Urban Life

[Vutall]

The Hub of the Empire
Prior to the Fall of the Kami at the dawn of the Empire, the human population of what would become Rokugan was primarily nomadic groups and small agrarian com-munities. The remnants of some of their settlements still exist within the foundations of the oldest cities in Rokugan. The Kami formed Rokugan in their image, leading their new subjects into an era of great change as they swept across the land and created the cities and towns of the Empire today. Now, almost all of the important political, cultural, social, and economic happenings of Rokugan revolve around these places.

Most Rokugani cities are surrounded by strong walls that separate their samurai and commoners from the attached hinin village and from the exterior roads, rice paddies, and fields of grain that directly support them. Buildings are made primarily of wood and paper, just as they are in the rest of Rokugan’s settlements. Whenever the inevitable typhoon, hurricane, or fire destroys large portions of a city, the city springs back up in a pattern reminiscent of, but subtly different from, its previous configuration.

Almost all cities are internally demarcated with smaller walls and a system of well-patrolled gates that close off districts from one another. Districts that house merchants and trade and temple districts full of shrines and holy places are typically open to all but hinin, who rely on hidden paths through the densely packed cities to move from place to place where they are needed. Moats and defensive fortifications cut through castle towns but are easily bypassed by those who live there. Cities are divided into areas for high- and low-ranking samurai, with separate areas for soldiers, craftspeople, and merchants passing through—generally, this last section is near the dirty and dusty road, and thus is closed off by a small encampment of tents and tarps to help keep wares clean.

Rokugani cities are crowded. Millions live within the Emerald Empire, and cities house a major portion of that population. Samurai wandering through cities can expect to see peasant servants of samurai, craftspeople, and merchants of every stripe, along with heimin guards overseen by low-ranking samurai. Formality relaxes somewhat in these close quarters, for no one wants to cause too much trouble. Samurai and peasants share the streets with one another, but all who wandering the streets must deal with crowds, dodging litters carrying powerful lords or rich merchants

Many cities connect to the north-south system of overland trade routes in some manner, as befits their primary purpose to facilitate trade. Despite the samurai distaste for monetary matters, merchants have come to be recognized in modern Rokugan as a sort of necessary evil, procuring goods directly with koku and exchanging goods and money with their counterparts in the lands of other clans.

In order to thrive, merchants cross the entire Empire, brandishing well-stamped travel papers and running brightly colored caravans between different regions where different merchandise are available cheaply or are highly sought after. They suffer disrespect from samurai and pay stiff tariffs to the clans that allow them in their territories, cutting into the profit margins. The slow-moving caravans are a perennial favorite target of bandit gangs. During times of war, merchants may find roads and trade routes closed or even have their wares seized by passing armies without recompense. Merchants who work only in a city’s merchant district are largely protected from these indignities, relying on other traders and traveling merchants to handle that side of the business

Cities are also a center of religious life. Most contain important temples and innumerable shrines to Fortunes both of local repute and revered across the Empire. It’s not uncommon for a district to be set aside solely for temples. These areas are places of gardens, tranquility, and devotion to the kami where monks may roam freely. Temple districts are often adjacent to those of the nobility, providing a buffer between the bustling market districts and theater spaces and the nobility. The symbolism is not subtle: Rokugani cities are built such that crude matters involving money are kept at a distance from spiritual and religious centers. This is despite the fact that money ultimately flows into those same temples and shrines; in large or prestigious cities, places of worship can amass great wealth.

The gardens of a temple district are often the focus of landscape gardening competitions when they aren’t handled by the monks themselves, and even the small-est cities have an extensive rock garden and ikebana display. Dance salons and Kabuki theater are closer to merchant districts than temples are, but monks have been known to foster performances of exceptional piety within the temple district’s public spaces

Inevitably, cities have darker sides as well. Areas with gambling houses and cheap brothels, obvious imitations of the licensed quarters, are endemic in areas frequented by peasants. Opium dens are an essential part of any sizable city; no few samurai descend into underground spaces decorated with images of smoke and dragons to lose themselves in a pleasant haze for several hours. Gangs of commoners run these areas, sometimes even indebting shame-filled samurai in their schemes and crimes.

