Sabaku no Tami

People of the Desert (砂漠の民, Sabaku no Tami) (translated on the cover as The People of Desert), or The Desert Tribe is a comic strip written and illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki. It was serialized, under the pseudonym Akitsu Saburō (秋津三朗), and ran in Boys and Girls Newspaper (少年少女しんぶん, Shōnen Shōjo Shinbun) between September 12, 1969, and March 15, 1970.[1]

People of the Desert
Sabaku no Tami cover
砂漠の民
(Sabaku no Tami)
GenreAdventure
Manga
Written byAkitsu Saburō
MagazineBoys and Girls Newspaper
Original runSeptember 12, 1969 – March 15, 1970

Story

The story is set in the distant past, on the fictionalised desert plains of Central Asia. Part of the story takes place in the fortified city named Pejite (ペジテ). The story follows the exploits of the main character, Tem (テム), a shepherd boy of the fictional Sokut (ソクート) tribe, as he tries to evade the mounted militia of the nomadic Kittāru (キッタール) tribe. In order to restore peace to the realm, Tem rallies his remaining compatriots and rebels against the Kittāru's attempts to gain control of the Sokut territory and enslave its inhabitants through military force.

Background, publication and influences

Miyazaki initially wanted to become a manga artist but started his professional career as an animator for Toei Animation in 1963. Here he worked on animated television series and animated feature-length films for theatrical release. He never abandoned his childhood dream of becoming a manga artist completely, however, and his professional debut as a manga creator came in 1969 with the publication of his manga interpretation of Puss 'n Boots, which was serialized in 12 weekly instalments in the Sunday edition of Tokyo Shimbun, from January to March 1969. Printed in colour and created for promotional purposes in conjunction with his work on Toei's animated film of the same title, directed by Kimio Yabuki.

In 1969 pseudonymous serialization also started of Miyazaki's original manga People of the Desert (砂漠の民, Sabaku no Tami). This strip was created in the style of illustrated stories (絵物語, emonogatari) he read in boys' magazines and tankōbon volumes while growing up, such as Soji Yamakawa's Shōnen Ōja (少年王者) and in particular Tetsuji Fukushima's Evil Lord of the Desert (沙漠の魔王, Sabaku no Maō). Miyazaki's People of the Desert is a continuation of that tradition. In People of the Desert expository text is presented separately from the monochrome artwork but Miyazaki progressively used additional text balloons inside the panels for dialogue.

People of the Desert was serialized in 26 weekly instalments which were printed in Boys and Girls Newspaper (少年少女新聞, Shōnen shōjo shinbun), a publication of the Japanese Communist Party, between September 12, 1969 (issue 28) and March 15, 1970 (issue 53). The strip was published under the pseudonym Akitsu Saburō (秋津三朗).

The strip has been identified as a precursor for Miyazaki's manga Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1982–1995) and the one-off graphic novel Shuna's Journey (1983), published by Tokuma Shoten.[2]

Citations
  1. Miyazaki & Takahata 2009, p. 438.
  2. Miyazaki & Takahata 2009, p. 438; McCarthy 1999, p. 219; Comic Box November 1 1982, p. 111; Animage June 10 1983, pp. 172, 173; Takekuma 2008; Kanō 2007, p. 45ff.

Cited sources
  • "ナウシカの道 連載 1 宮崎駿・マンガの系譜" [The Road to Nausicaä, episode 1, Hayao Miyazaki's Manga Genealogy]. Animage. Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten (61): 172–173. June 10, 1983. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
  • "砂漠の民" [People of the Desert]. Comic Box (in Japanese). Fusion Products (3): 111–137. November 1, 1982. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
  • Kanō, Seiji (January 1, 2007) [first published March 31, 2006]. 宮崎駿全書 [The Complete Miyazaki Hayao] (in Japanese) (2nd ed.). Tokyo: Film Art Inc. pp. 45ff, 85, 321. ISBN 978-4-8459-0687-1. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
  • McCarthy, Helen (1999). Hayao Miyazaki Master of Japanese Animation (2002 ed.). Berkeley, Ca: Stone Bridge Press. pp. 27, 219. ISBN 1880656418. Archived from the original on December 25, 2010.
  • Miyazaki, Hayao; Takahata, Isao (August 4, 2009). Starting Point 1979–1996. Viz Media. p. 438. ISBN 978-1-4215-0594-7. Archived from the original on August 28, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
  • Takekuma, Kentaro (October 30, 2008). "「マンガとアニメーションの間に」第4回「マンガ版『ナウシカ』はなぜ読みづらいのか？」" [Lecture series Between Manga and Anime, Fourth lecture Why is the manga edition of Nausicaä so difficult to read?]. Kyoto Seika University. Archived from the original on October 25, 2008. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
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