Mushishi

蟲師

Ginko is a mushishi, a wandering expert who studies and treats the mushi: primordial lifeforms that sit somewhere between plant, animal, and spirit, invisible to most people yet capable of altering human lives in strange ways. Because Ginko's presence draws mushi to him, he can never settle, drifting through a Japan frozen somewhere between the Edo and Meiji eras and smoking a special tobacco to keep them at bay. Each chapter is self-contained, following Ginko into a new village or household where a mushi has tangled itself into someone's body, memory, or surroundings.