Urban Life
Lady Sun’s light falls upon everyone in Rokugan, from the lowest hinin to the Hantei. Yet, their daily lives can be very different depending on their social status. Hinin, heimin, monks, and samurai have radically disparate existences, whether they live in a city, town, or village. While people of all social status exist beside one another in population centers, they mix like oil and water.

On the most superficial level, daily life for every class is similar: hinin, heimin, and samurai are all mortal and must eat and sleep. All pray to their ancestors, and all find satisfaction and comfort in such things as family, friends, entertainment, or hobbies. Yet, this is usually where similarities end

A samurai’s daily life revolves around the court of a city. While samurai have ample opportunity for lei-sure time, the needs of their clan must be attended to on a daily basis, so the ebb and flow of traffic on the streets beats in time to the workings of the noble district. Constant activity marks the life of an urban dweller, with respite coming only after the sun sets and the city quiets. Even then, evening parties with sake and decadent court intrigues keep samurai occupied, while cleaning and preparing houses for the activity of the next day keeps peasants busy, and merchants work through the evening to ready their wares.

Theater in Rokugan
There are three main types of Rokugani theater: Nō, Kabuki, and Bunraku (puppet theater). Samurai of all ranks enjoy the theater, as do peasants, though the latter see a Nō play extremely rarely, and the former are rarely seen at a puppet show.

Nō is the oldest and most respected form of theater, essentially a long, chanted poem presented by a handful of actors accompanied by music and signing, and cloaked in heavy symbol-ism. The form relies on the actors to stylize their movements and on minimalistic masks to convey emotions and portray specific characters. Nō plays tend to depict tragic accounts of history or leg-end, and kyōgen, or short comedic plays similar to pratfalls, are performed between Nō plays to lighten the mood. Nō is considered a high art in Rokugan, with several clans having artisan schools that specialize in their own Nō traditions. Day-long performances are popular during court sea-son and seasonal festivals.

Kabuki is a younger art form, considered more garish than Nō (and more popular with the middle class), having evolved out of the kyōgen. Nevertheless, many samurai lords patronize Kabuki troupes, and samurai artisans have tried their hand at writing plays for the style. Kabuki features gorgeous and elaborate costuming, skilled dramatic action including stage fighting, and a mixture of traditional stories and stories with thinly disguised plots based on current events. Kabuki plays are highly improvisational, and skilled actors contribute a great deal to the script and performance, making the success of a play more about the troupe than the playwright.

Bunraku is puppet-based performance. A chant-er relays the plot to the audience while the puppeteers hide behind a small screen and manipulate elaborate, well-crafted puppets. The flexibility and small size of puppets allow them to act out feats impossible for a human actor, and elaborate mechanisms or small pyrotechnics can rapidly change scenery or decapitate puppets for shock value. Supernatural beings are easy to represent, and a dragon pup-pet looks properly looming to a tiny human puppet. Puppet theater is considered the most lowbrow of all theater, but it’s still wildly popular.

Hinin
Hinin, also called burakumin, are at the very bottom of the Celestial Order, and that is apparent in their treatment by others. As hinin are considered unclean, most samurai and other peasants avoid the indignity of speaking with them. With notable exceptions such as geisha, hinin almost never address a samurai (and generally try to avoid them when possible), and they only address peas-ants with the greatest respect and obeisance. They often dress in rags and live in their own slum villages, which are connected to cities by winding and well-trod dirt roads. In rare cases, their villages exist within city walls, but always with a physical separation from the rest of society.

Nevertheless, hinin villages are not ill-kept; the uncleanliness is largely societal and spiritual, not physical. Their homes are large, one-room affairs with dirt floors and walls of cheap wood. While hinin do the detestable work that no one else will, they may still have moments of happiness amidst the fear and grueling work. They work leather, prepare the dead, clear battle-fields, and perform other loathsome tasks, almost all of which involve touching dead flesh, but they also enjoy time with their families. Some tend to personal gardens, and perhaps even enjoy simple pastimes like drinking, singing, and playing dice games.

