Ronin
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- For other uses, see Ronin (disambiguation)}}}.
During the greater than 250 years of the Edo period, with the shogunate's rigid class system and laws, the number of ronin greatly increased. During previous ages, samurai were easily able to move between masters and even between occupations, and marry between classes. However, during the Edo period, samurai were restricted from doing so, and were above all forbidden to become employed by another master without their previous master's permission. Also, low-level samurai, often poor and without choice, were forced to quit or escape their master.
Ideas of the ronin
Traditionally in Japanese culture, ronin were generally somewhat disreputable; a target of humiliation or satire. Although it was considered undesirable to be a ronin, as it meant being without a stipend from a lord, it was also considered necessary to the life experience of any true samurai. There was once the expression, "Seven times down, eight times up," which signified that a samurai would be dispatched on a year-long wandering mission seven times over his career, each time returning to the service of his lord.
The undesirability of ronin status was mainly a discrimination imposed by other samurai. As thoroughly bound (though unusually literate) men, most samurai resented the personal freedom enjoyed by wandering ronin. There are many tales of just ronin, defending poor villagers against haughty, arrogant samurai who would kill anyone unlucky enough to offend. On the other hand, there are also stories of the lordless, undisciplined, unemployed, and bitter ex-samurai, left over prior to the 1868 Meiji Restoration. These de facto ronin were little more than urban troublemakers, who were in desperate need of a new cause.
As an indication of the humiliation felt by samurai who became ronin, Lord Redesdale (British attache to Japan shortly after it was opened to the world during the Meiji Restoration) recorded that during his stay in Japan, when he lived two hundred yards from the graves of the Forty-Seven Ronin, a ronin killed himself at the gravesite. He left a note saying that being a ronin, and without means of honourably earning a living, he had tried to enter the service of the Daimyo of Chōsū, but was refused. That having been refused, he wanted to serve no other master, and being a ronin was hateful, so he had decided to kill himself, and what more fitting place could he find? Lord Redesdale noted that he himself saw the spot only an hour or two later, and the blood was still on the ground.
Among the most famous ronin are Miyamoto Musashi, the famed swordsman, and the Forty-Seven Ronin.
Ronin fiction
- Ronin might be hired as yojimbo (用心棒; yōjinbō), bodyguards or mercenary fighters. Akira Kurosawa's films The Seven Samurai and Yojimbo feature ronin.
- Ronin is a 1998 movie set in 20th century Europe, directed by John Frankenheimer. Former Cold War-era intelligence agents find themselves masterless warriors who seek both honor and survival.
- Ronin Warriors was the American title given to the Japanese anime TV show Samurai Troopers.
- Tsukikage Ran is an anime series featuring a female ronin.
- In comics, Ronin is a graphic novel by Frank Miller in which a ronin is re-incarnated in a dystopic future New York. Ronin is also the name of a new member of the Avengers. However, the longest running American comic book featuring this kind of character is Usagi Yojimbo.
- Ronin have had a large effect on many western movies. Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name closely resembles a ronin. The movie The Magnificent Seven, a western remake of The Seven Samurai, involves seven wandering men who are hired to protect a town against bandits.
- The anime series Samurai Champloo features a ronin named Jin (after jin for benevolence, one of the seven samurai virtues) as one of its three main characters.
- The anime series Rurouni Kenshin is the story of a ronin or "Rurouni" as he is called in the story, named Kenshin Himura, once a legendary hitokiri.
- Final Fantasy X's playable character Auron was a Ronin. He became one after his master, Braska, died in an attempt to achieve the final summoning and defeat Sin.
\"Ronin\" as metaphor
The term rōnin is also used in modern Japan for those who have failed the college (or university, high school, etc.) entrance exam. These modern day ronin often have to attend cram school in order to gain a passing mark in the future. This use probably derives from the analogy that they have no school to attend, as a ronin samurai has no leader to serve. There is also a parallel to the shame of the original ronin, in failing to pass the exam, as well as a darker parallel - the suicide rates of modern-day ronin are significantly higher than their samurai counterparts.#redirectThe official term for such a student is 過年度生 (kanendo-sei), 過年度卒業生 (kanendo-sotsugyō-sei), 過年度卒業者 (kanendo-sotsugyō-sha), or 既卒者 (kisotsu-sha), yet these terms are no longer common. While they all roughly translate to "student past graduation year", "ronin" refers only to a person who disqualified on something.
See also
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