Samurai and their "Lessers"

[Vutall]

Samurai and Their Lessers
Despite the deep social divides that exist in Rokugani society between the noble and warrior castes and the common folk, samurai must still interact with heimin and even, on some occasions, the burakumin, or hinin. While both are considered socially inferior to samurai (the burakumin especially so), the relationship between peasants and samurai is considerably more complex than simply “lord and vassal.”

General Matters
The overall attitude of commoners toward samurai can be summed up in a single word: deference. From their earliest age, commoner children are taught that samurai are to avoided as much as possible; when interaction with samurai is necessary, commoners are to be polite and respectful, to bow deeply and wait to be recognized, to speak only when spoken to or when their duties specifically demand it, to avoid eye contact, and never to act in a manner that could be considered disrespectful or threatening. In most cases, commoners will unobtrusively move aside to allow samurai to pass by them unimpeded.

For a commoner not to offer this pervasive deference is to implicitly spurn the Celestial Order, which is blasphemy and generally considered a grave crime. A commoner who commits such an offense is guaranteed a stern censure at the very least, and only if the samurai in question is particularly merciful. It is much more likely that the offending commoner will be beaten, or even killed outright. Nor is such a dire outcome likely to be considered a crime on the part of the samurai. At worst, they may be required to provide compensation to the commoner’s lord—unless the samurai is the commoner’s lord, in which case there are unlikely to be any repercussions at all (except for the loss of a commoner, of course). It should come as no surprise, then, that the deference of commoners toward samurai is often heavily tinged by outright fear.

When a commoner does have to interact with a samurai—normally because the samurai has chosen to speak to the commoner and expects a reply—this deference continues to color the whole exchange. The commoner normally only responds to questions posed and rarely initiates an exchange. This has an unfortunate side effect, as commoners are reluctant to provide even important information to a samurai. It isn’t uncommon for samurai in the Empire to be surprised by a crisis that the commoners have known about for some time.

Regardless of the samurai’s actual status, a commoner always uses the honorific -sama, and then only following the samurai’s family name (for example, “Bayushi-sama”) or the generic term “samurai” (“samurai-sama”). While speaking to a samurai, a commoner almost always maintains a subservient posture and absolutely avoids making eye contact with the samurai.

A More Nuanced Reality
The actual relationship between samurai and commoners can be more complicated than the rules of etiquette might indicate. The vast majority of samurai are keenly aware that the Empire only functions because of the labor of the common people: burakumin handling dead bodies and disposing of refuse, heimin craftspeople making the things necessary for day-to-day life, merchants conducting the sordid business of commerce that underpins the economy, and most important of all, farmers and fisherfolk producing the Empire’s food. For this reason, most samurai treat commoners with a civil indifference, recognizing their con-]tributions to the Empire but otherwise largely ignoring them unless there is some specific reason not to.

Some samurai go further than this, however, taking the Bushidō tenet of Compassion beyond its broad sense of protecting commoners from large-scale harm, such as military incursions or natural disasters. Instead, they apply it to their individual dealings with the peasantry, treating them with a polite courtesy; some even go so far as to protect commoners from any abuse. Such samurai are rare—they are more commonly found among the Phoenix and Unicorn clans—and are often considered odd at best by their peers. They are some-times even ridiculed for having sympathy for mere peasants. However, such samurai also tend to gain great favor from the commoners, even becoming considered a “hero of the people.”

Conversely, some samurai have nothing but con-tempt for commoners, taking their “less than human” status in the Celestial Order as justification for mistreatment and cruelty. Some will even answer a slight, real or perceived, with death. This means that the samurai is failing to follow the Bushidō tenet of Compassion, and it can entail consequences, even dire ones. Killing commoners who are vassals to another lord can rouse the anger of that lord, leading the lord to demand compensation or even to apply pressure to the samurai’s lord to take action. Other samurai may also take exception to mistreating or killing servants of the Empire, no matter how lowly, for what may be minor transgressions. Finally, the commoners themselves may be aggravated into action, despite their supposed subservience to samurai. A mob of vengeful peasants infuriated over harm done to friends and loved ones could easily overwhelm, injure, or kill even a skilled bushi. The threat of dire consequences afterward may not be enough to forestall commoners enraged to rash action.

Ultimately, the reality is that most samurai under-stand the important contributions made by commoners in service to the Empire, and all personally benefit from them. The following sections describe ways in which the relationship between samurai and commoners can be mutually beneficial, albeit with some potential for problems.

Samurai And The Bonge
Many samurai recognize the bonge, “those who work,” as being valuable to the Empire and, potentially, valuable to themselves in turn. Some commoners work as servants in strongholds of power, such as castles and the various courts of the Empire. The vast majority of the bonge, however, live and work outside of castles in the farms, villages, towns, and cities of Rokugan, and it is in these places that samurai are most likely to encounter them

Farmers and Fishers
Those who grow and harvest the Empire’s food, such as farmers and fisherfolk, are considered the highest status of the bonge because of the vital work they do: without food, the Empire would starve. Accordingly, samurai lords tend to be particularly protective of their farmers, generally treat them well (or at least, not harshly) and often conspicuously reward those who work particularly hard or produce especially bountiful crops. Not only does this ensure the lord has enough food for their own household and vassals, and for the taxes they owe to their superiors, but they may have enough surplus to trade or sell.