Regardless, the life of a hinin is hard, and can be cut short by a samurai’s whim. Some of the more martial clans, like the Lion, consider a blade properly tempered and tested only when it has been used to cut down living flesh, and burakumin provide an adequate test. Hinin villages provide some safety, as others avoid them under almost any circumstances.

Entertainers and criminals are also hinin, though geisha are a peculiar exception in terms of how hinin are treated. As samurai are not permitted to let down their face in society, they can only feel comfortable doing so before someone who is not considered part of that society; geisha exist to give them that outlet, and thus are permitted to address samurai and even afforded a certain level of respect or warmth.

When they are not required to be in other areas due to their work, hinin keep to their own communities, where their lives are not much different from those of heimin. Gossip sweeps through hinin communities fast-er than wildfire, and when their duties are complete, they gamble and talk and eat (even meat on special occasions) and live their lives free of the constraints of Bushidō. Their marriages are civil affairs without the benefit of a priest, yet the community recognizes them as valid, and even hinin bow and pray at shrines to their honored and departed ancestors.

The Term “Eta”
Some samurai and heimin might refer to hinin as “eta.” This term dates back to feudal Japan, where it was used to describe the people now more commonly referred to as “burakumin.” It is considered a derogatory slur in modern Japan, and so most speakers do not use it. While L5R is a fantasy setting, this is one of many concepts that have historical baggage

Heimin
Heimin, also called bonge, are in the social class between hinin and samurai. In urban areas, heimin servants, craftspeople, laborers, merchants, and other city-dwelling peasants work every day to per-form household chores for samurai, labor for the cof-fers of the lords of Rokugan, and increasingly, trade and exchange bu among themselves. Merchants and other wealthy commoners often live in houses similar in quality to samurai residences. The ideals of Bushidō require that commoners are treated with courtesy and compassion by their social superiors despite the abject submissiveness demanded of their position. This ideal is rarely realized, however.

Many heimin have houses of their own, kept clean and elegant by any standards save those of the great nobles of the Empire. For some bonge wealthy enough to live in mercantile districts, homes may function as places of business. In modern cities, they are usually townhouses that are narrow and deep, as space for street-facing storefronts is in high demand. Heimin homes often are more reminiscent of those of samu-rai than of hinin, featuring details such as decorative alcoves, built-in desks (in the homes of literate merchants), tatami mats, and sliding doors, and shōji screens. Where samurai homes feature a sitting room for receiving vassals, bonge homes use this space more informally, to greet guests or conduct business.

While all peasants and samurai wear some variant of the kimono, a robe-like outfit with full sleeves kept closed with a belt called an obi, peasant garments are simple and made of cotton, or more rarely silk worn in the heat of summer. It is common for heimin to tuck small pouches and other items under their obi or hang them from it, while samurai tuck their wakizashi and katana through the belt with the blades facing skyward. Most peasant women try to have at least one colorful kimono they can wear to festivals and celebrations, but most often they wear a very simple, practical kimono with a shorter skirt offering less obstruction for walking and labor. Peasant men wear a similarly short kimono, with short cotton leggings extending down to the knee and a cotton overcoat called a haori. Many peasants, especially those who work in the fields, wear conical hats made of straw to protect them from the sun.

Bonge have little respite from their daily work, whatever it may be. Those who clean or maintain an estate, or perform any type of personal work for samurai, have to rise before samurai do and may only rest long after their social “betters” retire. Heimin who work in a shop or as a street vendor may have more discretion in their schedule, but those who fail to make themselves available should a samurai (or more likely, a samurai’s servant) come calling could face severe con-sequences. Bonge families live under the same roof, and while children are allowed freedom to play, they’re also required to work. Although rural heimin have no schooling save for occasional religious lessons from a priest, those living in urban areas may have more options. Some cities and even towns are home to private academies run by generous samurai or to temple schools run by the Brotherhood of Shinsei. For heimin families successful enough to afford the tuition, these schools offer instruction in reading, writing, mathematics, theology, and philosophy.

