Monks, Monasteries, and Temples
Posted: Fri May 22, 2020 6:59 pm
Shinseist Temples and Monasteries in Society
Shinseist sanctuaries—with the exception of cloistered monasteries—are community centers as well as spiritual centers, fulfilling diverse functions in Rokugani society at large. First and foremost, of course, they teach religious doctrine and practice to community members. Monks and especially priests officiate at offerings, scripture readings, festivals, weddings, and funerals. Local priests counsel Shinseists in mental or spiritual crisis. Mendicant monks carry news and mail from place to place. But Shinseist temples and monasteries also serve several less obvious functions.
Food and Drink
Nearly every significant monastery or temple grows grains like rice and millet and occasionally trades goods like indigo, mulberries, or silk. Many brew liquor as well. These crops and commodities keep their inhabitants fed and the organization’s treasury stocked, minimizing reliance on fickle outside patrons. Novice monks sometimes work these fields, but their seniors usually prefer the more refined pastime of gardening: arranging plants around the sanctuary according to Rokugan’s ancient manuals of sacred gardening and landscaping, or cultivating new and delicious vegetables to enliven their simple and usually meatless diets. Rich monasteries with expansive fields must rely heavily on peasant labor.
Natural disasters and wartime devastation often send destitute commoners flocking to a monastery’s or temple’s gates to beg for handouts. While large, efficiently operated monasteries have an easier time accumulating resources than peasants, such vicissitudes drain their stores swiftly. Then, some priest or monk must head to the local lord or magistrate begging for subsidies, cascading the perils of famine up the chain of feudal authority.
Shelter and Defense
Natural disasters like floods, tsunami, earthquakes, and mudslides make short work of the paper-and-wood buildings of Rokugan. In contrast, stone, stout timbers, and expert joinery make a Shinseist temple the sturdiest (and most beautiful) edifice in most small towns. Locals flock to the temple in cases of torrential rain, dangerous creatures at large, or their own homes’ destruction.
The fortified monasteries of martial orders offer even better protection, with moats, concentric walls with arrow slits, and thickets full of unpleasant surprises. Hot-tempered young monks spend their ample free time swinging polearms around and convincing themselves they are due for a fine reincarnation should they die in defense of other Shinseists. Bandits and enemy armies’ scouts are loath to test such fearless foes.
Scholarship, Science, and Medicine
Temples and especially monasteries have long histories as repositories of scholarship. Priests and monks are almost always literate and frequently know multiple dialects through textual study or missionary wanderings to the most remote villages of Rokugan. Recopying and commenting on the Tao of Shinsei, the Thunder Dialogue, and other sacred texts occupies hours of many monks’ days. Monastic libraries also accumulate scrolls of virtually every other type of literature, from poetry, novels, and plays to scientific treatises and fencing manuals. Monks and priests often occupy themselves with natural philosophy or medical research, and they open their infirmaries or surgeries to anyone—friend or foe, faithful or otherwise—in poor health. Several temples of philosophical bent explore illnesses of the mind as well, building on Shinsei’s doctrine of dependent origination and analyzing suffering’s root causes. These temples augment the counseling services priests have always provided with teaching meditation, mindfulness, and restorative exercise, and offering herbal treatments. These are of particular interest to samurai who endure leadership’s stresses and battlefield trauma.
Funerals
Unlike Fortunist priests and shugenja, Shinseist monks do not shy away from the subject of death. In fact, Shinseist monks are foremost experts on the dying process. This is because death is not seen as inherently evil or unclean according to the Tao of Shinsei. Instead, it is another part of the natural cycle, the precursor to rebirth and the transition to the next life. Indeed, one purpose of the Brotherhood of Shinsei is to prepare retired samurai for their life’s final stages, their practice involving meditations on impermanence and cultivating serenity in the face of death.
For this reason, funerals are conducted by Shinseist monks at temples instead of by Fortunist priests at shrines. This is also a matter of practicality, as many retired samurai spend their twilight years as monks, and therefore they may already be at a temple or monastery when they depart. The Brotherhood’s funeral ceremony is derived from the Tao’s teachings, varying only slightly between provinces when influenced by local custom. Because of death’s profound karmic effects, the major purpose of the ceremony is to sever death’s influence from the deceased’s family and provide them with a way to mourn without loss of face. It is sometimes said that the Shinseist funeral is for the living, not the dead.
The funeral is held four days after the death. During this time, the body is prepared by members of the hinin caste under the direction of monks—safely outside the bounds of the temple. The body is washed, anointed, and rubbed with salt. Then, a featureless mask is placed on the face, so that any lingering spirit will not recognize its former body or attempt to reclaim it.
On the day of the funeral, the temple provides the family with a wooden marker displaying the departed’s name and a list of their deeds. The family attends dressed in white clothes of mourning. A modest meal of special funeral foods, known as otoki, is offered to the family.
Imperial decree forbids the entombing of bodies. Instead, the body is carried to a pyre, where the family witnesses its cremation. It is widely believed that if too much open sorrow is displayed during this part of the ceremony, the spirit will feel troubled and remain behind, a fate few would desire for their loved ones. Therefore, those at funerals hide their sorrow behind veils and stony faces, lest they inadvertently doom the departed to endless wandering as a lost soul. Afterward, the family picks the bones from the ashes using ceremonial chopsticks, passing them from one family member to the next until they are placed to rest in an urn. Monks then light a string of candles to symbolize the rebirth of the departed through their many prior lives.
There is some variance to funeral traditions owing to unique clan traditions and local beliefs. For example, the Crane practice an exchange of funerary gifts known as koden-gaeshi. In this tradition, the mourner offers a small token to the family of the departed, usually something with personal meaning, and the mourning family later recompenses with a gift of their own. In contrast, formal funerals are a luxury the Crab can rarely afford, due to their proximity to the Shadowlands and the accompanying threats. When they do occur, Crab funerals are held indoors with all windows left open so the soul may escape, except for windows facing south, which are barred shut and sealed.
Politics and Diplomacy
Monasteries and temples often function as neutral ground in negotiations between samurai clans and other parties in conflict. However, priests and monks who are truly politically neutral are a minority. Senior monks’ and priests’ learned opinions and broad social networks grant them significant influence over courts and war councils. The threat of protesting monks flooding into a town and riling up locals vexes magistrates and samurai, who threaten such monks’ agricultural holdings, skimp on donations, or show favor to rival orders.
Shinseism, Caste, and Clan
The Tao of Shinsei states explicitly that all walks of life and all families must follow the same path to freedom and Enlightenment. In pursuit of Shinsei’s Way, an Emperor and a peasant—indeed, a Fortune and a mortal—are alike. Shinsei mentioned in passing that privileged or aristocratic birth denotes that a person had a lighter karmic load in their previous life, and that greater privilege carries greater civic obligation and opportunity for both heroic action and catastrophic failure. However, later commentators have emphasized the connection between karma and station far more aggressively than Shinsei.
