Usagi Yojimbo

• Title: Usagi Yojimbo #9
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Stan Sakai
• Artist: Stan Sakai

The two-part “Tatami” story concludes as the Neko Ninja attack the caravan carrying the ceremonial mats, destroying them and disrupting Lord Gifue’s tea ceremony with the Shogun. Despite the considerable efforts of Miyamoto Usagi and Chizu helping out to defend the mats against the ninja, the encounter ends with the mats destroyed and the villains triumphant.

We don’t often see Usagi fail when he sets his mind to a task, but although he and Chizu (and many of the soldiers guarding the mats) escape the encounter unscathed, the ninjas complete their task in undermining the upcoming ceremony between a rival lord of their employer and the Shogun.

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• Title: Usagi Yojimbo #8
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Stan Sakai
• Artist: Stan Sakai

Tatami plays a large role in Usagi Yojimbo #8 as writer/artist Stan Sakai offers some history to the ceremonial mats grown and crafted together over the course of two years. It’s the transport of these handwoven mats that garners attention of both Miyamoto Usagi, bandits, and ninja with the rabbit ronin’s travels lead him back to the Northern Provinces of his homeland.

Usagi’s return to the lands once controlled by his former lord brings mixed feelings, especially after running across a former samurai of Lord Mifune who know serves Lord Hikiji. That’s not the only familiar face to cross Usagi’s path as he runs into the former ninja Chizu while helping the fend off the Neko Ninja’s attack on the tatami as a political ploy to undercut his rival Lord Gifu.

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• Title: Usagi Yojimbo #5
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Stan Sakai
• Artist: Stan Sakai

Tragedy comes in the conclusion of “The Hero.” True to his word, Miyamoto Usagi helps see Lady Mura back to her father, but there is little comfort the honorable elder can offer. Instead honor insists she return home with her husband, whose sudden appearance does nothing to lessen Usagi’s opinion of the man.

The end of the comic mirrors the opening pages from Mura’s story, just as tragedy befalls the hero in her tale so does it the author who the husband kills on the road back home (blaming the same bandits Usagi fought off earlier in the comic). Usagi doesn’t act on his suspicions, but karma has a role to play in the killer’s future.

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