While those who live in country villages enjoy a life mostly free of social responsibility save to the occasional wandering samurai, bonge servants in a city live under a constant and unceasing pressure to conform and serve the samurai. The idea that an errant word can result in death is largely overstated, but it can be supremely difficult to exist in these spaces. Bonge servants share the streets with samurai, but take great pains to stay out of the way of their betters. In some prestigious cities, many peasants lurk in back rooms waiting for samurai to summon them, or take alleys and side streets to avoid the main roads where samurai walk. Yet peasant money, when they have any, is still good. Granted some amount of leave and free time, peasants might use their money to indulge in dump-lings or see a Kabuki play, or they might engage in gardening, prayer, or if they are one of the few literate peasants, light reading.

Merchants fare better than other peasants. They awaken early in the morning to prepare their storefront or transport goods from their quarters far from the noble district to set up areas of trade. They employ servants to carry their goods, or they move their wares via pack animals like oxen. To avoid having to walk, wealthy merchants may even employ additional servants to carry them in a cloth litter called a kago. While merchants are still restricted in their interactions with samurai, many become wealthy by any standard, exceeding the temporal might of jizamurai or even some poorer lords. Such merchants’ homes display often-tasteless art and ostentation beyond their station, enough to draw the ire of most samurai. These merchants may eat rice and even meat often, and they brook few challenges to their pride—perhaps not even from samurai, and certainly not from less successful peasants.

Samurai
For samurai who live in a city, daily life follows a similar pattern in every season save winter, when the most prominent nobles and courtiers may depart to attend the Imperial Winter Court. The work of samurai in the city revolves around the governor’s court. These samurai’s duties to their clan require them to attend to matters of trade or war or to protect those who engage in those discussions.

City courts only deal with trade through the liminal social strata of merchant patrons, but the ability of cities to support a large number of samurai and their retainers also makes them seats for the powerful who don’t yet have houses or holdings of their own. Samurai in cities are ambitious and talented, often pursuing their own goals, yet all too aware they face an ultimate social ceiling without performing some great act of merit for their clan. Even without the need to keep trade flowing, cities are hotbeds of intrigue.

A typical samurai’s home is set apart from the rest of society by a masonry wall around the perimeter, with a gate and service entrance facing the road. Within these walls, a courtyard or garden surrounds a house with a square foundation of stone, walls of wood, and windows made of shōji screens. The gate faces the out-door stairs to the main floor and wooden storm doors. Inside, the main reception room features a floor covered in tatami mats, a deep alcove for hanging scrolls or displaying other art, and built-in desks.

The style of decor varies by clan, the understated simplicity of Lion and Dragon homes contrasting with the gilded and carved columns and beams of the Crane and Phoenix clans. Decorated or austere fusuma sliding doors lead deeper into the home, where six or so multipurpose rooms of various sizes are used for sleeping at night and the activities of everyday life during the day. All but the poorest samurai have household servants who live in the house or in a smaller building attached to the main home, where food is also stored and prepared before being served to the samurai of the main household.

Samurai kimono are always a finer quality of cotton or silk. Samurai favoring mobility, such as bushi and other more hands-on samurai, typically wear a flowing and pleated skirt called a hakama, a sort of divided garment that allows for ease of movement. These they wear with kosode robes with smaller sleeve openings than a kimono, and often with a single-color haori coat for extra warmth or to identify their allegiance to a particular clan or organization. Daimyō and courtiers of high status may wear an outer vest or jacket called a kataginu. Samurai frequently incorporate their clan colors into their clothing, but they aren’t restricted to those colors, and artistic or fashionable samurai make creative use of design and color to draw attention and remain at the height of fashion.

All samurai are careful not to wear another clan’s colors while in their lands, as this can be construed as an insult—unless that’s precisely what a samurai intends. City samurai display a wider variety in their clothing, and they are freed of the need to wear traveling footwear, heavy socks, and a cloak to keep them safe from the elements.