Technically, at a reading of the sutras in a temple, a domestic servant of the Crane Clan and Bayushi Kachiko herself might sit side by side and treat one another with courtesy as equals. Practically speaking, prejudice and stereotypes plague the faithful as well as the secular. Samurai who take holy orders usually advance to leadership positions faster than peasants, either due to established social or familial connections to the clergy in charge or through prior education in the classics and other knowledge expected of a Shinseist abbot. Priests’ manners, graces, and habits, which they generally learned before their ordination from others in their caste, tend to place them in ministry over people who share their social background—and aristocratic congregations donate more money. The Perfect Land Sect’s legitimately populist reframing of Shinseism discomfits many high-ranking and samurai-born clergy, who, admittedly or otherwise, enjoy the comforts the status quo brings them.
Clan friendships and rivalries have similar effects on communities of the cloth, seeding holy places with factionalism and cliques. Differing approaches to Shinseism can cause discord among clans, but similar ones can sow harmony among those that otherwise might find no common ground. At philosophical roundtables, Crab and Scorpion who think of their approaches to life and problem solving as diametrically opposed get to broaden their horizons and learn in a safe environment how their opposite numbers think. Lion and Unicorn who expect only to see each other from opposite sides of a battle line are often shocked to find themselves side by side in the rare, clandestine Perfect Land congregations that admit nobles. Quite a few Crab and Lion who agree about everything else have learned not to bring up Shinseism over drinks.
The Phoenix are known as the “Keepers of the Tao” in recognition of Shiba’s having recorded that document. Indeed, most other clans defer to the Phoenix’s judgment on theological matters of Shinseism, and the Phoenix’s approach to the study and practice of Shinseism is widely viewed as the proper one. When someone speaks of Shinseism and the meaning of the Tao, most individuals assume they are referring to the teachings of the Phoenix, unless they specify otherwise.
Daily Life
Religion plays an important part of everything in Rokugan, because it shapes the way people think, their morals, and their aspirations. From the lowliest hinin to the most powerful daimyō, everyone knows that only by fulfilling their purpose to the best of their ability can they progress in the Celestial Order. To fail is to be born in worse circumstances in the next incarnation. The Celestial Order extends into the Heavens, and so is sacred, with Lady Sun and Lord Moon at the pinnacle. Shinseist monks stand outside of this order, however. Rather than aspiring to a glorious life and being reborn in better circumstances, Shinseist monks aim to escape the cycle of rebirth entirely. To do this, monks must attain Enlightenment.
While for most people religion is a natural part of everyday life, for the monks, it is their life. The wisdom gained on a personal journey to Enlightenment can still aid others. Monks are sought for wisdom and guidance, just like priests and shugenja are. While everyone abides by the official religion of Shintao, some focus more on Shinsei, some more on the Fortunes. This is also true of monks, though the Shinseist monks outnumber those of a more Fortunist bent. Fortunist monks serve the Fortunes as Shinsei prescribed, which sets them apart from Fortunist priests, whose traditional practices are older than Shintao. The Brotherhood of Shinsei connects most of the many temples and monasteries across Rokugan, of numerous orders, and its inclusive attitude (despite its restrictive name) means that it is growing all the time. The most extreme orders are deemed heretical and purged, though even an organization as large as the Brotherhood cannot monitor every monk across the Empire, and occasionally profane sects take root.
Monastic Life
While the lives of monks in different orders vary, in most monasteries, routine is important. Routine allows the monks to live in harmony, and it ensures that their duties are performed and their lives are dedicated to the order and its ideals. It is common for the monks to wake early, often before dawn, so that they can start the day with quiet reflection before using the daylight hours to work tending gardens, repairing the monastery, copying sacred texts, studying, and carrying out whatever duties the order deems important. Worship is involved in every activity, from the morning bell or gong ringing, to the little rituals performed around daily tasks, to the group chanting of the sutras that echo through the monastery at set times. In some orders, music and dancing might be used to celebrate Shinsei’s virtues or please the Thunders. All activities become spiritual endeavors when undertaken mindfully.
Many orders include some form of physical training in their routine, which often has martial applications, if only for self-defense. For orders of sōhei monks—warrior monks who fight with weapons—martial training makes up a large part of the day, but even peaceful orders usually devote some time for training. Shinsei taught that the perceived separation between the physical and spiritual worlds is an illusion. Even the most meditative monks must become masters of their own bodies, remaining fit enough to complete their duties undistracted and learning to control the flow of ki, or inner energy. By cultivating an awareness of ki in their bodies and the world around them, monks can eventually achieve seemingly supernatural effects through kihō techniques, as well as gaining a greater understanding of the world.
At a monastery, food is grown, prepared, and consumed together. The set times of meals depends on whether the order includes one, two, or three meals in the daily routine. Animal products of any kind are usually avoided, as is anything that comes from death and decay, such as mushrooms.
Many monasteries are at least partly self-sufficient, relying on gifts to supply what the monks cannot make or grow themselves. While most orders maintain vegetable and herb gardens or even grain fields, some toil to produce enough to supply nearby communities. The monks of some monasteries are renowned for their ceramics or metal work, while others brew sake. Some monasteries provide services, such as taking in the sick for healing, creating or copying important documents, or indeed anything in which the monks of an order are particularly skilled. Whether the monastery produces rice, sake, or porcelain, or offers a service, these things are given freely, though the recipients do of course make contributions to the monks in turn. Those who do not are unlikely to receive any further gifts, and face the karmic ramifications.
The most important part of any monastery is the shrine, temple, or repository of sacred relics. It is the sacred duty of the monks to tend and protect this, and it provides a focus for the monks’ devotion—a connection between the physical monastery and the spiritual world. Other areas are set aside for training and learning. Depending on the order, a training ground or meditation hall may be the secondary focus of the monastery. If the monks’ meditation is conducted while at work, the forge, brewery, or workshop may hold this position. Of least importance are the rooms the monks sleep in. Whether individual or communal, these meet the physical needs of the monks but offer no superfluous comforts.
Martial Arts
Though some monks never fight, and sōhei sometimes fight with weapons, monks have a reputation for being masters of unarmed combat. This is largely because of those tales of seemingly harmless old people who demonstrate unexpected fighting skill when threatened while they are on the road. There is nothing so impressive to the common people as a pompous, fully armored samurai being laid flat on their back by the wizened monk they insulted. The kihō practiced by monks appear effortless, despite the years of training required to perform them. The spread of such stories provide all traveling monks with an element of protection, as travelers treat them with caution.
In some orders, violence is avoided at all costs. While these monks may train using martial exercises, learning self-mastery and union of body and mind, they do not learn any practical techniques. This is rare, however: most peaceful orders nonetheless ensure their monks learn enough to defend themselves and others. With training, such monks can disarm opponents without harming them, and disable them long enough to escape danger. Many orders consider fighting for a just cause, such as defending a monastery, acceptable and necessary. Some are even willing to teach outsiders, though usually this is limited to common folk who are forbidden to carry weapons and so have no other way to defend themselves.
