MANGA | LIFE LESSON
The Strength of The Weak — A Lesson from ‘Vagabond’
Together we rise rooted within the land 🌾✊🤲
“What do you know about the strength of the weak?! Stupid samurai!”
The pursuit of strength in itself is meaningless. It leads to unnecessary attachments towards status and domination, rather than healthy competition. But being strong in service of the life around you leads to a strength that is at harmony with the world.
When you stop being blinded by the expectations of “greatness”, you realize it was the ordinary everyday things which really matter in the end— the people, places and instances you keep coming back to.
Whenever we obsess over one thing and make it the most important thing in our life — we become rigid and unresponsive to the changes of life. We die a slow, self-sabotaging death. This not only applies to the pursuit of “strength” — but also knowledge, Truth, wealth, happiness, love etc.
All things which are good, but only when taken together with everything else that comes with life. We must learn to grow alongside the world around us.
We can see that everything in nature does not exist in isolation, but depends on the movement and interaction of different things. It is through this interdependence that things are what they are — it also explains why we are what we are.
What seems to us to be naturally grand things like mountains, forests and rivers are what they are because of small continuous actions that have shaped them. Their greatness and splendor is not because of overcoming anything — they remain open and unobstructed.
WARNING! SOME SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA AHEAD!
I didn’t really have any high expectations going in when I first started reading ‘Vagabond’, the manga series by Takehiko Inoue. I didn’t think that the guy responsible for making Slam Dunk could pull off a story about samurai and ronin. But now it is one of my favorite manga and overall pieces of art and literature.
It started serialization in Kodansha’s seinen manga magazine Morning on September 3, 1998.
The manga was inspired by Eiji Yoshikawa’s 1935 novel ‘Musashi’, a fictionalized account of the life of the famous Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi.
Since then, the series has gone on to be one of the most revered manga of all time. Often paired with the likes of Berserk and Vinland Saga.
The manga has also been on hiatus since May 2015. With fans speculating that the series has taken a toll on Inoue’s health.
Nonetheless, the manga continues to attract new fans (I am one of them) and many of the story arcs themes are still being discussed today.
The latest arc in the story dubbed ‘The Farming Arc’ is either one of the best arcs in the series or the most boring and tedious, depending on who you ask.
I have to admit, I didn’t quite get it the first time either. As I was binge reading the series until 2 a.m. in the morning, I didn’t quite get what the whole arc was about. I just thought it was some random farming stuff to pad out the story. I eventually read chapter 327, the last chapter that was published before the series went on its extended hiatus.
But upon rereading the entire series again a few months ago, I think I kinda get it now.
The Story So Far…
So a quick rundown of the story: After having a horrible childhood, being excluded from his village, Takezo is given another chance at a new life by the eccentric monk Takuan. He takes on the new name — Miyamoto Musashi — making it his life’s mission to become strong and “unrivaled under heaven”. He has wandered Japan having many battles to gain experience and fame. He has come close to death so many times and has learned the differing philosophies of his opponents.
All this comes to a head when he slain all of the Yoshioka School’s masters and all 70 of its students near a mountain. Left with a deep cut in the leg during the battle, he limps away and is given sanctuary where he meets Takuan again.
They discuss everything he has been through, how much he has learned on his journey to become strong, to be invincible. All of his ambitions has caused him to be trapped in a cycle of death — those who remain of the Yoshioka School and other swordsmen looking for glory — all are looking to claim victory over him.
At some point, Takuan urges him to give up a life fighting by the sword and suggests Musashi settle down with his childhood friend Otsu. He refuses and continues to wander, ruminating on all that he has experienced and learned from different people.
The World of People
Musashi never really had a chance at a normal family life. Growing up all he had was his strict and abusive father, someone who also sought to become stronger than others. When his father was gone, he was ostracized from his own village community. His only friends being Matahachi and Otsu.
When he set out on his journey, all he ever knew was a world of killing and endless battles. Always out to prove his worth and best others. But in each of his battles he learned something more about life. It wasn’t until he stopped seeking the highs and thrills of battle, that he really began to understand what all this fighting was for.
