Vagabond. An analysis of the role language in a historical Japanese comic

Abstract: By means of analyzing the comic ‘Vagabond’ by Inoue Takehiko, which depicts the renowned sword saint MiyamotoMusashi, who lived during times of yonder (circ. 1584 – 1645) when the samurai society thrived, this study inquires into the variations of interwoven modern and historical Japanese role language, which has hitherto not been adequately studied. What became evident was the pattern and predictability the interweaving of the two role languages had. A large part of ‘Vagabond’ consists of modern Japanese, while the use of historical Japanese is limited. The pattern can be found in the categorization of the characters; those who speak only modern Japanese and those who speak a mixture of modern and historical Japanese. The components, which led to the results, were the characteristics of role language, videlicet, 1st and 2nd personal pronouns, as well as sentence-final expressions, be that particles, copulas or verb conjugations. In addition, some historical vocabularies were also found. Finally, the results developed Kinsui Satoshi’s theory of role language in Japanese by contributing and further inquiring into historical role language.