Yamabushi are a special case: these wandering warrior monks achieve Enlightenment through communion with nature. They seek isolation in the wilderness, keeping clear of roads and settlements. Because these monks are so toughened by their austere lifestyle and commitment to physical training, a desperate samurai might petition one for aid, but they must prove their worth to gain it. This involves finding the yamabushi, which is no easy task, as well as stating their case and persuading the monk of the nobility of the cause.
Temple Life
While monasteries are built primarily for monks to live, train, and worship in, temples are built as an act of worship and are for all people. Temples are usually far more open and accessible than monasteries, though some are built in hard-to-reach places, either because a particular area is sacred or because the act of reaching the temple becomes a pilgrimage in itself. Larger temples require more attention, and monks may reside within them, devoting themselves to the temple and the rituals conducted there. The smallest temples rely on visiting monks, priests, shugenja, or even local volunteers for their rituals and upkeep, but most have at least one resident monk who is entrusted with the temple’s care.
The lives of monks are often less than private in a temple setting, where most are available to visitors at all times. In temples large enough, a private space is provided for the monks to meditate out of sight of casual visitors, but this is not always possible. Not all temples receive a steady flow of visitors, however. Some of the most remote or secretive temples actually function more like monasteries, while the most worldly monasteries might fulfill the purpose of a temple.
The resident monks maintain the purity of the air, ensuring incense burns continually, as well as the sanctity of the shrine or sacred relic repository. Many temples are built with the sole purpose of protecting a shrine or housing sacred items, which are locked away out of sight. The visitors come and go, some local, some pilgrims from farther afield, who may be granted overnight accommodation while visiting, offering donations in return. While people of all walks of life are welcome to enter a temple, the monks expel any who do not follow temple etiquette, which requires removing hats, shoes, and weapons before entry and speaking only in hushed tones.
Temples usually play a significant role in their community. Local residents may make daily visits to pay their respects and gain blessings. The resident monks or priests may conduct public rituals every day, or only on feast and festival days. Depending on the temple and the worshipped deity, the temple may serve other purposes as well, but the main role is to give people somewhere to go to revere that deity. Temples contain everything needed to do so, such as incense and offerings, which resident monks usually make themselves. One of the most important duties of the head priest, monk, or shugenja in a temple is to teach the laity about the Thunder, Fortune, elements, or aspect of Shinsei’s teachings the temple is dedicated to.
The monks also maintain the delicate balance of the elements within the temple. Some temples are
designed such that each side represents an element, with the roof signifying Void. For the temple to remain a sacred space, suitable for housing holy relics, no one element must be allowed to overcome the others. The representation is usually symbolic, with colors or images of each element incorporated in the temple design, but in some larger temples there is a pool for Water, a brazier for Fire, incense for Air, and a bowl of salt for Earth. Each of these must be kept full or burning at all times, and all can be used to purify a visitor before they approach the temple’s icon and offer a bow of greeting to Shinsei or the Thunder or Fortune represented. The monks perform this ritual of personal purification each time they enter the temple.
Temples
Temples are commonly devoted to a particular Fortune, Thunder, or aspect of Shinsei, but some of the larger temples are dedicated to several Fortunes, all the Thunders, or all of Shinsei’s many lessons. Temples are open daily for individuals to visit and pray, leave offerings, or ask resident monks for guidance. The monks conduct their own rituals to maintain the sanctity of the temple, and they sometimes lead group rituals on sacred or festival days. While some parades may begin inside the temple, public rituals tend to be held outside. Blessings for the dead can be said within the temple, but ashes are placed in an adjoining cemetery, and local samurai families may have a family shrine on site. Temples are places of quiet contemplation and worship, and a hushed atmosphere of reverence is encouraged.
While each temple is different, many share common features, such as tower gates for the entrances and pagoda-style architecture. Inside, a main hall contains an object of worship, and a meditation hall offers a space to pray. There may be a shrine or shrines within the temple, as well as altars where candles burn. There is at least one incense bowl, where the ash from the days’ offerings collects. Most sacred items are housed within private rooms, inaccessible to common visitors.
Wealth and Blessings
The Brotherhood of Shinsei is a resourceful organization, but rare is the occasion when the Brotherhood funds the construction of a new temple alone. Founding a temple is an expensive affair, but the blessings granted to those who fund or sponsor a temple are more than worth the cost. A daimyō who has a temple built on their land raises their own prestige and improves their karma, so they benefit in both the physical and spiritual realm. Many families and clans maintain temples on their lands for this reason, and often because the temple holds some special meaning for them.
While temples aren’t as self-sufficient as monasteries, resident monks do find ways of increasing the donations of visitors. Monks often produce the items that worship in the temple requires, such as incense and candles, for use by any visitors. Of course, a suitable donation is expected. This also ensures that the manufacture of such items is performed in an appropriate way and the results are of the desired quality. Creating these items becomes a reverent act in itself, another way for the monks to serve the temple and focus their minds on the unity of the universe.
Temples are sometimes built where there is already a shrine, on the site of a miraculous event, or in new towns with growing populations in need of somewhere to worship. New orders of monks may also raise temples for their own use and to attract the notice of the Brotherhood of Shinsei. In this case, the order seeks an appropriate site that takes the landscape into consideration. Ideally, temples are built somewhere pure, in an area of natural beauty or a well-kept area of a city. Placement with a mountain to the north, volcano to the south, or body of water to the east is considered particularly auspicious. The better planned the temple, and the better maintained, the more blessed it becomes. The greatest temples have a powerful aura that even commoners might feel upon entrance.
Sacred Thresholds
While temples vary greatly in their form and function, certain features have such symbolic importance that they are included in nearly every one. The first is the tower gate entrance, which marks the threshold between the outside world and the spiritual space of the temple. The most elaborate include two stories and a decorative roof, and some incorporate alcoves for the guardian statues to stand in. The guardians at the tower gate are important because they keep unwanted spirits out of the temple. Many creatures are used as guardians, depending on the temple. Komainu, or lion-dogs, are common across Rokugan, and lions or dragons are also considered especially effective, particularly within the lands of their namesake clans.
After they pass through the entrance, visitors usually follow a path through a temple garden. The path does not always lead straight into the main building but sometimes meanders or circles it before reaching the entrance. This serves two purposes: giving the visitor time to meditate before entering, which clears their mind in preparation, and confusing any spirits that might make it past the guardians. The garden itself is a sacred place, and everything that grows within it serves a purpose in the temple grounds’ design. While not all temples have a garden, those that do use it as an extension of the temple, somewhere to tell the story of Shinsei or the Thunders and to meditate. As they are on the inside of the temple, the elements are carefully balanced in the garden.
Large temples often feature a main building built in the pagoda style, with a floor representing each element. In some temples, the hall nearest the entrance can be opened up, walls moved to create a space that connects the garden and inner rooms of the temple. Wooden temples are the most common, but those built in remote areas that make maintenance difficult may be built of stone. Stone is also more practical where the weather is harsher, and some stone temples have stood so long that no one can remember who first built them. Some temples, like those in Crab lands, appear fortresslike; within Rokugan, few would forsake all honor and attack a temple, but Crab designers naturally consider such possibilities.
