Vagabond, Vol. 22

This is volume 22 of Vagabond. Vagabond is a young-adult manga by Takehiko Inoue adapting Eiji Yoshikawa's novel Musashi; serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Morning since 1998, it is set in Japan from the end of the Sengoku period into the early Tokugawa era and tells of a boy called "the child of demons" who, amid swords and slaughter, gropes step by step toward what it means to be strong. In volume 22, Miyamoto Musashi returns to Kyoto, and his old feud with the Yoshioka school enters a new phase: with one fierce slash he defeats Yoshioka Seijuro, and as the news spreads the entire Yoshioka dojo is shaken, a killing chill suddenly filling the streets of Kyoto. Meanwhile Musashi himself is in an uncharacteristic calm; Yoshioka Denshichiro, managing the school's affairs while bearing the grief of his brother's death, keeps swinging his sword. This volume continues Inoue's method of conveying inner life and atmosphere through long stretches of dialogue-free panels, while delicately portraying the utterly different temperaments and fates of the Yoshioka brothers. The original Japanese edition of this volume was released by Kodansha on February 23, 2006, totaling 208 pages.