LINKS
our database of samurai history links
Another Samurai LARP with good information (until i get time off making The Zen Scrolls to put my stuff into a website)
CURRENT SAMURAI MEMBERS
Tamiko Hiratasuka, AGE 23, alive, young daimyo of Dewa province / sensei of history and ettiquite, with a secret past, from northern Japan born 1750. email. Special skills: unconventional solutions to problems, art, an expert knowledge of propganda.
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More members joining soon.....
Only one player can get to be Shogun at any one time, though conquering other clans or making more than half swear allegiance to you. Ways to conquer clans include wage war against them, prove to the satisfaction of your officials that a clan is treasonous, or winning a clans respect so that they will follow you.
To get this far you have done pretty damn well! You may well be a daimyo of your own province as well, but have gained the trust of the Shogun. You may have your eye on toppling the current Shogun, or you might be happy where you are. Be aware however that petty politics, and conspiracies reign supreme, and to survive, you have to be as devious as the rest! To become Shogun, you must have become the most respected of his officials, and if, at his demise, he has no son, you will be named the next Shogun.
Comfy place to be at, you are the Japanese equivilent of a mediaval baron, with your own castle, clan etc. Do be aware that other Daimyo might fancy your land, or members of your clan might be trying to jump from samurai to Shogunate official, by exposing any plots that you are hatching for the same reason. You may also be a sensei. You can join as a Daimyo, of a province on this map .
Your loyalty is to your Daimyo above all, though you might be a traitor, one never knows. High ranking samurai or any Daimyo may also be sensei: in martial arts, ettiquite, art, etc. You may also jump from samurai to shogunate offical by exposing plots against the Shogunate - if this is your wish. To find a sensei, please check right and email any who do not have two students yet.
You are almost at the bottom of the pecking order, though high ranking ashigaru may also be mesengers, and if you do your job well, or save the life of a higher ranking samurai you can jump up to samurai status - at the whim of the samurai above you, or you can jump up if you succed in your studies with a sensei. Really, you are probably a part time samurai, when not required for fighting, you probably are a farmer
Right at the bottom of the samurai pecking order you are a masterless samurai, you may have been banished from a clan for disloyalty, your clan may have been destroyed, you might have been "requested" to committ seppuku, and refused, or you might be wandering the countryside seeking vengeance. Any samurai character can fall to ronin status in the game, or choose it with the permission of your daimyo, if you wish to seek vangeance, or seek for a sensei in a new subject. You may also disguise yourself as a ronin, but if you do, you will be treated as such...
Bushido, literally translated "Way of the Warrior," developed in
Japan between the Heian and Tokugawa Ages (9th-12th century). It was a code
and way of life for Samurai. It was influenced by Zen and Confucianism, two
different schools of thought of those periods. Bushido is not unlike but more
extreme than the chivalry and codes of the European knights. "It puts
emphasis on loyalty, self sacrifice, justice, sense of shame, refined manners,
purity, modesty, frugality, martial spirit, honor and affection" (Nippon
Steel Human Resources Development Co., Ltd. 329).
Bushido comes out of Buddhism, Zen, Confucianism, and Shintoism. The combination
of these schools of thought and religions has formed the code of warrior values
known as Bushido.
From Buddhism, Bushido gets its relationship to danger and death. The samurai
do not fear death because they believe as Buddhism teaches, after death one
will be reincarnated and may live another life here on earth. The samurai
are warriors from the time they become samurai until their death; they have
no fear of danger. Through Zen, a school of Buddhism one can reach the ultimate
"Absolute." Zen meditation teaches one to focus and reach a level
of thought words cannot describe. Zen teaches one to "know thyself"
and do not to limit yourself. Samurai used this as a tool to drive out fear,
unsteadiness and ultimately mistakes. These things could get him killed.
Shintoism, another Japanese doctrine, gives Bushido its loyalty and patriotism.
Shintoism includes ancestor-worship which makes the Imperial family the fountain-head
of the whole nation. It awards the emperor a god-like reverence. He is the
embodiment of Heaven on earth. With such loyalty, the samurai pledge themselves
to the emperor and their daimyo or feudal landlords, higher ranking samurai.
Shintoism also provides the backbone for patriotism to their country, Japan.
They believe the land is not merely there for their needs, "it is the
sacred abode to the gods, the spirits of their forefathers . . ." (Nitobe,
14). The land is cared for, protected and nurtured through an intense patriotism.
Confucianism gives Bushido its beliefs in relationships with the human world,
their environment and family. Confucianism's stress on the five moral relations
between master and servant, father and son, husband and wife, older and younger
brother, and friend and friend, are what the samurai follow. However, the
samurai disagreed strongly with many of the writings of Confucius. They believed
that man should not sit and read books all day, nor shall he write poems all
day, for an intellectual specialist was considered to be a machine. Instead,
Bushido believes man and the universe were made to be alike in both the spirit
and ethics.
Along with these virtues, Bushido also holds justice, benevolence, love, sincerity,
honesty, and self-control in utmost respect. Justice is one of the main factors
in the code of the samurai. Crooked ways and unjust actions are thought to
be lowly and inhumane. Love and benevolence were supreme virtues and princely
acts. Samurai followed a specific etiquette in every day life as well as in
war. Sincerity and honesty were as valued as their lives. Bushi no ichi-gon,
or "the word of a samurai," transcends a pact of complete faithfulness
and trust. With such pacts there was no need for a written pledge; it was
thought beneath one's dignity. The samurai also needed self-control and stoicism
to be fully honored. He showed no sign of pain or joy. He endured all within--no
groans, no crying. He held a calmness of behavior and composure of the mind
neither of which should be bothered by passion of any kind. He was a true
and complete warrior.
These factors which make up Bushido were few and simple. Though simple, Bushido
created a way of life that was to nourish a nation through its most troubling
times, through civil wars, despair and uncertainty. "The wholesome unsophisticated
nature of our warrior ancestors derived ample food for their spirit from a
sheaf of commonplace and fragmentary teachings, gleaned as it were on the
highways and byways of ancient thought, and, stimulated by the demands of
the age formed from these gleanings a new and unique way of life" (Nitobe,
20).