Greater Purpose
The presence of a temple gives locals and travelers a place to worship, and it may also serve the community in other ways. A large temple not only raises the prestige of an area but also attracts new settlers. Smaller temples might provide monks in areas where otherwise people would have to rely only on traveling priests for their blessings. Locals turn to resident monks for advice in times of hardship or when a spiritual opinion is required in a dispute. The temple is a place that peasants and high-ranking samurai might both use, though only the wealthiest and most prestigious will expect the temple to mark and bless the milestones of their lives. Most of the time, the temple is somewhere for people to go and concentrate purely on the spiritual.
Monks at temples devoted to the Tao of Shinsei and the many sutras that further study Shinsei’s teachings might read aloud to visitors or even teach them to read the text themselves. Since basic education is available only to those of the samurai and merchant classes, this can be a great opportunity. In a land where religion requires that the Celestial Order remain rigid, such behaviors might seem a contradiction, but this is often how monks find new recruits for their orders. Once a promising peasant has taken monastic vows, they are outside the Celestial Order, and no harm has been done in teaching them.
Relics
The most important relic to the Brotherhood of Shinsei is the original copy of the Tao of Shinsei—or at least it would be, if the Brotherhood knew of its existence in the Phoenix’s hidden city of Gisei Toshi. Several important temples hold early copies of the text, which are held in the highest reverence, as it is believed that the closer a text is to the original, the truer the words.
In addition to early copies of the Tao of Shinsei, there are innumerable relics across Rokugan, some yet awaiting discovery, others kept safely locked inside temples. These sacred items vary in form, but all hold some link to the past, and often to the spiritual world as well. Relics include texts filled with wisdom, weapons left behind by heroes or Thunders, statues with supernatural properties, items of clothing worn by Kami, and even certain funerary urns.
Great legends have arisen about some of these relics, especially the oldest and most mysterious. Many stories have been passed down for generations and may be as old as the relics themselves. Others are fabricated by visitors who witness unexplained phenomena. More begin with the monks who care for the relics, and who are keen to spread the fame of their temple. The Brotherhood keeps records of relics and their properties, but these are forever changing and growing. There is no set system for determining which are genuine, which are fake, which have supernatural properties, and which are simply fragments of history that serve as valuable reminders of the past.
Pilgrimages
Pilgrims who visit temples may have traveled the length of Rokugan, or they may simply have come from the next town. A pilgrim might be a wealthy samurai or common peasant, and their journey could be motivated by the need for forgiveness, a blessing for a new venture, or some other cause. Monks also make pilgrimages at the behest of their superiors or of their own volition. The largest temples provide basic accommodations for visiting pilgrims, who must otherwise rely on the charity of strangers or their own resources.
A pilgrim’s road might be hard, but the journey is as important as the destination, a chance for the traveler to prove their devotion. It is not uncommon for a monk to join a struggling pilgrim and support them on their journey, offering encouragement if their resolve weakens. Making a sacred journey should accord a pilgrim the respect of those they meet, and most honorable people offer hospitality to such travelers, whether it is a cup of water, somewhere safe to sleep, or company for a time. However, as some people abuse this fact, claiming a religious reason for their travels to hide some baser motive, there are those who are suspicious of pilgrims. Dishonorable thieves might target honest pilgrims traveling alone, especially those who aren’t offered shelter.
Tools of Worship
In addition to use at temples, many people keep incense and candles and such at home for use in the family shrine. They might also carry these on journeys in order to leave offerings at roadside shrines and help ensure safe travels.
Incense contains herbs and woods that please the spirits, purify or protect, or evoke an element. Temple incense has a mild fragrance, and agarwood and sandalwood are popular ingredients.
Extracting oil from local plants or berries and turning it into the pure, long-burning candles required by temples is a laborious process that only skilled artisans can properly perform
Temple visitors who wish to petition the spirits can write their requests on ema, wooden plaques made by the monks. Visitors hang these in the temple or garden. At the end of the day, the monks gather and ritually burn the plaques
Encountering Monks
Having devoted themselves to spiritual matters and given up their old lives, monks stand outside the Celestial Order. Both samurai and commoners can become monks, so most outsiders treat all monks with equal respect. Not all monks react the same to insults or even polite inquiries, however. Some monks eschew violence, while others are quick to take up arms, and some appear harmless but are masters of deadly kihō.
Monks met on the road are often in search of experience, walking the world while finding their spiritual path. They are usually quite willing to help those in need. As well as offering advice, monks often have some knowledge of medicine, and are able to defend themselves and others.
Monks in courts serve a different purpose. Some orders, such as monks of the Four Temples, try to use their wisdom to guide leaders to the benefit of the leader’s people and the order’s monasteries. Others send monks to court merely to observe and report back to the order for possible action if needed.
If a monk is armed, it is likely they are willing to fight. If tattooed, they may be ise zumi, a monk of the Togashi Order, but in general, monks are harder to identify and predict than samurai, who wear their clan colors and their mon with pride. Whenever monks are encountered by chance, the safest option is to offer polite respect and otherwise leave them to their business.
Names
Initiates of a monastic order usually change their name as they leave their old life and family behind. Whether this is a requirement or not is up to the particular order. The choice of name may lie with the individual, or the order may bestow an appropriate one, such as in the High House of Light, where many initiates receive the Togashi family name
Monks often go by simple names that have a personal or symbolic meaning appropriate for their order or monastery. For example, a Shinseist monk might pick Hideaki, which means “wise.” A Fortunist monk might go by Ai, “love,” to honor Benten, the Fortune of Arts and Romantic Love, or Kishi, “beach,” for Isora, Fortune of the Shore. However, the new name is far less important than the fact that an old one has been shed. Changing a name implies the end of one life and the beginning of the next
Taking Vows
Most monks choose their vocation, whether in their youth or when retiring from life as a samurai. However, some monks began as foundlings left at monasteries by families too poor to raise them. These monks have never known any other life.
The initiation process can be as simple as taking vows before the rest of the order, or it may involve physical trials or tests of will. Sometimes the initiate is not told of the test, and passes or fails before they know they’re being tested. Secretive orders are particularly careful about who joins them; their initiation process may include several trials and last for years. Once an initiate is accept-ed, their head is shaved, as they must discard the distractions of vanity, rank, and other worldly cares.
The monastic life is one of purity, celibacy, and simplicity. The austere lifestyle and hard work does not suit everyone, though those with violent or romantic tendencies might channel these drives by serving Bishamon or Benten, whose orders have different rules. On entering an order, initiates vow to uphold its ideals and principles. To fail invites punishment from the senior monks or from a higher spiritual authority
The decision to join an order is not to be made lightly. While there are cases of monks leaving their order behind and returning to their old life, there is no honor in such an act. Only in exceptional circumstances will a respectable family accept the return of a member from a monastery. There must be a good reason for desertion: divine intervention, supernatural danger only the former monk can prevent, or a case of corruption within the monastery itself
Shinseist sanctuaries—with the exception of cloistered monasteries—are community centers as well as spiritual centers, fulfilling diverse functions in Rokugani society at large. First and foremost, of course, they teach religious doctrine and practice to community members. Monks and especially priests officiate at offerings, scripture readings, festivals, weddings, and funerals. Local priests counsel Shinseists in mental or spiritual crisis. Mendicant monks carry news and mail from place to place. But Shinseist temples and monasteries also serve several less obvious functions.
