The Eastern Edge

Despite Takehiko Inoue suggesting a little over a year ago that he couldn't see the story in it's current state ending up anywhere near Kyushu, he opened 2010 with a colour section in Weekly Morning of none other than Funajima.

"Funa" (meaning "boat"), of course, is the island (shima, or when used as a suffix jima, means "island") that was renamed "Ganryu" following the legendary duel between Kojiro Sasaki and Musashi Miyamoto that took place there.

Funajima was a small, uninhabited island in the strait between honshu and kyushu. Today Ganryujima is considered part of Yamaguchi prefecture, known as "Nagato" and the domain of the Mori clan during Kojiro's time, and is accessible by ferry from Shimonoseki city. On the Kyushu side of the strait, which is now Fukuoka prefecture, was Buzen, the domain of the Hosokawa clan and Lord Tadaoki Hosakawa, under whom Kojiro "Ganryu" Sasaki was employed.
Kojiro was extremely well respected and had many followers, evidenced by the fact that the island where he died was renamed after him and not Musashi, whose legend only gained popularity relatively recently when his "Book of Five Rings" was retranslated and applied to modern business strategy for the self-styled "Samurai" Salaryman of the 70's and 80's.

Eiji Yoshikawa's novel, on which Vagabond is based, is often the standard around which portrayals of Musashi and Kojiro are modelled. Kojiro is portrayed as a narcissistic, womanizing pretty-boy, and Musashi as the tough, grizzled anti-hero who becomes the legendary "sword saint". Even minimal research, however, shows the fictionalized versions of Kojiro and Musashi resembled the actual people about as closely as modern-day Ganryu island resembles Funa island circa April 13th, 1612.

This is Ganryu island today.

It is no longer the remote, uninhabited island where one of the most famous duels in Japanese history took place on a sandy beach nearly 400 years ago. It is now a developed, well-manicured tourist attraction with a number of contrived "historical" monuments (even the monument to Kojiro that resembles a burial site in the last picture above, was only built in 1910 and is not Kojiro's grave) and even more tacky souvenirs at the shops. Much like the legends of Kojiro Sasaki and Musashi Miyamoto, much as changed since the days that these two men actually lived. There are precious few actual historical records, and the few that do exist give wildly varying accounts of events in the lives of both men. Add in the interpretations, speculation, and personal biases of the people who wrote about them after, and all we are guaranteed is that we will never know what these men were really like, or what really happened in their duel other than the result.

Maybe it's better that way. Clouded history and vague accounts of legendary events make for really, really good fiction!
In case you are wondering what the "official" play-by-play of the duel would look like, here's the Ganryu island tourist attraction's version of events:

Tough act to follow, eh!? Call me crazy, but I have a gut feeling Vagabond's final duel might just outdo it.

I was kind of hoping that Inoue would end Vagabond in April of 2012 on the 400th anniversary of the actual duel. But ending it right is much more important than ending it on a certain date, and if it must end this year then it must end this year.

If this really is the final year of Vagabond, and if Inoue can stick the landing on this, he might just solidify his own legend too!