The New Winds

Court And Its Inhabitants
Any castle that is more than a mere military outpost contains a court chamber, even if it is a very small one that represents aspiration more than reality. At the most basic level, a court is a place where a lord assembles the local samurai for open discussion, including both pleasant conversation and serious diplomacy. As with everything in Rokugan, long-standing conventions usually determine what a court chamber looks like and what roles it fulfills.

Traditionally, a court chamber is a large, two-story room with a balcony encircling it at the second-floor level. The main floor is left largely empty of furnishings, its notable feature being a dais at one end, opposite the main entrance, where the presiding lord or their deputy is seated. The upper level usually has a few tables placed around its circumference. Courtiers and other diplomats circulate through the chamber at both levels, forming conversational groups while observing each other. Artistic performances and formal presentations also take place in the court, usually in front of the lord’s dais.

The ideal court chamber is large enough for at least two hundred samurai to gather on the main floor for major events. However, only a handful of castles can boast a court so large. More commonly, even the combination of the lower and upper floors cannot accommodate so many, and lords make additional rooms available or move large events outdoors, to gardens or the parade ground

The court chamber is open to visitors throughout the day, but its official role traditionally occurs in the morning, when the lord presides over the room and the diplomats gather for formal discussions. Guests may ask the lord for permission to address the court at large, especially to announce important events such as marriages and formal alliances or to make declarations of war. These typically take place in front of the dais, where the speaker addresses the presiding lord while expecting to be heard by all.

Special events such as artistic presentations can take place at any time during the day or evening. Out-side of formal court hours, they are more likely to be held in some other location in the castle, such as a garden, dining hall, dōjō, or private room. When court is not in session and the chamber is needed for other purposes, shōji screens can divide the space for other uses. In times of war, this might be done to provide additional barracks for prestigious samurai, or even to let the room serve as an infirmary for the wounded.

Court Banners
Even if it is free of any other decoration, a castle’s court chamber always displays the banners of the lord’s family and clan on the wall above the dais; if the lord has a personal mon, it may be displayed as well. When guests of rank are present at the castle, their banners are hung in the court directly across the chamber from the lord’s banners as a show of respect. Lords of a petulant nature, or who are seeking war, sometimes display these banners in a way that subtly insults the guests, such as by hanging them slightly lower than the lord’s banners or placing them along a side wall instead of directly across the room. |

When a castle hosts the Imperial Winter Court, an elaborate system of etiquette dictates the hanging of family and clan banners. By tradition, the Imperial banner—bearing the chrysanthemum symbol chosen by Hantei at the dawn of the Empire—is the largest present and hangs directly over the dais, flanked to the right and left by the Seppun and Otomo banners. The Great Clan banners are hung on the left and right walls, the order of their placement revealing which clans are in the Emperor’s favor. (Traditionally the Crane and Lion, the Left and Right Hands of the Emperor, are placed closest to the Imperial banners, but this can change if the Hantei is truly displeased with them.) The banner of the Dragon Clan is normally set directly opposite the Emperor’s banner, reflecting Togashi’s refusal to participate in the ancient Tournament of the Kami.

Notable Figures within the Court
Any court is dominated by the presence of the samurai known collectively as “courtiers,” samurai trained and oriented toward the unique world within a castle’s secure walls. Courtiers are relatively few in number and found overwhelmingly in the cloistered, hothouse world of politics, diplomacy, and intrigue. Within their ranks, there are a number of specialized roles. The fol-lowing are a few of the more common or important, but the ranks of courtiers include a dizzying number of specialized bureaucrats to maintain the machineries of Imperial power

Ambassadors
Although most clans try to maintain a diplomatic presence in other clans’ courts, the specific position of ambassador carries additional prestige and responsibility. An ambassador is empowered to speak on behalf of their lord, to make agreements that bind the lord as though they were there in person. The position of ambassador is a prestigious and very demanding one, since such samurai are entrusted with their clan’s future and repute. If an ambassador fails, loses face, or other-wise shows weakness, they bring harm to their lord and their entire clan. This is one of the major reasons why court emissaries use veiled, indirect language. Not only is speaking bluntly considered rude in samurai society, but ambassadors who speak too clearly may be committing themselves unwisely. A samurai’s word is their bond, so a clear statement by an ambassador can be as binding as a written treaty. Ambiguous or indirect statements leave room to maneuver and, if necessary, to withdraw while avoiding discourtesy or loss of face.

