Biwamaru

琵琶丸

Biwamaru (sometimes Biwa Maru) is a blind, itinerant acupuncture doctor, who wanders around Japan curing all sorts of ailments with miraculous speed. He is extremely disheveled in appearance, dressed in rags and walking with a twisted stick as a cane, and a rough bundle on his back. Biwamaru is effective, like Black Jack, an unlicensed doctor, since his practices are considered to be quackery by the medical establishment, while Biwamaru considers it barbaric to cut open a patient to cure them. This, as with Dr. Kiriko, Biwamaru is another nemesis who is too similar to Black Jack for the two to forgive their differences. Biwamaru also features in Tezuka’s best-known samurai manga, Dororo. ~!When Biwamaru came to Black Jack's town in issue #126 'The Blind Doctor of Acupuncture,' (6/7/1976) it was hatred at first sight, as each dismissed the other as a quack, though neither was able to deny the effectiveness of the other’s treatments. To make matters worse, Biwamaru charges nothing for his services, in contrast with Black Jack's outrageous fees, leading to criticism of Black Jack by the local community. Their interaction here effectively degenerated into each attempting repeatedly to