Food and Drink
Nearly every significant monastery or temple grows grains like rice and millet and occasionally trades goods like indigo, mulberries, or silk. Many brew liquor as well. These crops and commodities keep their inhabitants fed and the organization’s treasury stocked, minimizing reliance on fickle outside patrons. Novice monks sometimes work these fields, but their seniors usually prefer the more refined pastime of gardening: arranging plants around the sanctuary according to Rokugan’s ancient manuals of sacred gardening and landscaping, or cultivating new and delicious vegetables to enliven their simple and usually meatless diets. Rich monasteries with expansive fields must rely heavily on peasant labor.
Natural disasters and wartime devastation often send destitute commoners flocking to a monastery’s or temple’s gates to beg for handouts. While large, efficiently operated monasteries have an easier time accumulating resources than peasants, such vicissitudes drain their stores swiftly. Then, some priest or monk must head to the local lord or magistrate begging for subsidies, cascading the perils of famine up the chain of feudal authority.
Shelter and Defense
Natural disasters like floods, tsunami, earthquakes, and mudslides make short work of the paper-and-wood buildings of Rokugan. In contrast, stone, stout timbers, and expert joinery make a Shinseist temple the sturdiest (and most beautiful) edifice in most small towns. Locals flock to the temple in cases of torrential rain, dangerous creatures at large, or their own homes’ destruction.
The fortified monasteries of martial orders offer even better protection, with moats, concentric walls with arrow slits, and thickets full of unpleasant surprises. Hot-tempered young monks spend their ample free time swinging polearms around and convincing themselves they are due for a fine reincarnation should they die in defense of other Shinseists. Bandits and enemy armies’ scouts are loath to test such fearless foes.
Scholarship, Science, and Medicine
Temples and especially monasteries have long histories as repositories of scholarship. Priests and monks are almost always literate and frequently know multiple dialects through textual study or missionary wanderings to the most remote villages of Rokugan. Recopying and commenting on the Tao of Shinsei, the Thunder Dialogue, and other sacred texts occupies hours of many monks’ days. Monastic libraries also accumulate scrolls of virtually every other type of literature, from poetry, novels, and plays to scientific treatises and fencing manuals. Monks and priests often occupy themselves with natural philosophy or medical research, and they open their infirmaries or surgeries to anyone—friend or foe, faithful or otherwise—in poor health. Several temples of philosophical bent explore illnesses of the mind as well, building on Shinsei’s doctrine of dependent origination and analyzing suffering’s root causes. These temples augment the counseling services priests have always provided with teaching meditation, mindfulness, and restorative exercise, and offering herbal treatments. These are of particular interest to samurai who endure leadership’s stresses and battlefield trauma.
Funerals
Unlike Fortunist priests and shugenja, Shinseist monks do not shy away from the subject of death. In fact, Shinseist monks are foremost experts on the dying process. This is because death is not seen as inherently evil or unclean according to the Tao of Shinsei. Instead, it is another part of the natural cycle, the precursor to rebirth and the transition to the next life. Indeed, one purpose of the Brotherhood of Shinsei is to prepare retired samurai for their life’s final stages, their practice involving meditations on impermanence and cultivating serenity in the face of death.
For this reason, funerals are conducted by Shinseist monks at temples instead of by Fortunist priests at shrines. This is also a matter of practicality, as many retired samurai spend their twilight years as monks, and therefore they may already be at a temple or monastery when they depart. The Brotherhood’s funeral ceremony is derived from the Tao’s teachings, varying only slightly between provinces when influenced by local custom. Because of death’s profound karmic effects, the major purpose of the ceremony is to sever death’s influence from the deceased’s family and provide them with a way to mourn without loss of face. It is sometimes said that the Shinseist funeral is for the living, not the dead.
The funeral is held four days after the death. During this time, the body is prepared by members of the hinin caste under the direction of monks—safely outside the bounds of the temple. The body is washed, anointed, and rubbed with salt. Then, a featureless mask is placed on the face, so that any lingering spirit will not recognize its former body or attempt to reclaim it.
On the day of the funeral, the temple provides the family with a wooden marker displaying the departed’s name and a list of their deeds. The family attends dressed in white clothes of mourning. A modest meal of special funeral foods, known as otoki, is offered to the family.
Imperial decree forbids the entombing of bodies. Instead, the body is carried to a pyre, where the family witnesses its cremation. It is widely believed that if too much open sorrow is displayed during this part of the ceremony, the spirit will feel troubled and remain behind, a fate few would desire for their loved ones. Therefore, those at funerals hide their sorrow behind veils and stony faces, lest they inadvertently doom the departed to endless wandering as a lost soul. Afterward, the family picks the bones from the ashes using ceremonial chopsticks, passing them from one family member to the next until they are placed to rest in an urn. Monks then light a string of candles to symbolize the rebirth of the departed through their many prior lives.
There is some variance to funeral traditions owing to unique clan traditions and local beliefs. For example, the Crane practice an exchange of funerary gifts known as koden-gaeshi. In this tradition, the mourner offers a small token to the family of the departed, usually something with personal meaning, and the mourning family later recompenses with a gift of their own. In contrast, formal funerals are a luxury the Crab can rarely afford, due to their proximity to the Shadowlands and the accompanying threats. When they do occur, Crab funerals are held indoors with all windows left open so the soul may escape, except for windows facing south, which are barred shut and sealed.
Politics and Diplomacy
Monasteries and temples often function as neutral ground in negotiations between samurai clans and other parties in conflict. However, priests and monks who are truly politically neutral are a minority. Senior monks’ and priests’ learned opinions and broad social networks grant them significant influence over courts and war councils. The threat of protesting monks flooding into a town and riling up locals vexes magistrates and samurai, who threaten such monks’ agricultural holdings, skimp on donations, or show favor to rival orders.
Shinseism, Caste, and Clan
The Tao of Shinsei states explicitly that all walks of life and all families must follow the same path to freedom and Enlightenment. In pursuit of Shinsei’s Way, an Emperor and a peasant—indeed, a Fortune and a mortal—are alike. Shinsei mentioned in passing that privileged or aristocratic birth denotes that a person had a lighter karmic load in their previous life, and that greater privilege carries greater civic obligation and opportunity for both heroic action and catastrophic failure. However, later commentators have emphasized the connection between karma and station far more aggressively than Shinsei.