Traveling samurai arriving in a town or city are expected to pay a visit to the magistrate, samurai lord, or governor who is in charge, notifying them of their presence and intentions. It’s a grave breach of etiquette to fail to do so in a timely manner—usually right after one has washed the dust of the road off themself. Powerful samurai rarely even have much dust, as they are carried in enclosed litters called norimono.

Food
The samurai of Rokugan’s cities have a varied diet, rich in vegetables, fish, meats, and always rice. White rice is always served plain in its own bowl, with chopsticks laid sideways across the top—never left inside the bowl, for that is too reminiscent of funeral rites. Sushi and rice balls are made from the sticky white rice, sake is brewed from rice, and rice vinegar is used in virtually every meal. While brown rice is occasionally eaten and used to make mochi, or rice cakes, and aromatic rice (brought to Rokugan and grown by the Unicorn) exists as a regional variant, white sticky rice is far and away the most common, present at nearly every samu-rai meal. The diet of peasants is decidedly less varied, consisting largely of barley. The poorest make due with millet, while merchants and other wealthier urban peasants may enjoy rice nearly as often as samurai, and even indulge in fish or meat on occasion.

Second only to rice dishes are noodle dishes, made from buckwheat or wheat flours and sometimes even yams. Seafood is heavily consumed in all coastal areas, and in inland areas, river and lake fish are eaten when-ever possible as a significant part of the diet. Poultry (chicken, pheasant, and some turkey) is also widely used, for both meat and eggs. Soybeans make up the remainder of the protein eaten, especially since they can be grown in most parts of the Empire. Most of the soybean crop is turned into tofu, but a significant frac-tion of it is used to make salty, fragrant soy sauce and thick miso paste.

Besides fish, the sea also provides fresh and dried seaweed, while the land provides squash, cucumbers, cabbage, kale, yams, burdock, carrots, radishes, and onions, and the orchards produce plums, apricots, pears, cherries, and apples.

Social ideals hold that red meat is unclean, and so many samurai abstain from eating it, especially in coastal provinces. Most Unicorn largely ignore this stricture, and in the face of deprivation, the Crab cannot always choose their meals, and tend toward viewing things pragmatically anyway—if something is unclean, they can always be cleansed later. Dragon have been known to insist that their smoked and cured delicacy is “mountain tuna” and definitely not goat. Individual samurai sometimes break this taboo based on circumstance or preference, and the social repercussions range from minor disgust to significant loss of standing, depending on one’s company

Everything save soup is eaten with chopsticks or the hands. Everyone in Rokugan, from hinin to the Emperor, has their own pair of chopsticks. Although chop-sticks normally are made from a simple wood such as bamboo, the wealthy use chopsticks of expensive or aromatic woods, ivory, or even jade. Spoons are used for soups and stews, though more often, the solid elements of a soup are eaten with chopsticks and the broth is drunk directly from the bowl afterward. While knives are used extensively in the kitchen to prepare food, they are never used at the table. There are no banquet halls as such; food is always served in which-ever room suits the purpose (though never in the kitchen). Various kinds of snacks sold by street vendors are served on wooden skewers.

Rokugani Alcohol
“Sake is the jeweled broom that sweeps away all care,” goes the Rokugani proverb, and few can resist letting go in so pleasant a manner in the company of close friends or geisha. Though the most popular drink in Rokugan by far is tea (cha), and serving tea to guests is one of the most basic forms of Rokugani hospitality, sake is not far behind and is nearly as ritualized. It’s often served in specialty bars called sake houses.

Sake is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice and was popular even before the Kami fell, retaining its appeal to samurai and commoners alike across centuries. Sake usually is served hot, but the highest-quality sake is served chilled.

A more powerful and harsher distilled beverage known as shōchū is also available, coming in varieties fermented from sweet potatoes, barley, or rice, but only heavy drinkers partake of it (particularly among the Mantis Clan); others often look down on those who drink shōchū.

Other beverages are popular in certain regions or clan territories. The Crane are fond of the plum wine known as umeshu. A favorite of the Unicorn is airag, but this drink of fermented mare’s milk is unknown outside their lands.