Vagabond mouse pads for the desk

Padrift's Vagabond mouse pads and desk mats are original designs inspired by Takehiko Inoue's manga about the young Miyamoto Musashi, printed edge to edge on 3 mm neoprene with a fabric top, a non-slip base and stitched edges. The eight sizes start with an 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm) pad for the mouse and go up to a 23.6″ × 47.2″ (60 × 120 cm) mat long enough to sit under a keyboard, a mouse and a book stand, and we only print a pad once someone has ordered it.

The page covers the whole manga: Takezō after the battle, the rivals he meets on the road, Kojirō's separate story, the long fight in Kyoto and the quieter chapters in the fields.

Inoue's Musashi

Vagabond has run in Kodansha's Weekly Morning since 1998 and fills 37 volumes, though it has been on hiatus since 2015. Inoue had already drawn Slam Dunk when he started it, and he took Eiji Yoshikawa's 1930s novel Musashi as his starting point before going his own way. There has never been an anime; the manga is the only version.

The story follows Shinmen Takezō, a violent, half-wild youth from a mountain village, who survives the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and sets out to become, in the manga's recurring phrase, invincible under the heavens. Before long he goes by the name Miyamoto Musashi, the same man who, in real history, would write The Book of Five Rings decades later.

Brush lines at mouse-pad scale

Inoue draws much of Vagabond with a brush rather than a pen, and it shows. Lines swell and thin, hair is a flurry of dry strokes, and grass, rain and fog are suggested with washes of gray rather than drawn line by line. It is ink work closer to traditional painting than to most manga.

That kind of art needs a sharp print, and edge-to-edge high-resolution printing keeps fine strokes crisp on the fabric top. Detailed faces and hands look their sharpest along the back half of a mat, where nothing rests on them, while broad washes of gray or open white suit the front half, under your wrists. A design laid out that way stays clear even after months of use.

A desk in grayscale

Most of Vagabond is black, white and every gray in between. That makes it an easy match for a monochrome setup: a black keyboard on a paper-white mat, a white keyboard on an ink-black one, a gray desk lamp and nothing else to compete. It is a classic look that works in an office and doesn't date.

When Inoue does use color, on covers and special illustrations, it comes in soft washes: faded blue, rust red, ochre and the green of distant hills. A design inspired by those pages adds a little warmth to a wooden desk without breaking the calm, hand-painted feel.

After Sekigahara

The manga opens on the battlefield, after the fighting has ended. Takezō and his childhood friend Matahachi lie wounded among the dead, rain falling on them, wondering what comes next. Matahachi soon drifts off with a widow named Okō and spends years avoiding the truth about himself; Takezō goes on fighting.

It is a heavy opening, and art drawn from it suits a dark, serious desk: gray rain, broken spears and a single figure standing up out of the mud. Keep it to an XL or larger, so the scene has room around the keyboard, and pair it with neutral peripherals so the mood stays intact.

Takuan and the tree

Back in his home village, Takezō is hunted as an outlaw, and the man who finally catches him is a monk, Takuan Sōhō, who ties the furious young man to a tree and leaves him there to think. Takuan is calm, funny and blunt, and his words follow Musashi for the rest of the story.

A tall tree standing alone, drawn in ink against open sky, makes a strong, simple design. It suits a portrait-shaped corner of a small pad, where it rises up the side opposite your mouse hand, and it looks like a quiet landscape to anyone who doesn't know the scene.

The Yoshioka school

In Kyoto, Musashi walks into the Yoshioka school, the city's leading sword school, and challenges it. That decision sets off the longest feud in the manga, with the head of the school, Seijūrō, his brother Denshichirō and dozens of students, and it raises the stakes for Musashi with every visit.

Duels translate well to a desk mat because they have a natural layout: two figures at the ends, facing each other, and empty space between them. On an XL, 15.7″ × 35.4″ (40 × 90 cm), your keyboard fills the space, and the stillness before the strike is right there under your hands.

The Hōzōin spear

In Nara, Musashi faces the warrior monks of the Hōzōin temple, famous for the spear, and its young master, Inshun. A spear is long and straight, and a spear fighter in mid-thrust is an ideal shape for a long, shallow mat.

On an M, 11.8″ × 27.6″ (30 × 70 cm), the shaft can run the full length of the pad above a compact keyboard, with the monk at one end and the point aimed at nothing but empty paper. It is a dramatic design that keeps your typing area clear.

Kojirō, who cannot hear

In Inoue's version, Sasaki Kojirō, Musashi's famous rival, was born deaf. He is raised by an aging swordsman, Kanemaki Jisai, grows up playful, childlike and frighteningly gifted, and carries a long sword nicknamed the drying pole. His story has its own long arc, separate from Musashi's, while Matahachi borrows his name and pretends to be him.