Technically, at a reading of the sutras in a temple, a domestic servant of the Crane Clan and Bayushi Kachiko herself might sit side by side and treat one another with courtesy as equals. Practically speaking, prejudice and stereotypes plague the faithful as well as the secular. Samurai who take holy orders usually advance to leadership positions faster than peasants, either due to established social or familial connections to the clergy in charge or through prior education in the classics and other knowledge expected of a Shinseist abbot. Priests’ manners, graces, and habits, which they generally learned before their ordination from others in their caste, tend to place them in ministry over people who share their social background—and aristocratic congregations donate more money. The Perfect Land Sect’s legitimately populist reframing of Shinseism discomfits many high-ranking and samurai-born clergy, who, admittedly or otherwise, enjoy the comforts the status quo brings them.
Clan friendships and rivalries have similar effects on communities of the cloth, seeding holy places with factionalism and cliques. Differing approaches to Shinseism can cause discord among clans, but similar ones can sow harmony among those that otherwise might find no common ground. At philosophical roundtables, Crab and Scorpion who think of their approaches to life and problem solving as diametrically opposed get to broaden their horizons and learn in a safe environment how their opposite numbers think. Lion and Unicorn who expect only to see each other from opposite sides of a battle line are often shocked to find themselves side by side in the rare, clandestine Perfect Land congregations that admit nobles. Quite a few Crab and Lion who agree about everything else have learned not to bring up Shinseism over drinks.
The Phoenix are known as the “Keepers of the Tao” in recognition of Shiba’s having recorded that document. Indeed, most other clans defer to the Phoenix’s judgment on theological matters of Shinseism, and the Phoenix’s approach to the study and practice of Shinseism is widely viewed as the proper one. When someone speaks of Shinseism and the meaning of the Tao, most individuals assume they are referring to the teachings of the Phoenix, unless they specify otherwise.
Daily Life
Religion plays an important part of everything in Rokugan, because it shapes the way people think, their morals, and their aspirations. From the lowliest hinin to the most powerful daimyō, everyone knows that only by fulfilling their purpose to the best of their ability can they progress in the Celestial Order. To fail is to be born in worse circumstances in the next incarnation. The Celestial Order extends into the Heavens, and so is sacred, with Lady Sun and Lord Moon at the pinnacle. Shinseist monks stand outside of this order, however. Rather than aspiring to a glorious life and being reborn in better circumstances, Shinseist monks aim to escape the cycle of rebirth entirely. To do this, monks must attain Enlightenment.
While for most people religion is a natural part of everyday life, for the monks, it is their life. The wisdom gained on a personal journey to Enlightenment can still aid others. Monks are sought for wisdom and guidance, just like priests and shugenja are. While everyone abides by the official religion of Shintao, some focus more on Shinsei, some more on the Fortunes. This is also true of monks, though the Shinseist monks outnumber those of a more Fortunist bent. Fortunist monks serve the Fortunes as Shinsei prescribed, which sets them apart from Fortunist priests, whose traditional practices are older than Shintao. The Brotherhood of Shinsei connects most of the many temples and monasteries across Rokugan, of numerous orders, and its inclusive attitude (despite its restrictive name) means that it is growing all the time. The most extreme orders are deemed heretical and purged, though even an organization as large as the Brotherhood cannot monitor every monk across the Empire, and occasionally profane sects take root.
Monastic Life
While the lives of monks in different orders vary, in most monasteries, routine is important. Routine allows the monks to live in harmony, and it ensures that their duties are performed and their lives are dedicated to the order and its ideals. It is common for the monks to wake early, often before dawn, so that they can start the day with quiet reflection before using the daylight hours to work tending gardens, repairing the monastery, copying sacred texts, studying, and carrying out whatever duties the order deems important. Worship is involved in every activity, from the morning bell or gong ringing, to the little rituals performed around daily tasks, to the group chanting of the sutras that echo through the monastery at set times. In some orders, music and dancing might be used to celebrate Shinsei’s virtues or please the Thunders. All activities become spiritual endeavors when undertaken mindfully.
Many orders include some form of physical training in their routine, which often has martial applications, if only for self-defense. For orders of sōhei monks—warrior monks who fight with weapons—martial training makes up a large part of the day, but even peaceful orders usually devote some time for training. Shinsei taught that the perceived separation between the physical and spiritual worlds is an illusion. Even the most meditative monks must become masters of their own bodies, remaining fit enough to complete their duties undistracted and learning to control the flow of ki, or inner energy. By cultivating an awareness of ki in their bodies and the world around them, monks can eventually achieve seemingly supernatural effects through kihō techniques, as well as gaining a greater understanding of the world.
At a monastery, food is grown, prepared, and consumed together. The set times of meals depends on whether the order includes one, two, or three meals in the daily routine. Animal products of any kind are usually avoided, as is anything that comes from death and decay, such as mushrooms.
Many monasteries are at least partly self-sufficient, relying on gifts to supply what the monks cannot make or grow themselves. While most orders maintain vegetable and herb gardens or even grain fields, some toil to produce enough to supply nearby communities. The monks of some monasteries are renowned for their ceramics or metal work, while others brew sake. Some monasteries provide services, such as taking in the sick for healing, creating or copying important documents, or indeed anything in which the monks of an order are particularly skilled. Whether the monastery produces rice, sake, or porcelain, or offers a service, these things are given freely, though the recipients do of course make contributions to the monks in turn. Those who do not are unlikely to receive any further gifts, and face the karmic ramifications.
The most important part of any monastery is the shrine, temple, or repository of sacred relics. It is the sacred duty of the monks to tend and protect this, and it provides a focus for the monks’ devotion—a connection between the physical monastery and the spiritual world. Other areas are set aside for training and learning. Depending on the order, a training ground or meditation hall may be the secondary focus of the monastery. If the monks’ meditation is conducted while at work, the forge, brewery, or workshop may hold this position. Of least importance are the rooms the monks sleep in. Whether individual or communal, these meet the physical needs of the monks but offer no superfluous comforts.
Martial Arts
Though some monks never fight, and sōhei sometimes fight with weapons, monks have a reputation for being masters of unarmed combat. This is largely because of those tales of seemingly harmless old people who demonstrate unexpected fighting skill when threatened while they are on the road. There is nothing so impressive to the common people as a pompous, fully armored samurai being laid flat on their back by the wizened monk they insulted. The kihō practiced by monks appear effortless, despite the years of training required to perform them. The spread of such stories provide all traveling monks with an element of protection, as travelers treat them with caution.
In some orders, violence is avoided at all costs. While these monks may train using martial exercises, learning self-mastery and union of body and mind, they do not learn any practical techniques. This is rare, however: most peaceful orders nonetheless ensure their monks learn enough to defend themselves and others. With training, such monks can disarm opponents without harming them, and disable them long enough to escape danger. Many orders consider fighting for a just cause, such as defending a monastery, acceptable and necessary. Some are even willing to teach outsiders, though usually this is limited to common folk who are forbidden to carry weapons and so have no other way to defend themselves.
