Osamu Tezuka's Buddha Vol. 1

    This week I read Osamu Tezuka's Buddha series. The first volume was 400 pages, and is a very easy read. His style is very playful and energetic. Emotions are clear and are pushed, but don't appear as cliche. You can see he is  influenced by Walt Disney, especially with how he draws animals. What is most interesting is that Buddha, is barely features in this book at all. His mother and father are mentioned as he is born. Which really emphasizes how much more entertaining the other characters are in comparison to the main plot. The main story follows a young monk, two slaves, and a pariah named Tatta. Rather than giving a biography into the life of Siddhartha Tezuka chooses to give an insight into his teachings and ideals.


     The story begins by following a Brahmin, or monk, who is sent by his master to seek out one who would be a god or a king. In his quest the Brahmin discovers that the person for whom he is searching is from the lowest class, below slaves, a pariah. This pariah, Tatta, has the ability to become a god or a king with his wisdom. He can take over an animals mind and command its body while speaks to them. Tatta sees all life as equal, human and animal alike. In his life Tatta has befriended a young slave trying to save his mother. Their village is attacked by a neighboring monarchy and Tatta's friends and family are killed. Chapra a slave boy, winds up saving the enemy general and is adopted as his son. So the Brahmin, along with Tatta and Chapra's mother set out across the desert in search of Chapra.


      Chapra ignores all ideals of Buddhism in his rise from slave to noble and thus his life is not as positive as it would seem to be. However Chapra is marked as a slave by a brand on his foot and so he can never truly escape his past. He is a slave and will always be a slave. Even as Chapra abandons his past and his mother, Tatta, and the Brahmin continue to search for him, to rescue him. And along the way they face great hardships, the most poignant of which is when Tatta sacrifices himself to be eaten by a snake in order to make a trade. The snake would give some of its eggs to Chapra's mother and the Brahmin so that they may eat as a plague of locusts came and devoured everything around for miles.

Tezuka's style leant to this story is slightly off-putting at first but as you adjust you begin to see the poignant and expressive nature of the artwork. The story of Siddhartha, his life and his teachings, is a very important one in Asian cultures and Tezuka's telling of it is very clear and respectful, allowing non-Buddhist people to read and understand the story of the founding of the religion.