July 29, 2019

Dear Colleagues.

I would like to announce the release of a new manga translation, with extensive historical and scholarly back matter: Hirata Hiroshi's Bloody Stumps Samurai (1962) from Retrofit Comics. If you are interested in the history of representations of minority and marginalized peoples in Japan, as well as the limits of expression and censorship, this is a must-read. If you are interested in teaching cultural politics around burakumin, I believe this book would serve as an accessible introduction and case study for students. http://retrofit.storenvy.com/collections/936408-retrofit-comics-print/products/25803372-bl...

From the back cover: "Idolized by creators across the arts, from Akira's Otomo Katsuhiro to novelist Mishima Yukio, Hirata Hiroshi (b. 1937) is widely considered one of the most talented and influential artists of the comics medium in Japan. Known to English readers through such titles as Satsuma Gishiden (Dark Horse Comics), Hirata has been killing the samurai genre since the late 1950s with manga of jaw-dropping draftsmanship and heart-stopping cruelty. His work is essential, unforgettable, unparalleled, and in the case of Bloody Stumps Samurai (1962) also too radical for its own good. With this book, Hirata set out to draw a passionate critique of discrimination against the Japanese outcaste community known as the burakumin, around the character of Gennosuke, a buraku youth whose mission to avenge and uplift his peoples through the sword goes horribly and gorily wrong. Though clearly intended as an anti-racist broadside, Bloody Stumps Samurai rubbed the Buraku Liberation League the wrong way, leading to copies being confiscated and burned and Hirata temporarily blacklisted. With essays explaining the history and politics of the work by critic Kure Tomofusa and translator Ryan Holmberg, this edition will blow your mind and turn your stomach. It is essential reading for all fans of Japanese history, pop culture, and comics censorship."

This is the second full-length book I have done with Retrofit Comics, the first being Baron Yoshimoto's The Troublemakers. If the present book does well, we are hoping to translate more manga related to buraku, zainichi Korean, and related social issues.

Ryan Holmberg

Citation: Ryan Holmberg. New Book: "Bloody Stumps Samurai" and the Buraku Question in Manga. H-Japan. 07-29-2019. https://networks.h-net.org/node/20904/discussions/4367890/new-book-bloody-stumps-samurai-and-buraku-question-manga Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1