Yamabushi are a special case: these wandering warrior monks achieve Enlightenment through communion with nature. They seek isolation in the wilderness, keeping clear of roads and settlements. Because these monks are so toughened by their austere lifestyle and commitment to physical training, a desperate samurai might petition one for aid, but they must prove their worth to gain it. This involves finding the yamabushi, which is no easy task, as well as stating their case and persuading the monk of the nobility of the cause.
Temple Life
While monasteries are built primarily for monks to live, train, and worship in, temples are built as an act of worship and are for all people. Temples are usually far more open and accessible than monasteries, though some are built in hard-to-reach places, either because a particular area is sacred or because the act of reaching the temple becomes a pilgrimage in itself. Larger temples require more attention, and monks may reside within them, devoting themselves to the temple and the rituals conducted there. The smallest temples rely on visiting monks, priests, shugenja, or even local volunteers for their rituals and upkeep, but most have at least one resident monk who is entrusted with the temple’s care.
The lives of monks are often less than private in a temple setting, where most are available to visitors at all times. In temples large enough, a private space is provided for the monks to meditate out of sight of casual visitors, but this is not always possible. Not all temples receive a steady flow of visitors, however. Some of the most remote or secretive temples actually function more like monasteries, while the most worldly monasteries might fulfill the purpose of a temple.
The resident monks maintain the purity of the air, ensuring incense burns continually, as well as the sanctity of the shrine or sacred relic repository. Many temples are built with the sole purpose of protecting a shrine or housing sacred items, which are locked away out of sight. The visitors come and go, some local, some pilgrims from farther afield, who may be granted overnight accommodation while visiting, offering donations in return. While people of all walks of life are welcome to enter a temple, the monks expel any who do not follow temple etiquette, which requires removing hats, shoes, and weapons before entry and speaking only in hushed tones.
Temples usually play a significant role in their community. Local residents may make daily visits to pay their respects and gain blessings. The resident monks or priests may conduct public rituals every day, or only on feast and festival days. Depending on the temple and the worshipped deity, the temple may serve other purposes as well, but the main role is to give people somewhere to go to revere that deity. Temples contain everything needed to do so, such as incense and offerings, which resident monks usually make themselves. One of the most important duties of the head priest, monk, or shugenja in a temple is to teach the laity about the Thunder, Fortune, elements, or aspect of Shinsei’s teachings the temple is dedicated to.
The monks also maintain the delicate balance of the elements within the temple. Some temples are
designed such that each side represents an element, with the roof signifying Void. For the temple to remain a sacred space, suitable for housing holy relics, no one element must be allowed to overcome the others. The representation is usually symbolic, with colors or images of each element incorporated in the temple design, but in some larger temples there is a pool for Water, a brazier for Fire, incense for Air, and a bowl of salt for Earth. Each of these must be kept full or burning at all times, and all can be used to purify a visitor before they approach the temple’s icon and offer a bow of greeting to Shinsei or the Thunder or Fortune represented. The monks perform this ritual of personal purification each time they enter the temple.
Temples
Temples are commonly devoted to a particular Fortune, Thunder, or aspect of Shinsei, but some of the larger temples are dedicated to several Fortunes, all the Thunders, or all of Shinsei’s many lessons. Temples are open daily for individuals to visit and pray, leave offerings, or ask resident monks for guidance. The monks conduct their own rituals to maintain the sanctity of the temple, and they sometimes lead group rituals on sacred or festival days. While some parades may begin inside the temple, public rituals tend to be held outside. Blessings for the dead can be said within the temple, but ashes are placed in an adjoining cemetery, and local samurai families may have a family shrine on site. Temples are places of quiet contemplation and worship, and a hushed atmosphere of reverence is encouraged.
While each temple is different, many share common features, such as tower gates for the entrances and pagoda-style architecture. Inside, a main hall contains an object of worship, and a meditation hall offers a space to pray. There may be a shrine or shrines within the temple, as well as altars where candles burn. There is at least one incense bowl, where the ash from the days’ offerings collects. Most sacred items are housed within private rooms, inaccessible to common visitors.
Wealth and Blessings
The Brotherhood of Shinsei is a resourceful organization, but rare is the occasion when the Brotherhood funds the construction of a new temple alone. Founding a temple is an expensive affair, but the blessings granted to those who fund or sponsor a temple are more than worth the cost. A daimyō who has a temple built on their land raises their own prestige and improves their karma, so they benefit in both the physical and spiritual realm. Many families and clans maintain temples on their lands for this reason, and often because the temple holds some special meaning for them.
While temples aren’t as self-sufficient as monasteries, resident monks do find ways of increasing the donations of visitors. Monks often produce the items that worship in the temple requires, such as incense and candles, for use by any visitors. Of course, a suitable donation is expected. This also ensures that the manufacture of such items is performed in an appropriate way and the results are of the desired quality. Creating these items becomes a reverent act in itself, another way for the monks to serve the temple and focus their minds on the unity of the universe.
Temples are sometimes built where there is already a shrine, on the site of a miraculous event, or in new towns with growing populations in need of somewhere to worship. New orders of monks may also raise temples for their own use and to attract the notice of the Brotherhood of Shinsei. In this case, the order seeks an appropriate site that takes the landscape into consideration. Ideally, temples are built somewhere pure, in an area of natural beauty or a well-kept area of a city. Placement with a mountain to the north, volcano to the south, or body of water to the east is considered particularly auspicious. The better planned the temple, and the better maintained, the more blessed it becomes. The greatest temples have a powerful aura that even commoners might feel upon entrance.
Sacred Thresholds
While temples vary greatly in their form and function, certain features have such symbolic importance that they are included in nearly every one. The first is the tower gate entrance, which marks the threshold between the outside world and the spiritual space of the temple. The most elaborate include two stories and a decorative roof, and some incorporate alcoves for the guardian statues to stand in. The guardians at the tower gate are important because they keep unwanted spirits out of the temple. Many creatures are used as guardians, depending on the temple. Komainu, or lion-dogs, are common across Rokugan, and lions or dragons are also considered especially effective, particularly within the lands of their namesake clans.
After they pass through the entrance, visitors usually follow a path through a temple garden. The path does not always lead straight into the main building but sometimes meanders or circles it before reaching the entrance. This serves two purposes: giving the visitor time to meditate before entering, which clears their mind in preparation, and confusing any spirits that might make it past the guardians. The garden itself is a sacred place, and everything that grows within it serves a purpose in the temple grounds’ design. While not all temples have a garden, those that do use it as an extension of the temple, somewhere to tell the story of Shinsei or the Thunders and to meditate. As they are on the inside of the temple, the elements are carefully balanced in the garden.
Large temples often feature a main building built in the pagoda style, with a floor representing each element. In some temples, the hall nearest the entrance can be opened up, walls moved to create a space that connects the garden and inner rooms of the temple. Wooden temples are the most common, but those built in remote areas that make maintenance difficult may be built of stone. Stone is also more practical where the weather is harsher, and some stone temples have stood so long that no one can remember who first built them. Some temples, like those in Crab lands, appear fortresslike; within Rokugan, few would forsake all honor and attack a temple, but Crab designers naturally consider such possibilities.