By coming back to his roots: the movement of nature — unimpeded and without pretensions. He breathes deeply, expanding his sense of being — realizing that the world is much bigger and perhaps more beautiful — making his own life seem small by comparison.
All part of one world, one movement. The sword is just one way among many to reach this state of infinity. In that sense, our tools and environment become an extension of our being.
But eventually Musashi comes to a village for food where he meets a boy — Iori, whose father recently passed away. Becoming involved in helping this small village overcome its problems with flooding of land and lack of good soil to grow rice.
His lack of experience and knowledge of cultivating soil has kept him and the other villagers desperate in their attempts to make a rice paddy.
Until, Shusaku, an old man who has cultivated healthy soil from generations of rice farmers, finally decides to help and share his secrets with them.
By giving people time to grow in their daily habits to a particular place, people’s bonds grow stronger, individually they become more resilient. Shusaku teaches Musashi the importance of proper care when it comes to everyday people. Just like the cultivation of soil for rice, genuine care and forethought are what is needed to make a community strong.
When winter comes and the crops aren’t ready, the village almost starves to death. But Musashi remembers that some officials from Kokura castle have come to employ his skills in the sword. He let’s go of his pride and asks help from them. In exchange, he will go back with them after he’s done making sure food is secure in the village.
Masculinity, Musashi & The Middle Path
The moment Musashi stopped rushing and trying to “win” against the elements, he learned to notice and listen to people and the environment.
Even Shusaku, his desire to remain “independent”, not sharing his secrets with the villagers because of pride — is moved to be compassionate towards an elderly man, a pregnant woman and the children of the village.
This shows me that the greatest battle is often day-to-day living. Never have the stakes been so high at any other time in Musashi’s life. Not only is he learning to survive off the land, but he is piecing together his own philosophy from everything he’s learned along the way.
A samurai does not live for battle. A samurai battles to partake in daily life. Not forsake it. To be a true warrior is to live your life acting with grace and purpose. To enrich and protect daily living — eating, sleeping, talking with loved ones and neighbors etc.
Daily life > Passions, highs & “big events”
It is the small everyday things which persist. Things barely noticed, almost unthought of.
That is the strength of the weak. The kind of strength that requires consistency, patience and loving care towards one another.
For what does it mean to win? Just as Musashi observed: water is the same everywhere, yet it is many things — it is strong and fast, still and cold — there is no winning. There is only the movement in accordance to its surroundings.
That is what eventually led him to conclude that: “I want to be strong. Not to become strong.”
Strength is “to have a mind that does not waver. But to continue to move and change.”
Honestly, reading this arc made me evaluate what I’ve learned from red pill self-improvement in the past, such as:
- The emphasis on masculine domination of both men and women to gain respect and status — a sign of your capability as a man.
- Prioritizing this “go big or go home” approach to life. Either rich or bust.
- Financial independence and freedom.
Can I really abandon this way of thinking?
On the other hand, many of the things shown in the manga like: deep diaphragm breathing while opening up the chest, mindfulness, flow state, deep conversations with the boys, masculine desire for freedom etc. They all seem to be things I learned from the masculine style self-improvement stuff.
I don’t know. Maybe all my skepticism around the self-improvement stuff, by presenting an alternative in the form of this manga’s themes is ultimately a cope.
But I wonder what the Middle Path would be? Musashi sought this Middle Path as well. Not too passive that you become complacent, not too forceful or rigid that you lose flexibility. Form without form.
Conclusion
From what I’ve heard there is an opposite philosophy being taught in the Blue Lock manga, I’ve yet to read it. One that prioritizes the desire to win and ego as the main drivers of progress. But is progress always a good thing?
There’s also been talk that Inoue already has the final sketches to the story. He displayed them in The Last Manga Exhibition. So I guess there’s still some hope that the series will have a proper continuation and end.
Been reading the real Musashi’s book, The Book of Five Rings, I might write something on it.
I also know some of the stuff in the story is just added and wasn’t verified historically.
So yeah, pretty great manga. Have yet to read Berserk and Vinland Saga.
**9.5/10 manga**
