World Famous Comics: Buddha, Volume 1: Kapilavastu (Buddha)
Buddha, Volume 1: Kapilavastu (Buddha)
By: Osamu Tezuka Publisher: Vertical Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Vertical Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 256 Publication Date: May 25, 2005 Release Date: May 02, 2006
Correction on page count I just got this book today and just want to point out that this book has 400 pages, not 256 pages as amazon states.
Profoundly Moving Whether the story of the Buddha, and the side-stories, and the tributaries of those side-stories, are familiar to you or not - Tezuka's take on them will affect you profoundly. He is not simply a great storyteller - he has exploited the limits of the comic book form by using sequential art and words to convey the Buddha's message with gripping intensity, humor, and utter mastery. It is such good fun that the philosophy kind of sneaks up on you. You leave each volume with an immense sense of well being - like you have understood life's great mysteries. Like you have been cleansed by a divine vision. And been utterly entertained in the process. No one should miss this journey. For me - it ranks up there - with War and Peace, Les Miserables, and Oliver Twist as one of the world's great morality tales.
Great Book! The last time I got excited about a book about Buddha/Zen Buddhism was the Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff and Thich Nhat Hhah books.
I learned how to read through comic books and I think this is a great series to learn about the life of Buddha. Simple, like Buddhism, and nicely drawn. Exciting and in the style of manga, it will keep both young adults and adults captured in a biography. This book is great for folks who want to learn about Buddha but who hate reading dry biographies.
Granted, the artist has a lot of creativity and this is NOT a historical book, but a story book. (there will be references to modern times like "NYC and LA", so pls. don't confuse this as a "historical" book)
I highly recommend it.
Herman Hesse Manga Biographies of holy people are difficult things to write. A writer can choose to regurgitate the official story in the scriptures, but that approach has little hope of transcending the source material or adding anything new. If the author wants to use the hook of human foibles that makes stories of lesser beings so engaging, he or she runs the risk of angering church patriarchs--just ask Martin Scorsese. Besides, there may not be any human foibles in the religious texts to use, forcing the writer to fictionalize. Because the mythology of the prophet relies on that person's spiritual perfection, the stories often are dry, and unable to hold a mirror to the readers' own fears and desires. Inspiration comes at a stretch, and often fails to affect the modern reader at all. Contemporary audiences want their saints with flaws in order to better identify their own imperfect lives with those who were able to transcend this tired world, equipped with the same mind and spirit as the rest of us. Some strains of Buddhism portray the historical Buddha as a being who descended to the realm of humans in order to teach us the way out of suffering, where others hold the Buddha to be a regular human who found his path through through meditation leading to enlightenment. This flexibility allows Osamu Tezuka the room to create his own vision of the life of the Gotama Buddha by chucking just about everything in the official story, and using the elements and settings of India circa 2500 BCE to tell the story of the spiritual life of a fortuitously born prince whose need to end human suffering leads to the founding of a world-changing religion.
Tezuka fills Siddhartha's world with bandits, greedy kings, evil offspring, cranky monks, and a steady stream of damsels that fall head over heels in love with the future Buddha, allowing him ample opportunity to demonstrate his saintly qualities of restraint and detachment from worldly pleasures. The Buddha's traditional straightforward story (protection from the world by his father, shock at the realization of suffering, and long struggle to achieve enlightenment) is filled out and expanded in multiple directions by Tezuka. He adds rival kingdoms, plagues, class warfare, and many characters with their own agenda for the young prince of the Gotamas. All this added material can come as a shock to the reader expecting a straight retelling of the Budaya (Buddha story), furthered by the shock of what is left out. There is no Maya here, tempting Siddhartha throughout the watches of the night. The Buddha's realization under the bodhi tree is a simple understanding of the interconnectedness of all living beings, which in the traditional story is only one small part of the Buddha's enlightenment. And the four encounters with sickness, old age, death and the mendicant that send the traditional prince of the Gotamas down his path are quickly wound up in one revelation by the god Brahma.
All this amounts to a story that is not actually of the historical Buddha, but another prince named Siddhartha who undergoes a similar spiritual journey towards his own enlightenment. This is not to say that the story does not have strong Buddhist elements. The trials and tribulations of the multitude of characters usually arise through their attachment and greed, while the solutions adhere to the Buddhist tenets of compassion for the suffering of others and detachment from the temporary pleasures of the world. The story is a Buddhist story, just not of the Buddha himself. Regardless of the changes, it is an enjoyable story, with a style and tone akin to old mantinee serials, with plenty of swashbuckling, love triangles, angry peasants, hostile kings, and humor low and high brow. Interwoven are the philosophical musings that present Tezuka's take on Buddhism and the spiritual path.
The style of the art and is a mix between wide-eyed manga and lush, detailed landscapes. Some of the hyper manga style clashes with the subject matter, as Tezuka frequently breaks the historical setting to reference modern places and inventions such as New York City, sports and movies. Characters talk, in translation from the original Japanese, in modern slang, and Tezuka himself sneaks into some panels as a walk-on character. It's worth noticing crowd scenes, as every face is completely different and demonstrates unique personalities. Characters also frequently dip into slapstick humor, bouncing around the frames and sometimes physically breaking them. While at first it is disconcerting to a reader expecting a serious biography of the Buddha, it is important to remember that manga is first and foremost an entertainment medium, and as the long series is digested book by book, the humor is important to keep the story moving along and audiences entertained. Also noteworthy is Vertical's translation and repackaging of the original Japanese books. This results in a "mirror-image" printing, so most of the characters are left-handed. Inspirational for southpaws.
None of the criticisms above should keep a reader away from a highly entertaining manga series. While not a precious literary interpretation of the Buddha story, Tezuka draws on the elements of the myth and the facts of the historical setting to create a populist philosophical work with a wide audience appeal. He balances a light touch of humor, insights into racism, power and greed, and the pursuit of a spiritual path that leads away from the failings of the world to something better.
More Than I Expected This is a great introduction to graphic novels and Manga in particular. The pencil and ink artwork is fantastic and the story is very hard to put down.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