Greater Purpose
The presence of a temple gives locals and travelers a place to worship, and it may also serve the community in other ways. A large temple not only raises the prestige of an area but also attracts new settlers. Smaller temples might provide monks in areas where otherwise people would have to rely only on traveling priests for their blessings. Locals turn to resident monks for advice in times of hardship or when a spiritual opinion is required in a dispute. The temple is a place that peasants and high-ranking samurai might both use, though only the wealthiest and most prestigious will expect the temple to mark and bless the milestones of their lives. Most of the time, the temple is somewhere for people to go and concentrate purely on the spiritual.
Monks at temples devoted to the Tao of Shinsei and the many sutras that further study Shinsei’s teachings might read aloud to visitors or even teach them to read the text themselves. Since basic education is available only to those of the samurai and merchant classes, this can be a great opportunity. In a land where religion requires that the Celestial Order remain rigid, such behaviors might seem a contradiction, but this is often how monks find new recruits for their orders. Once a promising peasant has taken monastic vows, they are outside the Celestial Order, and no harm has been done in teaching them.
Relics
The most important relic to the Brotherhood of Shinsei is the original copy of the Tao of Shinsei—or at least it would be, if the Brotherhood knew of its existence in the Phoenix’s hidden city of Gisei Toshi. Several important temples hold early copies of the text, which are held in the highest reverence, as it is believed that the closer a text is to the original, the truer the words.
In addition to early copies of the Tao of Shinsei, there are innumerable relics across Rokugan, some yet awaiting discovery, others kept safely locked inside temples. These sacred items vary in form, but all hold some link to the past, and often to the spiritual world as well. Relics include texts filled with wisdom, weapons left behind by heroes or Thunders, statues with supernatural properties, items of clothing worn by Kami, and even certain funerary urns.
Great legends have arisen about some of these relics, especially the oldest and most mysterious. Many stories have been passed down for generations and may be as old as the relics themselves. Others are fabricated by visitors who witness unexplained phenomena. More begin with the monks who care for the relics, and who are keen to spread the fame of their temple. The Brotherhood keeps records of relics and their properties, but these are forever changing and growing. There is no set system for determining which are genuine, which are fake, which have supernatural properties, and which are simply fragments of history that serve as valuable reminders of the past.
Pilgrimages
Pilgrims who visit temples may have traveled the length of Rokugan, or they may simply have come from the next town. A pilgrim might be a wealthy samurai or common peasant, and their journey could be motivated by the need for forgiveness, a blessing for a new venture, or some other cause. Monks also make pilgrimages at the behest of their superiors or of their own volition. The largest temples provide basic accommodations for visiting pilgrims, who must otherwise rely on the charity of strangers or their own resources.
A pilgrim’s road might be hard, but the journey is as important as the destination, a chance for the traveler to prove their devotion. It is not uncommon for a monk to join a struggling pilgrim and support them on their journey, offering encouragement if their resolve weakens. Making a sacred journey should accord a pilgrim the respect of those they meet, and most honorable people offer hospitality to such travelers, whether it is a cup of water, somewhere safe to sleep, or company for a time. However, as some people abuse this fact, claiming a religious reason for their travels to hide some baser motive, there are those who are suspicious of pilgrims. Dishonorable thieves might target honest pilgrims traveling alone, especially those who aren’t offered shelter.
Tools of Worship
In addition to use at temples, many people keep incense and candles and such at home for use in the family shrine. They might also carry these on journeys in order to leave offerings at roadside shrines and help ensure safe travels.
Incense contains herbs and woods that please the spirits, purify or protect, or evoke an element. Temple incense has a mild fragrance, and agarwood and sandalwood are popular ingredients.
Extracting oil from local plants or berries and turning it into the pure, long-burning candles required by temples is a laborious process that only skilled artisans can properly perform
Temple visitors who wish to petition the spirits can write their requests on ema, wooden plaques made by the monks. Visitors hang these in the temple or garden. At the end of the day, the monks gather and ritually burn the plaques
Encountering Monks
Having devoted themselves to spiritual matters and given up their old lives, monks stand outside the Celestial Order. Both samurai and commoners can become monks, so most outsiders treat all monks with equal respect. Not all monks react the same to insults or even polite inquiries, however. Some monks eschew violence, while others are quick to take up arms, and some appear harmless but are masters of deadly kihō.
Monks met on the road are often in search of experience, walking the world while finding their spiritual path. They are usually quite willing to help those in need. As well as offering advice, monks often have some knowledge of medicine, and are able to defend themselves and others.
Monks in courts serve a different purpose. Some orders, such as monks of the Four Temples, try to use their wisdom to guide leaders to the benefit of the leader’s people and the order’s monasteries. Others send monks to court merely to observe and report back to the order for possible action if needed.
If a monk is armed, it is likely they are willing to fight. If tattooed, they may be ise zumi, a monk of the Togashi Order, but in general, monks are harder to identify and predict than samurai, who wear their clan colors and their mon with pride. Whenever monks are encountered by chance, the safest option is to offer polite respect and otherwise leave them to their business.
Names
Initiates of a monastic order usually change their name as they leave their old life and family behind. Whether this is a requirement or not is up to the particular order. The choice of name may lie with the individual, or the order may bestow an appropriate one, such as in the High House of Light, where many initiates receive the Togashi family name
Monks often go by simple names that have a personal or symbolic meaning appropriate for their order or monastery. For example, a Shinseist monk might pick Hideaki, which means “wise.” A Fortunist monk might go by Ai, “love,” to honor Benten, the Fortune of Arts and Romantic Love, or Kishi, “beach,” for Isora, Fortune of the Shore. However, the new name is far less important than the fact that an old one has been shed. Changing a name implies the end of one life and the beginning of the next
Taking Vows
Most monks choose their vocation, whether in their youth or when retiring from life as a samurai. However, some monks began as foundlings left at monasteries by families too poor to raise them. These monks have never known any other life.
The initiation process can be as simple as taking vows before the rest of the order, or it may involve physical trials or tests of will. Sometimes the initiate is not told of the test, and passes or fails before they know they’re being tested. Secretive orders are particularly careful about who joins them; their initiation process may include several trials and last for years. Once an initiate is accept-ed, their head is shaved, as they must discard the distractions of vanity, rank, and other worldly cares.
The monastic life is one of purity, celibacy, and simplicity. The austere lifestyle and hard work does not suit everyone, though those with violent or romantic tendencies might channel these drives by serving Bishamon or Benten, whose orders have different rules. On entering an order, initiates vow to uphold its ideals and principles. To fail invites punishment from the senior monks or from a higher spiritual authority
The decision to join an order is not to be made lightly. While there are cases of monks leaving their order behind and returning to their old life, there is no honor in such an act. Only in exceptional circumstances will a respectable family accept the return of a member from a monastery. There must be a good reason for desertion: divine intervention, supernatural danger only the former monk can prevent, or a case of corruption within the monastery itself