Samurai Life
Most samurai are either born into the ranks of the buke from long-serving 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.
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. 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 capabilities of the student, but typically lasts about four years. 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 favours and concessions. After they have met the requirements 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 fullfledged 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 grandparent’s, although more often a replica made in the same style—and expected to serve the clan faithfully.Marriage
Love has a place in Kiga: in 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 favours and strategic resources. For a samurai to balk or refuse this is considered the same thing as refusing any other commands from their daimyō: grounds for seppuku—and thus, most samurai wouldn’t even consider questioning it.Retirement
After a lifetime of service to the clan, 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 samurai 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 institutional knowledge and wisdom the clan may continue to tap long after the samurai’s steel has grown dull with age.Funeral
The last act of a samurai—death with dignity—is a solemn affair. While many samurai seek an honourable death in battle, this isn’t always possible. When a samurai dies, their deeds are read before a group of dignitaries and loved ones gathered around an ornate pyre built to represent the elements that make up a samurai’s soul. The body is cremated and the burnt bones are picked out of the ashes with specialized chopsticks, for the dead must never be touched. Seppuku is another possible end for a samurai—ritual suicide to cleanse the family and the individual of the samurai’s dishonour. Successful performance of seppuku generally redeems the samurai’s shame, allowing them to try to seek honour and dharma again in a different life.A Life Without Purpose
The exception to the samurai way of life is the lifestyle of a rōnin, literally “wave-man,” one tossed by the vicissitudes of fate. A samurai need not accept seppuku to cleanse their honour—they may choose to forsake their duty and leave. Though many rōnin do not conform to the stereotype of honourless, masterless samurai—some are simply the children of rōnin born to their station, acting with greater honour than many samurai of the Great Clans—enough do that they are automatically assumed to be untrustworthy and without decency.LIFE ON THE WAVES
Many samurai voluntarily become rōnin for a single year, typically in the year or the second following their gempuku. Considered to be a healthy outlet for a young samurai’s desire to prove themself, this allows them to sharpen their skills and temper their attitudes with experience. Having experienced hardship in the outer Empire, most return and swear fealty to the clan anew with true loyalty rather than an inculcated sense of duty. While a rōnin is technically still samurai, they have no lord, no clan, and no family—and thus, no purpose. Rōnin are forced to find work as mercenaries or bodyguards, eating dumplings bought from foul heimin merchants and earning their straw bedding with the skill of their blade. Some resort to banditry or crime to gather the coin they need to live, but at least this is still an earning wrought by skill at arms. Even the lowest rōnin is higher than the bonge.
Type
Military Order
Parent Organization