[.ca] Samurai Executioner Volume 4 (ISBN 1593072104)

Capital punishment related to deterrence and art in feudal Japan:
"Portrait of Death," Volume 4 in the "Samurai Executioner" series, is quite unusual in that we end up getting about three-fourths of the way through its pages become Yamada Asaemon performs the sole execution in these four stories. But then writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima are obviously more interested in re-creating the Edo period in Japan and weaving stories out of things as simple as the first new straw of the season than in providing graphic depiction of sex and death. The latter are why a Parental Advisory is slapped on the cover of these manga before they are wrapped in plastic, but it is the former that makes these episodic stories as interesting in their own way as the epic saga of "Lone Wolf & Cub." Each story seems to draw out even further the contrast between the brutal world of the shogunate and the nobility of the title character: (12) "An Offering of Cut Mochi" begins with a group of samurai doing the horaku drill, in which their place plain unglazed swallow earthen pans on their foreheads and attack each other to determine who is best: break a horaku and the wearer is treated as if he were dead. Yamada Asaemon is invited to dine with the samurai and we are told that this encounter would lead to the one and only tragic friendship that the Executioner would ever make. This is something of a path-not-taken story for the title character, although what is more important are the politics of the time and the economic realities of employing samurai. Notice where Koike and Kojima choose to end this tale, which is a nice way of underscoring the point being made. (13) "Portrait of Death" has Asaemon refusing to allow a woman to witness the executions he performs. She is an artist who has created realistic pictures of sword testing. When she makes a personal please, Asaemon discovers the secret of why it is that she knows so much about the intimate art of sword testing and why she is driven to make such pictures. However, neither the young woman nor the reader would suspect the counter-proposal that Asaemon has to make once he learns the truth. What I especially liked about this story is that the mystery that sets the chain of events into motion is not resolved, which is a strong indication that the point being made relates to something else. This is another story where Asaemon discusses the philosophical aspects of his job and the right way of doing it. (14) "The Season of New Straw" is a very short story of only 16 pages. A young girl comes into town selling new straw, which she explains to Asaemon young women put into their hair because they believe it improves their circulation. Even though there are no women in his house, the Decapitator asks if he may have some new straw and there is a reason for his strange request. A simple story that offers a link between beauty and death. (15) "The Set-up" begins with an interesting discussion of capital punishment in that time and place. Both the economics of beheadings and its efficacy as a deterrent are discussed. But when a moratorium is placed on executions and the prison becomes overcrowded, the prisoners take matters into their own hands, keeping the population level the same by "setting-up" new prisoners for death. This, in turn, leads to a prison riot, at which point is it time for Decapitator Asaemon to restore order. But he is a minor character in this story and really functions as a deus ex machina device to quickly end the story.