Kojirō's chapters are lighter in tone and full of sea, sky and open shore. A Kojirō design suits a bright desk under daylight: pale blue, white sand, a figure with a long sword walking along the waterline. On a white or light gray setup, it is the most relaxed Vagabond art you can choose.

Seventy against one

The feud with the Yoshioka ends in a fight at Ichijōji, where Musashi faces seventy of the school's swordsmen alone. Inoue draws it across chapter after chapter, almost without pause, with mud, sweat and exhaustion on every page.

A battle that long fits the widest mat. On a 4XL, 23.6″ × 47.2″ (60 × 120 cm), a crowd of swordsmen can close in from both ends while the center stays open for the keyboard and mouse. It suits a dark wooden desk and a player who likes long, punishing games.

The farming chapters

The most recent chapters move away from swords altogether. Musashi settles in a poor village, works the fields with a boy named Iori and learns that land doesn't respond to force. It is slow, earthy and thoughtful, the most reflective stretch of the whole manga.

These chapters give Vagabond a calm palette: rice fields, wet earth, straw hats and low hills. A farming design suits a study desk, a writing desk or a room full of plants, and it is a good gift for someone who reads the manga for its ideas more than its fights.

Eyes that hold you

Inoue's close-ups are famous: a face filling the panel, eyes locked on an opponent, every line on the skin visible. They are some of the most intense images in manga, and they work as desk art if you place them well.

Keep a face at the back edge of the mat, or at the end away from your mouse hand, so you meet its eyes when you look up rather than resting your hand on it. On a small pad, a single eye and brow, cropped tight, can be more striking than a whole figure.

A reading and writing desk

Vagabond is the kind of manga people read slowly, at a desk, with time between chapters. Viz Media publishes it in English, including large VIZBIG omnibus editions, and a full run takes up a good stretch of shelf above a desk.

A Vagabond pad suits that kind of desk: a book stand, a notebook, a cup of tea and a pale ink landscape underneath. It also suits a calligraphy or sumi practice setup, where the 14″ × 24″ (35.5 × 61 cm) size fits beside the paper and catches stray drips from the brush rest.

An artist's desk

For illustrators and comic artists, Inoue's brushwork is a reference they come back to again and again. A desk mat under a drawing tablet keeps it from sliding, protects the desk and gives your forearm a cushioned surface during long sessions, and the fabric top is smooth enough not to catch your sleeve.

Choose a pale design for this kind of desk, so the art doesn't distract from the work in front of you: a soft gray landscape, a single tree or a band of brush strokes along the back edge.

Sizes for a Vagabond desk

Check the product page for the sizes a given design comes in. With ink-drawn Vagabond art, these combinations make sense.

Setup	Size	Good for
Mouse only	S, 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm)	A lone tree or a single eye
Calligraphy or reading	TCG Mat, 14″ × 24″ (35.5 × 61 cm)	A pale ink landscape
Compact keyboard	M, 11.8″ × 27.6″ (30 × 70 cm)	The Hōzōin spear in mid-thrust
Keyboard and mouse	XL, 15.7″ × 35.4″ (40 × 90 cm)	Two swordsmen facing each other
Deep desk	XXL, 23.6″ × 35.4″ (60 × 90 cm)	Rice fields and low hills
Whole desk	4XL, 23.6″ × 47.2″ (60 × 120 cm)	Seventy swordsmen closing in

A desk with lots of length but little depth suits L, 11.8″ × 31.5″ (30 × 80 cm); one that is wide but stops short of XXL depth suits 3XL, 19.7″ × 39.4″ (50 × 100 cm).

Gifts for a Vagabond reader

A Vagabond pad suits someone who owns all 37 volumes and is still waiting for the next chapter, a martial artist, an illustrator who studies Inoue's ink or a reader who came for the sword fights and stayed for the philosophy. Choose a duel for a fight fan, Kojirō's shore for a bright desk and the farming chapters for a thoughtful reader. If the recipient's desk is a mystery, S, 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm), sits beside any keyboard and holds a single brush-drawn figure.

Expect 1–3 business days of making time, then a trip from Turkey that usually takes 2–5 business days to reach the US, so a two-week head start before a gift date is wise.

Keeping paper white

A paper-white Vagabond mat looks clean and calm, but it shows skin oil and coffee rings sooner than a dark one. Wipe the surface regularly with a damp, lint-free cloth. For a full clean, hand wash it in lukewarm water with mild soap, work gently over the stained patch, rinse it until the water is clear, press it dry between towels and let it finish drying flat. A washing machine, a dryer or an iron would damage the pad, so leave them out of it.

A note on names

Vagabond, Musashi and the names of the manga's characters appear here only to describe the inspiration for our art. Padrift has no connection with Takehiko Inoue, I.T. Planning, Kodansha or Viz Media, and none of them sponsors or endorses these pads.