Golden Kamuy (volumes 1-6 ongoing)
January was a really good month for manga. I read so much great stuff that reminded me what the best of it could achieve. One of these was Golden Kamuy. I came across it in the library and recognised the name. I knew it was popular but nothing else about it.
Set in the early 1900s, it follows a young veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, nicknamed Immortal Sugimoto for his miraculous survival on the battlefield. He promised his dying best friend to look after his widow, who needs money for an operation to save her eyesight. Sugimoto is in Hokkaido panning for gold, when he hears the legend of a lost hoard of gold.
It was gathered by the Ainu to overthrow their Japanese conquerors, but they were betrayed and slain, and the gold was stolen. The thief was imprisoned but has never given up the location of the gold. However, he made a pact to share it with his fellow prisoners if they helped him escape, and tattooed part of a map on each one.
Sugimoto teams up with an Ainu girl called Asirpa, whose father was one of the Ainu killed. Despite her young age, she's an expert hunter and tracker, and we learn a great deal about Ainu culture through her explanations. They're up against some ruthless opponents: the escaped prisoners, the police force, various renegade soldiers, and a band of rebels who want to establish an independent Hokkaido. It's a race against time and a compelling treasure hunt.
The manga is meticulously researched, with the services of an Ainu language supervisor. There are a lot of beautiful depictions of wildlife, and loving illustrations of food, and often these overlap. So Asirpa might tell Sugimoto, "These are the otters native to Hokkaido" (delightful), and then, "This is how we hunt otters using our traditional methods" (distressing), and then, "This is how we prepare otter meat for our traditional hotpot" (delicious).
There's also a sharp contrast between the sustainable lifestyle of the Ainu, versus the growing exploitation of resources, with devastating environmental impacts. One example is the huge herring industry that created a wealth boom:
Henmi: "Using herring meal as fertilizer for growing a crop like cotton caused a huge growth in production and virtually changed Japan's agricultural industry overnight. You could say these herring fisheries are supporting Japan as a whole."
Asirpa: "Catching so much herring will leave the ocean empty before long..."
Narrator: "Called the 'fish of the gods', the herring population went into a catastrophic decline at the end of the Meiji Era. By Showa 30 (1955), herring had disappeared from the coasts of Hokkaido."
One cautionary note. It's extremely violent and gory, definitely pushing the limits of my own comfort levels. Maybe on par with Hannibal. You have people killing other people, people hunting animals, and animals attacking people. Early 20th century Hokkaido seems like a wild free-for-all. If you can tolerate this, I'd highly recommend it. There's adventure, humour, drama, and incredible history. It's won the Manga Taishō award and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth, where there are
comments. Comment here or there.
Set in the early 1900s, it follows a young veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, nicknamed Immortal Sugimoto for his miraculous survival on the battlefield. He promised his dying best friend to look after his widow, who needs money for an operation to save her eyesight. Sugimoto is in Hokkaido panning for gold, when he hears the legend of a lost hoard of gold.
It was gathered by the Ainu to overthrow their Japanese conquerors, but they were betrayed and slain, and the gold was stolen. The thief was imprisoned but has never given up the location of the gold. However, he made a pact to share it with his fellow prisoners if they helped him escape, and tattooed part of a map on each one.
Sugimoto teams up with an Ainu girl called Asirpa, whose father was one of the Ainu killed. Despite her young age, she's an expert hunter and tracker, and we learn a great deal about Ainu culture through her explanations. They're up against some ruthless opponents: the escaped prisoners, the police force, various renegade soldiers, and a band of rebels who want to establish an independent Hokkaido. It's a race against time and a compelling treasure hunt.
The manga is meticulously researched, with the services of an Ainu language supervisor. There are a lot of beautiful depictions of wildlife, and loving illustrations of food, and often these overlap. So Asirpa might tell Sugimoto, "These are the otters native to Hokkaido" (delightful), and then, "This is how we hunt otters using our traditional methods" (distressing), and then, "This is how we prepare otter meat for our traditional hotpot" (delicious).
There's also a sharp contrast between the sustainable lifestyle of the Ainu, versus the growing exploitation of resources, with devastating environmental impacts. One example is the huge herring industry that created a wealth boom:
Henmi: "Using herring meal as fertilizer for growing a crop like cotton caused a huge growth in production and virtually changed Japan's agricultural industry overnight. You could say these herring fisheries are supporting Japan as a whole."
Asirpa: "Catching so much herring will leave the ocean empty before long..."
Narrator: "Called the 'fish of the gods', the herring population went into a catastrophic decline at the end of the Meiji Era. By Showa 30 (1955), herring had disappeared from the coasts of Hokkaido."
One cautionary note. It's extremely violent and gory, definitely pushing the limits of my own comfort levels. Maybe on par with Hannibal. You have people killing other people, people hunting animals, and animals attacking people. Early 20th century Hokkaido seems like a wild free-for-all. If you can tolerate this, I'd highly recommend it. There's adventure, humour, drama, and incredible history. It's won the Manga Taishō award and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth, where there are
comments. Comment here or there.