Throughout the volumes of Butterfly Beast, the reader discovers the double life of Ochô, both ninja and geisha. In this new volume published by Mangetsu , she must fight against Christianity…
Alone against Jesus
Set in 1636, Butterfly Beast explores the early Edo period. Japan returns to peace after decades of seigneurial wars. Until now, Ochô hunted down misguided soldiers or political opponents. In this new volume, she attacks the West. The Nagasaki magistracy charged her with assassinating Jihyōe Kintsuba, a Japanese priest who came to evangelize Japan under the name Thomas of San Agustin. An operation in four departments failed to find her. At the same time, shinobi looted businesses in the Yoshiwara district, leaving rosaries. Ochô is totally destabilized, because Kintsuba seems to know all his secrets, his voice breaks all resistance and he seems able to disappear. How can this killer oppose a man so close to the divine? Here is a much more formidable opponent than the previous ones and Ochô finds himself alone. Indeed, in the previous volume, his companion left for Kyūshū, an island in southern Japan to thwart a possible plot against the shogun. This whole plot would not be understandable without the talent of Yuka Nagate. Her very fine drawing plunges the reader into this vanished world. It impresses with its realism of the sets and costumes, but also during the fight scenes. Nagate knows perfectly how to transcribe the different expressions on the faces or a disturbing impassibility. It installs tension as the plot around Ochō grows.
A Japan closed to the world
Like the previous volumes of Butterfly Beast, writer and artist Yuka Nagate takes advantage of an action story about Ochô to enrich the reader's historical knowledge. She creates a page to present the context. Through the character of Thomas de San Agustin, the French reader understands the situation of the archipelago. Seeing the ravages of colonization in China or Southeast Asia by Europeans, the shogunate took drastic measures. Trade with Europe (and America) is limited to a handful of port cities. Westerners and mestizos are partly expelled. The Christian religion is forbidden. Even Christian symbols like crosses are illegal. Western or Japanese priests are executed. The converts are tortured and the drawing of the techniques is frightening. This was also the subject of the film Silence by Scorcese. Believers who escape the stake hide, but the Catholic religion spreads because of its egalitarian message. To continue their evangelizing mission, priests come out of their reserve. Jihyôe is nicknamed kintsuba, because his sword has a golden guard that we discover from the first page of this volume. It is to find it that we drew the first portrait-robot. Ochô does not really fight against a religion, but it is committed to consolidating central power. Indeed, Christianity and Shinobis have the same goal: to maintain the division of Japan into powerful lordships. This second volume of Butterfly Beast focuses on a single narrative: the struggle between Ochō and Jihyōe Kintsuba. This conflict gives a breathless story, but not only. Behind this individual rivalry, Yuka Nagate presents the struggle against the Christian religion and the local struggles against the shogunate. On the following links, discover the first series and the first volume of the second series.
