"He is an extremely sincere and upright person. He hates bribes, and even when there's no battle, he stays in his armor day and night until his health suffers... If I were to put it negatively, maybe stubborn."

Meeting at his studio near Shinjuku, Tokyo, on the 22nd, Yutaka Todo, author of The Man Who Killed Nobunaga: The Demarcation of the Sun, shared his impressions of Yi Sun-shin.

This new work is a sequel to the manga The Man Who Killed Nobunaga. While the previous work dealt with the process of Akechi Mitsuhide driving his lord, Oda Nobunaga, to his death at Honno-ji Temple, this installment depicts Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s seizure of power and invasion of Joseon.

The title’s "Sun" refers to Hideyoshi, who proclaimed himself the "Son of the Sun," while "Demarcation," a Spanish word meaning the drawing of territorial borders, signifies Hideyoshi's ambition.

Todo stated that he read the Nanjung Ilgi (Diary of War) to portray Yi Sun-shin in the work. It wasn't just images of a hero. "He cried out of longing for his mother, and mentioned that his health was bad from drinking too much alcohol. He also had various worries regarding his son."

The more he drew, the more his emotions leaned toward Yi Sun-shin. This was because he is a general fighting back against a brutal invasion. "Since it's the composition of 'Hideyoshi the invader and Yi Sun-shin fighting back against him,' he naturally comes across as cool. Online, there were opinions that my manga depicted Hideyoshi too negatively."

He described Hideyoshi's invasion of Joseon as "the greatest war of invasion of the Sengoku period." However, he did not portray the invader as a cruel monster from the very beginning. While Hideyoshi is a figure in Korea who destroyed the lives of countless people, in Japan, he is also the protagonist of upward mobility—rising from a lowly status to unify the realm.

In the work, Hideyoshi—who could not stop even after seizing the realm—is depicted as "Taotie," a greedy monster from Chinese mythology. His desire for a wider realm continues to swell.

"I think he was a hero until he took the realm," Todo said. "However, once he grasped power, he transformed into a dictator. History repeats the phenomenon of an individual going in a strange direction when possessing excessively vast power. I see Hideyoshi as a person possessing dual aspects: both a hero and an invader."

To capture both the personal charm that draws people in and the cruelty within a single character, he put special effort into expressions and movements. He smiles easily and uses comical behavior to make opponents underestimate him, yet he is a figure who digs into the resulting openings.

He also turned his gaze outside the battles of generals. A representative example is Ota Julia, a Joseon captive he learned about during his research in Korea.

In the manga, she nearly gets raped by a Japanese soldier, but her life is saved through the help of Konishi Yukinaga, commander of the Japanese army's 1st Division and a Catholic. Afterward, she crosses over to Japan, receives baptism, and reunites with her younger brother, whom she was separated from in Joseon. "She lived a desolate life as a victim of war," Todo emphasized. "I was glad to be able to tell her story, and I hope Korean readers will definitely read this part."

Todo mentioned that he tried to examine not only individual desires but also the historical background. These include the international situation during the Age of Discovery when Spain and Portugal were expanding their spheres of influence, missionaries entering Japan, and the military power accumulated through long civil wars. The invasion of Joseon in the work is depicted as the result of these conditions interlock-ing with Hideyoshi's ambition.

He expressed regret that these backgrounds are not sufficiently addressed in the NHK Taiga drama Toyotomi Brothers, which is currently airing in Japan.

At the same time, he believed that if Nobunaga had not died early due to the "Honno-ji Incident," the Imjin War would have broken out even faster. The Man Who Killed Nobunaga portrayed Mitsuhide’s "betrayal" as an act to stop Nobunaga’s expedition to China.

What he wanted to convey most through portraying the Imjin War was the cruelty of humans revealed amidst war. "Even someone who looks like a affectionate father might do such things if placed in the same situation; I wanted to portray the terror that humans possess."

As he researched this war—which is only briefly covered in Japanese history classes—Todo felt that "there is so much that needs to be conveyed." He also looked back at the situation in Japan before the war began. At the time, people thought, "Surely we won't go to war overseas" and "Someone will stop him."

"I think there were moments when it could have been stopped," he said. "However, unlike Nobunaga, there was no one around Hideyoshi to stop him."

Therefore, the question he throws at readers does not stay in the past. "When someone brings up something strange, saying, 'No, wait a minute, we need to think about this.' That is one theme this manga wants to convey."

[ⓒ Global Economic Times. 무단전재-재배포 금지]