Roleplaying game

7
Introduction
clan champions, the heads of vassal families, and the greatest servants of 
the Hantei. The buke, or chivalric houses, comprises all other samurai, 
including provincial daimyō and city governors, magistrates, and oth-
ers. The vast majority of the buke are warriors, courtiers, and shugenja, 
down to the ji-samurai, or half-samurai—those not allowed the name 
of their lord, including rōnin. Samurai are not permitted to question or 
oppose someone of higher social rank without extreme justification, or 
treat those of equal rank with anything less than complete respect and 
courtesy. They may treat those below them however they please, although 
Bushidō still governs their actions.
Those Who Work
The vast majority of people in Rokugan are the bonge (also called heimin, 
or “half-people.”) 
These peasants keep the nation running by cultivating the land, craft-
ing the tools and implements of daily life, and transporting those goods 
across the Empire by land and sea. Farmers who grow rice and other food 
are considered the most important of the bonge. Below the farmers are 
the raftspeople: carpenters, blacksmiths, brewers, and practitioners of the 
other skilled trades. Below them all are merchants, regarded with con-
tempt by all others since they do not actually make anything themselves.
Seldom permitted to carry weapons (save for ashigaru, peasant military 
levies, and budōka, armed retainers to samurai), heimin have few defenses, 
physically or socially. As a being with a higher social and spiritual status, 
a samurai may demand anything from heimin who belong to their lord 
without recompense, and can kill any heimin who disobeys or fails to show 
respect. Yet, the samurai are also responsible to heimin, as described in the 
Celestial Order; the bonge’s dharma is to work the land and obey the samu-
rai, and it is the samurai’s duty to protect the heimin and administer the 
Empire. Slaying a heimin means answering to that heimin’s lord. 
Most samurai treat bonge with indifference. A rare few are outright 
cruel. Heimin must always be completely respectful and obedient toward 
samurai, but they seldom feel anything other than fear for the upper 
castes. Samurai who demonstrate an abundance of compassion are re-
warded with true loyalty.
Those Who Do Not Belong
There is a third class, called burakumin, or “hamlet people,” who are 
sometimes known as hinin, or non-people. Due to their proximity to 
death or dishonorable acts, these criminals, torturers, undertakers, butch-
ers, and tanners are considered unfit as companions for samurai save in 
the direst of circumstances. Even a kindly lord’s speech might be discol-
ored by the pejorative term eta, a slur meaning “abundance of filth.” 
Burakumin are considered deeply unclean, and associating with them 
too often requires the samurai to undertake special purification rituals. 
Burakumin must live in special villages on the outskirts of society, and 
they are deeply afraid of samurai. More so than bonge, burakumin can 
be killed for no reason at all, without any consequences. Testing newly 
forged blades by cutting down the nearest hinin isn’t uncommon.
Entertainers who aren’t samurai, including geisha, are also technically 
hinin for a special reason: because they are non-people, a samurai may 
fully relax around them with no social stigma. The stress of maintaining 
one face’s can and will wear on even the most stoic of samurai. In the com-
pany of a geisha, under the gentle strains of shamisen music, a samurai may 
laugh, or complain about their lord and family, or cry at their lot in life.
A Samurai’s Life
Most samurai are either born into the ranks of the buke from long-serv-
ing family lines or adopted from another noble family. Some are adopted 
from rōnin or vassal families who pledge themselves to a lord.
Samurai youth have very few expectations placed on them and aren’t 
expected to maintain their face. Most want for nothing. So long as they 
obey their parents, they have no cares until sometime between ages eight 
and twelve, depending on the family or clan. They are then enrolled in a 
family dōjō to train for their adult responsibilities. This training varies in 
length depending upon its nature (shugenja students in particular often 
have widely varying educational careers, depending on when and how 
strongly their gifts with the kami manifest themselves) and the capabili-
ties of the student, but typically lasts about four years.
Training
For the upper classes of samurai, learning one’s place in the Empire 
means training at the family dōjō, practicing techniques perfected over 
centuries of effort and mastery. Students with another clear aptitude are 
often transferred to another family dōjō within the same clan and given 
instruction on how to best use their talents to serve. On rare occasions, 
they may even be traded to another clan, an arrangement that requires a 
great number of favors and concessions. After they have met the require-
ments of their sensei, a samurai is deemed ready for gempuku. 
Gempuku
The greatest day of a samurai’s young life is the day they become an adult, 
graduating from their academy dōjō in the coming-of-age ceremony 
and becoming a full-fledged member of the clan. Usually, this occurs 
sometime around a samurai’s sixteenth year, although both earlier and 
later gempuku aren’t uncommon. Most involve tests of some sort, to 
ensure the samurai has learned all they were required and are capable 
of performing their duties with excellence. Should the young samurai 
pass, they are gifted with a wakizashi—traditionally their grandfather’s, 
although more often a replica made in the same style—and expected to 
serve the clan faithfully.
Marriage
Love has a place in Rokugan: that of pillow books and wistful poems to 
one’s beloved, for marrying for true love is rare. Marriage in a feudal society 
is predicated upon what’s best for the family and alliances, and thus the 
talent and bloodlines of young samurai are often traded for favors and stra-
tegic resources. For a samurai to balk or refuse this is considered the same 
thing as refusing any other commands from their daimyō: grounds for sep-
puku—and thus, most samurai wouldn’t even consider questioning it.
Retirement
After a lifetime of service to the clan, when their physical faculties begin 
to wane, many samurai choose to become monks, retiring to a monastery 
to contemplate the mysteries of Shinsei and the Tao. The expression is to 
“shave one’s head,” referring to the practice of cutting one’s topknot, the 
symbol of their samurai status (though since many clans adopt a wide 
variety of hairstyles in the modern era, this remains colloquial). The sam-
urai surrenders their wakizashi to the clan before mulling over a lifetime’s 
worth of wisdom in peaceful contemplation. Not all samurai choose to 
retire; some continue to serve their lords well into old age, while others 
find a noble death in battle. 
But retirement serves a deeply practical purpose. Though a samurai’s 
clan obligations are in theory severed after a lifetime’s service, most 
monks stay on their family’s lands, providing a deep wellspring of institu-
tional knowledge and wisdom the clan may continue to tap long after the 
samurai’s steel has grown dull with age.

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