Historical Japanese comic, “The Price of Dishonor”, ​​by Hiroshi Hirata arrives in Portugal – Observer

The comic “The price of dishonor”by Japanese author Hiroshi Hirata and considered one of the most important historical comics, arrives this month, for the first time, on the Portuguese market.

“The price of dishonor” is “a true treatise on what samurai stories are about”, writes publisher A Seita regarding the book by Hiroshi Hirata, originally published between 1971 and 1973.

The Portuguese edition, with almost 400 pages, brings together the seven stories starring Hanshiro, a debt collector who “functions as an impartial, but sensitive, observer of the true reality of samurai life”, reads the press release.

The narrative is set in the Edo period of Japanese history, between the 17th centuries e XIXwhich artist Hiroshi Hirata drew in a realistic and detailed way, placing “The Price of Dishonor” in the category of the most adult and dramatic Japanese comic, called ‘gekiga’.

Hiroshi Hirata, who died at the end of 2021 at the age of 84, published his first comics at the age of 21 and specialized in historical narratives from the Edo period, covering the lives of samurai and their strict codes of honor.

On the official page, the biography states that he maintained that interest obsessively throughout his life, with lengthy historical research, and rarely used assistant designers to produce the drawing pages.

Although he experimented with computational design techniques in the 1990s, Hiroshi Hirata concluded that digital design software had limitations, and drew mainly by hand, on paper.

Outside of Japan, one of Hiroshi Hirata’s best-known titles is the comic book series “Satsuma Gishiden”.

In France, where several titles are published, the Angoulême Comics Festival awarded him a career award in 2009.

In 2013, he received a career award from the Japanese government.

“The Price of Dishonor” is published by the comic book publisher A Seita in the “Ikigai” collection, created in 2022 solely for the publication of manga (generic designation for Japanese comics).