is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sanpei Shirato. It was serialized in Seirindō's monthly magazine Garo between December 1964 and July 1971, with its chapters collected in 21 volumes. Set in feudal Japan, it tells the story of Kamui, a low-born ninja who has fled his clan, which pursues him. It illustrates the true nature of the Edo period and the discrimination that existed within the feudal system. The series combines historical adventure with social commentary and themes of oppression and rebellion that reflect Shirato's Marxist convictions. By October 2021, the series had over 15 million copies in circulation.

A spin-off, titled ran in two parts: the first part ran in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday from May 1965 to January 1967; and the second part, titled ran in Shogakukan's magazine Big Comic from February 1982 to March 1987. A sequel, titled illustrated by Tetsuji Okamoto, ran in Big Comic from May 1988 to April 2000.

Kamui Gaiden was licensed for English release in North America under the title The Legend of Kamui by Viz Media and Eclipse Comics; in 1967, Kamui Gaiden received an anime adaptation under the title Ninpu Kamui Gaiden that ran for 26 episodes on Fuji TV; the series was also adapted into an anime film in 1971, titled Kamui Gaiden: Tsukihigai no Maki, and a live-action film, titled Kamui Gaiden, in 2009. The series is licensed for English release in North America by Drawn & Quarterly, starting in January 2025.

Plot Kamui is a ninja from the Edo period who decides to leave his clan, an act that carries with it a death sentence.The Legend of Kamui Vol. 1 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2025), Page 514 After doing so, he is pursued relentlessly by the members of his former clan, who consider him to be a traitor and therefore wish to kill him. Kamui wanders around Japan to escape from them using his intelligence and survival abilities. In the course of the series, Kamui begins to suffer from paranoia because of his status as a persecuted man. Kamui starts to believe that everybody wishes to murder him and distrusts everyone he encounters.

Rather than the story of Kamui, much of the first volume is concerned with the drama of tax collecting, crop inspection and the fate of various animals in and around Hanamaki Village, most notably the White Wolf, about whom Shirato states in the Author's Note at the end of the second chapter, "It seems I have gone on for too long about the lives of the wolves. Especially since the life of the white wolf is not related to the human world I am describing simultaneously in this story".The Legend of Kamui Vol. 1 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2025), Page 204

Kamui himself does not make an appearance until Dogs II, still as a baby, nearly 200 pages into the story,The Legend of Kamui Vol. 1 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2025), Page 183 and as a full-fledged adolescent character in Yukiwari in chapter 3, The Sword.The Legend of Kamui Vol. 1 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2025), Page 212 Kamui is shown to be a member of the lowest class in the feudal caste system, the Burakumin (translated here as "Outcasts").The Legend of Kamui Vol. 1 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2025), Page 98 but is shown, notably in the chapter Kogera I,The Legend of Kamui Vol. 1 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2025), Page 352-358 to be plucky and resourceful, a child who bristles against the very idea of class itself. Shirato states at the end of Arson, the penultimate chapter in the volume, that "It is fair to say that the Legend of Kamui begins now."The Legend of Kamui Vol. 1 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2025), Page 510

Characters Source:The Legend of Kamui Vol. 1 (Drawn & Quarterly, 2025), Pages vi-vii

Main characters: Kamui Ryūnoshin Shōsuke The White Wolf Hanamaki village Omine, a servant girl Vice Karō Kusaka Konbei, Ryūnoshin's father The village runner Danzuri, Shōsuke's father Koroku, Omine's father Tachibana Gundayū, Metsuke Sasa Hyōgo, the fencing instructor Sasa Ikkaku, fencing instructor Klusaka Jūbei, village clan elder The Lord of Hioki The Hanamaki Village Headman Tachibana Kazuma, Gundayu's son Ishuin, a scholar Baba Heihachirō, warehouse chief Gosaku, Koroku's father Chikumazara Village Headman Kichibei, a genin farmer rebel leader Nisuke, a rugged Genin child Shukudani & Chibukazawa villages Yokome, the outcast chief Saesa, Yokome's wild daughter Kogera, an outcast child Yasuke, Kamui's father Shibutare, the village snitch Drifters & animals The Masterless Samurai An Itinerant Priest Wolf Pack Eagle

Publication

An original series written and illustrated by Sanpei Shirato, Kamui Den was serialized in 's monthly magazine Garo with a total of 74 installments. The first installment was published in the magazine's December 1, 1964, issue. The series released its final installment in the July 1, 1971, issue of Garo. Seirindō collected its chapters in 21 volumes, released from May 10, 1967, to October 10, 1971.

English-language publication

An English-language edition of Shirato's work was first published in North America in 1987, when VIZ Communications and Eclipse Comics released The Legend of Kamui as a 37-issue series. The series reprinted stories from Kamui Gaiden, the sequel to Kamui-den, rather than the original Kamui-den serialized in Garo from 1964 to 1971. The series was published from June 2, 1987, to November 15, 1988, with VIZ Communications and Eclipse Comics identified as its publishers. It was therefore one of the earliest North American English-language publications of Shirato's work, but it did not make the original Kamui-den available in English.

