The Legend of Kamui: Volume Four Format: Paperback

The plot thickens in Shirato Sanpei’s sweeping masterpiece!

Long considered the greatest epic series in Japanese comics, The Legend of Kamui delicately balances the largest cast ever in manga while managing to make every character distinct.

In this fourth installment of the groundbreaking saga, the outcast Kamui finally enters the order of the ninja. But soon, he is tasked with assassinating his teacher Akame who has joined forces with a high-powered merchant. Elsewhere, Shosuke’s hard work and innovative ideas have ingratiated him with the farmer class, beginning to bridge the gap with outcasts in a move towards collaboration―at least, until he is arrested for helping start the Tamate uprising.

The Legend of Kamui remains the most exciting adventure comic on the stands today while also managing to be the single greatest source for understanding Edo-period Japan and how ALL modern civilizations are built. Originally serialized between 1964 and 1971 in the legendary alt-manga magazine GARO, this landmark work of historical fiction is translated from the Japanese by Richard Rubinger with Noriko Rubinger.

Shirato Sanpei was born in Tokyo in 1932. His father, Okamoto Tōki, was an oil painter whose artistic endeavors exposed the young Shirato to a variety of perspectives. Okamoto notably instructed Kurosawa Akira in painting and design before the latter became a filmmaker. After a seven-year stint as a kamishibai artist, Shirato would begin working in the kashihon manga market in 1957. Kaze no Fujimaru, an animated series based on an original story by Shirato, began to be broadcast in 1964. This was the first animation for which the young Miyazaki Hayao was in charge of original drawings. The Legend of Kamui debuted that same year in the pages of Garo―a manga periodical founded by Shirato―and now best known as a launching pad for other revered manga talents like Mizuki Shigeru and Tsuge Yoshiharu. Shirato died in 2021.