Samurai by Yiou Yao

When I was a child, I was very curious and adored the samurai culture of Japan, and I watched a lot of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai movies. I have always loved comics and animations especially those that originate from Japanese art. In high school I read a comic called “Vagabond”, a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue. “Vagabond” portrays a fictionalized account of the life of a Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi and this comic work has been a great inspiration to me.

My paper-cut animation - Samurai is set in the Meji period of Japan in 18th Century when the shogunate (Japanese government in the War Period) issued a ban on samurai’s swords. Some samurais and ronins opposed the ban and were considered heretics who were wanted by the shogunate. The samurai fights the brutal ninjas in the story I have created and links back to my childhood memories.

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