Buddha

The story of Buddha is a popular one in Japan with around 90 million Japanese claiming to be Buddhists. It's history started officially in Japan in the 6th century CE, coming from China, and has grown since then. The influence that Buddhisms has in Japan is not always strong or obvious, but when the works of people such as Tezuka Osamu is looked at the influence can become more clear.

Tezuka wrote this manga over the span of eleven years, making a total of eight volumes. It tells the entire story of Siddhartha and embellishes many famous events from his live in great detail. To those who are not familiar with the story of Buddha, Tezuka took some liberties and changed some events as well as added new characters. Tezuka did not try to hide this fact, rather this was just his interpretation of the story. The manga has many childish similarities with Tezuka's Astro Boy comics, but there is also much about the manga that makes it more mature, such as nudity. Despite the some of the mature themes, it is obvious that Tezuka is attempting to target a wide audience and is focusing on the youth of Japan.

The changes that Tezuka made to the story are easily recognized by many Japanese, and the youth who are reading the story also have their parents to consult with. Many Americans, however, do not have the same background in Buddhism that many Japanese do. Without an understanding of the original story, some western readers might mistake Tezuka's version as an accurate interpretation when it is not.

The manga in the U.S. has received critical acclaim, but it does not gain as much attention as other mainstream American comics. In Japan, however, Tezuka is mainstream and his comic is widely published and consumed.   This gives Tezuka a strong influence over the Japanese youth and is a large experience with the story of Buddha for them. Even just this year, the story has been adapted into an animated film and is advertised not as the story of Buddha, but as Tezuka's Buddha.

So, we can see here that Tezuka has a strong influence on the Japanese youth and their experience with the story of Buddha. They may not take his story as complete fact (just as with the previously mentioned Samurai Warriors games and how they embellish Japanese history) but he is still an introduction to the story.