Seneschals (Karō)
A seneschal, sometimes known as a karō, is a samurai assigned to serve as a senior aide to their lord. They can function as an advisor, but their most important role is to manage the lord’s affairs, supervising the castle, keeping records, passing on orders to the head servant, and attending to similar matters. Additionally, the karō is expected to act as the lord’s stand-in when the lord is absent, running the castle and holdings, hosting the court, and issuing orders in the lord’s name. Appointment as a karō is a significant honor and a mark of trust; often, the office is passed down from one generation to the next. When possible, the position is entrusted to a hatamoto to ensure maximum loyalty.

Personal Vassals (Hatamoto)
A hatamoto is a samurai who is a personal vassal to a very senior lord such as a family daimyō or clan champion. Only lords of such exalted rank can name hatamoto, whose loyalty is directly and entirely to that lord with no intervening distractions. Socially, a clan champion’s hatamoto is considered to outrank a provincial lord, allowing them to serve as troubleshooters who can be dispatched to the castles of troubled or disloyal provinces and enforce their own lord’s will.

Artisans
Many samurai engage in artistic pursuits, civilized activities that set them apart from the crude world of the heimin. However, only a few train specifically in the arts instead of undertaking the martial training that is the traditional focus of samurai life. Artisans and artists tend to operate mainly within the world of the courts, since the courts offer the best opportunities for show-casing their work and finding patrons to support them. Premieres of new artistic works—plays, paintings, sculptures, and the like—are highlights of any court. Most lords who strive to maintain a civilized court in their stronghold try to have at least one or two artisans resident at their castle and work to attract prominent artisans from elsewhere to visit their court and exhibit their works

Matchmakers (Nakōdo)
Marriages in Rokugan are almost always arranged, and samurai families traditionally rely on matchmakers, called nakōdo, to make those arrangements. A skilled nakōdo’s services are much in demand, especially since marriages are often forged as part of diplomatic agreements. Any lord of note will try to have a talented nakō-do in their court, and the services of these matchmakers are themselves a useful diplomatic bargaining chip. When they aren’t fulfilling their duties as matchmakers, nakōdo perform many of the same tasks as courtiers

Instructors (Sensei)
Castles serve as centers of training for the samurai who serve their lords. Thus, every castle will contain at least one dōjō, and large ones boast several of them. The most prestigious schools and the most honored sensei nearly always are located within the major castles of their clans, making those castles centers of learning as well as of military power. Even a minor castle has at least a small dōjō and a resident sensei to train its bushi. Sensei often serve a secondary role as advisors to the lord, especially if they taught the lord personally. Their words are always given weight, since they are responsible for training the clan’s samurai and passing on the ancient secrets of their school.

The Invisible Side of a Court: Servants
Every castle is home to an entire community that is largely invisible to samurai: the servants, who labor from before dawn until well after dark to keep life in the castle clean, orderly, and reliable. Servants even enter and leave a castle through special doors that go unnoticed by nearly all samurai. Indeed, in some ways, they have more freedom than their social superiors. Samurai are restricted with regard to where they can go in a castle: only those of the highest rank, such as the lord and their family, can move where they wish. But servants go everywhere, throughout the day and night, all but unseen by their masters...and they see and hear everything. Samurai are adept at keeping secrets from each other, even within the close confines of a castle, but no one can keep secrets from the servants.

Ironically, the very social blindness that keeps samurai from noticing servants also tends to keep them from exploiting the servants’ intimate knowledge of castle affairs. After all, talking to a servant for any reason other than to give orders is demeaning for a samurai. The small minority of samurai who are willing to lower themselves in this way, however, gain a significant advantage over their rivals. Bribery, threats and blackmail, or simple charm can serve to evoke useful information from servants. Similarly, servants’ entrances provide a potential point of ingress for those who wish to avoid attention, for few would even conceive of a samurai entering a castle in such a way. Unsurprisingly, it is the Scorpion who are most proficient at such underhanded methods