Most samurai lords even treat farmers belonging to their enemies well. Not only is the wanton slaughter of farmers severely frowned upon by other samurai and the Imperial authorities (even if destroying an enemy’s means of producing food could offer a significant advantage), but a lord who does so risks having the same done to their own farmers in retaliation. More-over, in the event of victory over their foes, a samurai lord who hasn’t hurt their farmers stands to come into possession of their lands and farms with a minimal amount of disruption and unrest

By extension, most samurai treat farmers reason-ably well, whether they belong to their lord or not. Samurai who do not mistreat farmers find the commoners accommodating in return, readily offering food and lodging when they are far from inns or way stations, or aid if they are in distress because of injuries or other mishaps. Conversely, samurai who mistreat farmers and their families may find accommodation scant, food suddenly “scarce,” and other forms of aid simply not available.

Craftspeople
Commoners who make the tools and implements necessary for the basic business of the Empire—everything from baskets and barrels to rope and farm tools—rank below farmers in terms of status among the bonge. That said, skilled tradespeople and craftspeople are, in their own way, nearly as valuable, as their work enables the farming that is so vital to the Empire’s survival.

Another important type of skilled bonge craftspeople are weaponsmiths. Note that they do not make the most important samurai weapons; no bonge smith would be allowed to manufacture a katana or wakizashi even if they had the knowledge to do so, nor would any samurai consider carrying such a weapon. However, weapons are needed in large quantities by ashigaru, and the multitude of yari and other weapons borne by the rank-and-file peasant levies are manufactured by bonge weaponsmiths.

From the perspective of a samurai lord, well-made tools, implements, and weapons are not only essential to the functioning of the lord’s estates, but they represent another important source of income in trade and sales. Accordingly, just as with farmers, most samurai will treat bonge craftspeople reasonably well, as long as they show proper deference.

Merchants
Because they make nothing of value themselves and only deal in the commercial activities related to things made by others, merchants have the lowest status of the bonge. They are also those commoners with whom samurai have the most complex relationship. On the one hand, because they deal in matters of commerce—which most samurai consider distasteful and shun—they are generally treated with disdain, or even contempt. On the other hand, many samurai are quite happy to accrue and hold wealth, and having skilled merchants as vassals is an important means of doing just that. It isn’t uncommon for a samurai to loathe merchants for the crass commercialism they represent and yet maintain surprisingly close relationships with them in order to benefit from their trade.

Not all samurai despise trade and commerce, how-ever. The Daidoji family of the Crane Clan, the Yasuki family of the Crab Clan, and the Ide family of the Uni-corn Clan all include samurai who engage in commercial activities. Among the other families of these clans, and among the other clans generally, there are also individual samurai who do so. Still, even in these cases, bonge merchants play an important role as those who actually conduct negotiations and directly oversee the shipment and receipt of goods and handling of currency on behalf of their samurai lords. In such cases, the samurai act as patrons to the merchants, giving them broad direction along with the support they need to be successful in their commercial enterprises. The merchants, in turn, drive the hardest bargains and make the most profit they can on behalf of their samurai patrons. This generally allows the samurai to maintain a distance from the unseemly conduct of business activities while still enjoying the benefits

More traditional samurai may look upon this sort of arrangement with contempt, despairing that their materialistic peers will never live up to the true ideals of Bushidō. In doing so, they may fail to realize—or choose to ignore—that wealthy samurai live better and are often more influential in the Empire’s affairs

Samurai and The Burakumin
The burakumin—those commoners lowest in the Celestial Order—do the unpleasant things that need to be done to keep the Empire functioning, such as disposing of refuse, handling and cremating corpses, and myriad other odious tasks. These commoners, also known as hinin, face a degree of contempt and disdain from samurai far greater than that experienced by the bonge. At least the bonge are considered to have a degree of humanity; hinin are not considered to be people at all, just property. It is extraordinarily rare for a samurai to deign to interact with hinin, and when they do, the outcome is almost always a bad one for the hinin in question. From a legal standpoint, killing a hinin is generally considered a property crime at worst, similar to vandalism, and may require some degree of compensation—if the lord owning the hinin cares enough to press the matter.

Still, the Bushidō tenet of Compassion isn’t entirely abandoned when it comes to hinin. Their wanton slaughter in significant numbers can inconvenience a lord, while reflecting poorly on the samurai perpetrating it. Most samurai simply ignore hinin, giving them no more consideration than they would objects or animals. This suits most hinin, who are glad to draw no attention from samurai, whom they find terrifying for legitimate reasons—from their perspective, samurai are unpredictable and deeply dangerous, and becoming involved with them can spell disaster. Of course, this ignorance cuts both ways; if hinin are suffering in some fashion, only a samurai who is a true paragon of Compassion is likely to spare any effort to assist them, or even notice. Such is the injustice of Rokugan’s social order, and hinin bear much of the brunt of it

That said, there are some specific types of burakumin to whom samurai pay significant attention.

