saké – fermented beverage made from rice.
sakura – Prunus serrulata, the Japanese cherry blossom. Blooms brilliantly for a few days in the spring, but does not produce fruit. Deeply symbolic of the samurai’s life in its extreme beauty and quick death.
sama – an honorific suffix appended to names to indicate the addressee’s superiority in station.
seiza – literally “proper sitting,” kneeling position with legs folded under, sitting on calves and heels.
sensei – honorific title given to teachers and mentors.
seppuku – also called hara-kiri, literally “belly cutting,” ritual suicide performed by disemboweling oneself.
shide – white paper cut into zig-zag strips. When attached to a rope made of rice straw, they signify the boundary between the sacred and profane. Most often used to denote sacred trees or holy sites.
shugenja – also known as a yamabushi, an ascetic, itinerant follower of Shugendo, a practice of magic, augury, and exorcism claiming ties to both Buddhism and Shintoism.
shuriken – literally “hand-hidden sword,” any small, concealed bladed object, used for throwing, stabbing, or slashing. Common types include weighted spikes and thin, bladed plates.
soba – buckwheat.
sumi – traditional ink, made from soot, water, and glue.
tachi – style of sword, earlier design than the katana, with a more pronounced curvature, usually worn with the edge hanging down, in contrast to the katana, which was worn with the edge facing up.
taifu – literally “great wind,” hurricane, root of the English word “typhoon.”
taiko – a large drum, used for marshaling troops, as well as sending warnings and messages great distances.
tanto – single-edged dagger.
tanuki – Nyctereutes procyonoides. Mammal indigenous to Japan, sometimes translated as “raccoon dog,” member of the dog family (Canidae). Resembles a raccoon in having rounded ears, dark facial markings, and brown coat, but its tail is not ringed. Its limbs are short, brown or grayish in color, and its body low-slung. In folklore, tanuki are tricksters, said to possess magical powers and the ability to change shape. Tanuki are said to keep their magical powers in their scrota.
tatami – mat used for flooring, made of a core of rice straw wrapped in soft rush straw.
tengu – supernatural creature from folklore, having both avian and human characteristics. Tengu were long believed to be disruptive demons and harbingers of war. However, this image evolved into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests, said to be masters of swordsmanship.
torii – a gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the profane to the sacred. The presence of a torii at the entrance is usually the simplest way to identify Shinto shrines.
tsuba – round or square guard above the hilt of a bladed weapon.
uguisu – Cettia diphone. A song bird known as the Japanese bush warbler.
wakizashi – a short sword, usually paired with the longer katana.
yabusame – a style of mounted archery developed in the early Kamakura period by Minamoto no Yoritomo to train samurai to shoot from horseback. A rider gallops his mount past three diamond-shaped wooden targets, each approximately eighty yards (73 m) apart, sized and placed to replicate firing at an enemy’s face and upper chest, just above the breastplate where armor is light or nonexistent. Special “turnip-headed” arrows are fired at each target in succession. In modern times, it is believed that the whistling sound emitted by the arrowheads drives away evil spirits.
yojimbo – bodyguard.
yoriki – literally “helper, assistant,” in the case of this story, the deputy to a provincial constable.
yurei – literally “dim spirit,” supernatural entity from folklore, analogous to Western ghosts. A person who dies in a state of extreme negative emotion, such as revenge, love, jealousy, hatred or sorrow, may be trapped in the earthly realm as a yurei.
zori – flat, thonged sandals made from straw or wood.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Benedict, Ruth. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. New York: Mariner, 2005.
Bryant, Anthony J. and Angus McBride. Early Samurai: 200-1500 AD. Oxford: Osprey, 1991.
Chozanshi, Issai. The Demon’s Sermon on the Martial Arts. Trans. William Scott Wilson. Tokyo: Kodansha, 2006.
Cleary, Thomas. Training the Samurai Mind: A Bushido Sourcebook. Boston: Shambhala, 2008.
Hamill, Sam. The Sound of Water: Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, and Other Poets. Trans. Sam Hamill. Boston: Shambhala, 2000.
Hearn, Lafcadio. Shadowings. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1971.
Kure, Mitsuo. Samurai: An Illustrated History. Boston: Tuttle, 2002.
Miyake, Hitoshi. “Religious Rituals in Shugendo: A Summary.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 16.2-3 (1989): 101-116. Web.
Miyamoto, Musashi. The Book of Five Rings. Trans. Bradford J. Brown, et al. New York: Bantam, 1982.
Yagyu, Munenori. The Life-Giving Sword: Secret Teachings from the House of the Shogun. Trans. William Scott Wilson. Tokyo: Kodansha, 2003.
Ogasawara, Nobuo. Japanese Swords. Trans. Don Kenny. Osaka: Hoikusha, 2003.
Ratti, Oscar and Adele Westbrook. Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan. Edison: Castle Books, 1999.
Rossabi, Morris. Khubilai Khan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Saito, Takafumi and William R. Nelson. eds. 1020 Haiku in Translation. Trans. Takafumi Saito and William R. Nelson. North Charleston: BookSurge, 2006.
Sansom, George. A History of Japan to 1334. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1958.
Sato, Hiroaki. Legends of the Samurai. Woodstock: Overlook Press, 1995.
Soho, Takuan. The Unfettered Mind. Trans. William Scott Wilson. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1986.
Turnbull, Stephen. Essential Histories: Genghis Khan and the Mongol Conquests 1190-1400. Oxford: Osprey, 2003.
—. The Mongol Invasions of Japan 1274 and 1281. Oxford: Osprey, 2010.
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Yamamoto, Tsunetomo. Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai. Trans. William Scott Wilson. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1983.
Yoshikawa, Eiji. Musashi. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1981.
CONTRIBUTORS
This book would not have been possible without the generous support of this amazing army of people.
Spearman
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Bandit Chieftain
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Infantry Sergeant
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Cavalry Captain
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Tenebrae
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Sensei
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General
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PERMISSIONS
Excerpts from Training the Samurai Mind: A Bushido Sourcebook, translated by Thomas Cleary, © 2008 by Thomas Cleary.
Takuan Sôhô, excerpts from The Unfettered Mind: Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman, translated by William Scott Wilson, © 1986, 2001 by William Scott Wilson.
Issai Chozanshi, excerpts from The Demon’s Sermon on the Martial Arts, translated by William Scott Wilson, © 2006 by William Scott Wilson.
Yagyu Munenori, excerpts from The Life-Giving Sword: Secret Teachings from the House of the Shogun, translated by William Scott Wilson, © 2003 by William Scott Wilson.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo, excerpts from Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, translated by William Scott Wilson, © 1979, 2002 by William Scott Wilson.
All of the above reprinted by arrangement with The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston, MA. www.shambhala.com. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author, freelance writer, award-winning screenwriter, poker player, biker, roustabout, and graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, Travis Heermann is the author of numerous short stories appearing in such places as Fiction River, Cemetery Dance’s Shivers VII, and Historical Lovecraft. In addition to the Ronin Trilogy, he is also the author of Death Wind, Rogues of the Black Fury, and The Wild Boys. Aside from his fiction work, he has contributed to almost thirty roleplaying supplements, including the Firefly Roleplaying Game, Legend of the Five Rings, d20 System products, and EVE Online.
He spent three years living in Japan, where much of this story was researched and conceived, and now lives in a much larger world than before.
Find the author online!
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.travisheermann.com
Blog: www.travisheermann.com/blog
Twitter: @TravisHeermann
Facebook: www.facebook.com/travis.heermann
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