In November 2023, Drawn & Quarterly announced that it had licensed the original Kamui-den for its first English-language publication. The publisher announced a ten-volume edition under the title The Legend of Kamui, with each volume planned at approximately 600 pages. Manga scholar Ryan Holmberg is editing the series, with the translation led by Richard Rubinger.

The first volume was published on January 14, 2025. The second volume followed in 2025, with both volumes forming part of the planned ten-volume edition. The publication marked the first English-language edition of the original Kamui-den series.

Title Chapters collected Publication date Translation ISBNThe Legend of Kamui: Volume OneBirth, Kagari, The Sword, Masudori, Arson, DecapitationJanuary 14, 2025Richard Rubinger, Noriko Rubinger, Alexa FrankThe Legend of Kamui: Volume TwoTabute, Tessan, One-Eye, Smoke Signal, The Tamate Disturbance, Street Vendors, Kasumi-GiriJuly 8, 2025Richard Rubinger, Noriko RubingerThe Legend of Kamui: Volume ThreeTBDMarch 10, 2026Richard Rubinger, Noriko RubingerThe Legend of Kamui: Volume FourTBDJuly 7, 2026Richard Rubinger, Noriko Rubinger

Spin-off A spin-off manga, titled Kamui Gaiden, was published in two parts by two different Shogakukan magazines. The first part was serialized in Shogakukan's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday from May 1, 1965, to January 4, 1967. The first 16 chapters were collected in two volumes in May 1966 and republished in three volumes in April 1976. The second part, titled Kamui Gaiden Dai-ni-bu, was serialized in the publisher's manga magazine Big Comic from February 25, 1982, to March 25, 1987. Shogakukan collected its chapters in 20 volumes, released from August 1983 to July 1987.

Sequels A continuation of the original series, titled Kamui Den Da Ni-bu, illustrated by Tetsuji Okamoto, was serialized in Shogakukan's manga magazine Big Comic from May 10, 1988, to April 10, 2000. Shogakukan collected its chapters in 22 volumes, released from October 1989 to August 2000.

Sanpei Shirato wrote and serialized a three-installment set of short stories in Shogakukan's magazine Big Comic, illustrated by Tetsuji Okamoto, called They ran from September 25 to October 24, 2009. Shogakukan collected the stories as a one-volume paperback supplement to the September 2018 issue of magazine.

Adaptations

The screen adaptations associated with the Kamui character have primarily been based on Kamui Gaiden, the later series derived from Kamui-den, rather than directly adapting the original 1964–1971 manga.

Anime

Kamui Gaiden was adapted into the television anime , produced by TCJ in association with Zuiyo. The series was broadcast on Fuji TV from April 6 to September 28, 1969, and consisted of 26 episodes. Yonehiko Watanabe served as chief director, with Junji Tashiro as writer and Shūichi Seki as character designer. The series follows Kamui after he abandons the ninja world and becomes a fugitive pursued by other ninja, adapting the central premise and characters of Shirato's Kamui Gaiden.

The production was notable for using animation techniques intended to reproduce aspects of Shirato's manga style. Contemporary descriptions of the series have highlighted its broad ink-based imagery, dynamic action, unusual camera techniques, and comparatively graphic violence, distinguishing it from many television anime of its period.

The series was subsequently edited into the theatrical anime film . The 1971 film, released by Toho, was an approximately 88-minute re-edit of episodes 21 through 26 of the television series, with additional editing and material rather than a wholly new adaptation. It was released in Japanese cinemas on March 20, 1971.

The anime later received English-language exposure in North America. In the mid-1980s, an English-dubbed episode was distributed on videocassette under the title Search of the Ninja, introducing the animated version of Kamui to a North American home-video audience.

Live-action film

A live-action film adaptation of Kamui Gaiden, directed by Yōichi Sai and starring Kenichi Matsuyama as Kamui, was released in Japan in 2009. The screenplay was written by Sai and Kankurō Kudō, and the film was produced and distributed by Shochiku. The film premiered in Japan on September 19, 2009, and subsequently screened internationally, including at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The film adapts material from Kamui Gaiden rather than the original Kamui-den. Set during the Edo period, it follows Kamui, a former ninja who has fled his clan and seeks freedom while being pursued by assassins and drawn into conflicts involving the fisherman Hanbei and other inhabitants of his new community. The film was subsequently released in English-speaking markets under the title Kamui, with the home-video release also using the title Kamui: The Lone Ninja.

In January 2010, Funimation announced that it had acquired the North American rights to the live-action film. The film subsequently received an English-language release in North America.

Influence

Kamui-den had a major influence on the development of politically engaged gekiga and historical manga. Its large-scale depiction of feudal Japan through the experiences of peasants, outcasts, and other marginalized groups demonstrated the potential of manga as a medium for historical and social analysis. The series became closely associated with Garo and helped establish the magazine as an important venue for experimental and politically oriented manga during the 1960s and 1970s.

The series also influenced artists associated with Shirato's studio. Goseki Kojima worked as one of Shirato's assistants during the production of Kamui-den before establishing himself as a major manga artist. Kojima later became internationally known for Lone Wolf and Cub, his long-running collaboration with writer Kazuo Koike. Although Lone Wolf and Cub was not an adaptation of Kamui-den, Kojima's work on Shirato's series places the two works within the same creative lineage of postwar historical manga.