Manga creator Takehiko Inoue announced on Tuesday that he will run the 323rd chapter of his Vagabond manga in Kodansha's Morning magazine on January 29. The magazine's ninth issue of 2014 will debut on that date. Inoue acknowledged that it "has been a while" since his last chapter.

The series went on hiatus last February, and Inoue planned its return for last June. However, he delayed the manga's return until this past fall, and again until this month.

The Vagabond manga, which tells a fictionalized account of real-life swordsman Musashi Miyamoto, has received critical acclaim in Japan and abroad. It won a Kodansha Manga Award in the general category in 2000, as well as the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2002. Inoue, also renowned for his basketball manga Slam Dunk , was nominated for the 2003 Eisner Award in the Best Writer/Artist category.

The Vagabond series had resumed in the magazine in 2012 after a roughly 18-month hiatus due to Inoue's health issues. The manga went on hiatus again last year due to Inoue working on research and other reasons. The magazine explained in June that the return had been delayed due to Inoue's work on the "Tokubetsuten Gaudí x Takehiko Inoue -Synchrosuru Sõzõ no Gensen- Takehiko Inoue Interprets Gaudi's Universe" art exhibition. The special exhibit ran in the Mori Arts Center Gallery in Tokyo's Roppongi district from July 12 to September 7.

The manga's 37th compiled book volume shipped in Japan on July 23. Viz Media released the 36th volume (pictured right) in North America in October.