Geisha
The entertainers known as geisha, meaning “artful per-son,” occupy a unique place in Rokugani society. They are hinin, so they are considered nonpersons, meaning one would expect them to be treated in the same way as butchers, tanners, and refuse collectors. Because they are nonpersons, however, samurai may seek out the company of geisha, and while they provide entertainment and companionship, the samurai can relax the rigid emotional control they normally maintain. Since the geisha isn’t considered a person, there is no shame in showing open emotion, any more than when one is completely alone.

These individuals—who may be of any gender—undergo a grueling training process that takes years. Geisha are skilled at engaging samurai in conversation and in offering performances including signing, reciting poetry, dancing, and playing musical instruments. Beginners must perform to exacting standards before achieving the title of apprentice geisha, much less true geisha. Many do not succeed. Among those who do, the very best can become highly sought after. Most of these obtain the patronage of powerful samurai, who benefit from the prestige associated with their skilled vassal—not to mention the considerable income that can result. Contrary to certain gaijin misconceptions, geisha are not courtesans.

It is because geisha can be extremely proficient at providing samurai with entertainment and companionship, while allowing a safe venue for the release of pent-up emotions, that some samurai become enamored of particular geisha; some even fall in love. It isn’t unheard of for children to result from the union of a samurai and a geisha. In most cases, such offspring go unacknowledged by the samurai in question and grow up as hinin themselves. There are some samurai, how-ever, who may choose to acknowledge or even adopt the child, or arrange for the child to be adopted by others. In a few instances, the child may even be raised as a samurai—a dangerous secret indeed.

Despite their lowly place in the Celestial Order, some geisha are able to gain the trust of their samurai clients and become influential in ways far beyond those of other hinin. Some take advantage of this trust to learn their clients’ secrets, which then become fodder for espionage and blackmail. A few are even cultivated for this very purpose, particularly by the Scorpion Clan. More than one samurai has let their guard slip too far while in the comfortable and intimate presence of a geisha, only to say too much and find their lives disrupted or even ruined as a result

Torturers
In order to obtain a conviction in a Rokugani judicial court, a confession is normally required from the accused (see Crime and Punishment, on page 89). Magistrates and judges prefer that a confession be provided voluntarily, but if it is not—as is often the case—the accused often faces torture to make them give one. Since no honorable samurai would be willing to engage in such an unseemly practice as applying torture, hinin are used for the purpose. Further, the act of torture is unclean, beneath even heimin.

Hinin torturers form an important part of a magistrate’s retinue—an unfortunate reality. These skilled torturers must be much more than just brutes. The objective is to obtain a confession, not inflict needless suffering. Accordingly, skilled torturers are, in a twisted way, “artists” in their own right; the very best can cause an accused person to provide a confession under the mere threat of suffering. Because of their deep under-standing of human anatomy and the many ways harm can be inflicted upon it, some torturers also become quite adept at assisting magistrates in investigations, unraveling the types and sequence of injuries on a murder victim, for example. Such proficient torturers can become highly sought after among magistrates. In their own way, they can become as influential with their lord as the best geisha are with theirs.

Samurai and Gaijin
Gaijin, or “barbarians,” are those humans who originate from places other than Rokugan or, in the case of the tribal peoples known as the Yobanjin, humans who originated in what is now Rokugan but refused to follow the Kami at the dawn of the Empire. Regardless of their specific origins, what characterizes gaijin to the Rokugani is that they are not part of the Celestial Order at all. This makes them actually less than hinin; even “nonpeople” have their functions within the Celestial Order. This belief helps fuel a profound xenophobia in the Empire, as most Rokugani samurai avoid any contact with gaijin whatsoever.

That said, there is some interaction between samurai of the Empire and gaijin. It tends to be limited and specific, occurring mostly between samurai of the Uni-corn and Mantis, and foreign powers such as the Ivory Kingdoms, Pavarre, and the Mweneta Empire. The Unicorn and, occasionally, the Dragon and Phoenix Clans also have some contact with the various foreign nations in and beyond the great deserts lying north and west of the Empire. The Phoenix Clan has also interacted with the Yobanjin historically, though it generally disavows such contact publicly. The foreign gaijin are normally the ones to initiate contact, as they seek to establish trade and diplomatic relations with the Empire. Most samurai generally shun these overtures, seeing little value and only risk—including threats to both their social status and their spiritual purity—by allowing themselves to enter the presence of beings who are not part of the Celestial Order

More progressive, curious, or opportunistic samurai, however, are known to sometimes engage with gaijin; a few go so far as to learn some of the customs and even the languages of these strange foreigners. Traditionalist samurai, of course, consider this akin to blasphemy, and may even see such interactions as crimes—though legal enforcement varies regionally, strict in some lands and lax in others. Accordingly, samurai who choose to engage with gaijin had best do so with utter discretion, or hold the power and influence needed to blunt any criticism directed their way.