Kitsuki Hamesu - Water
Earth signifies foundations, structures, deep strengths and basic truths. It is the firm ground a samurai stands on. It is a good place to begin.
Once, in the reign of the Divine Hantei the Twenty-third, there was born to the House of Doji a male child. This child had great talent with the sword. His father, whose name was Giri, rejoiced when the swordsman Togama arrived at his door. Togama was a famed warrior, a "sword-saint" who traveled the Empire seeking enlightenment in the Way of the Sword. Togama was a masterful duelist, and had heard of the precocious talent of the Crane boy.
Togama trained the boy in the way of the sword for seven years, and as the child approached the age of gempukku, his skill with the sword increased until some whispered that Kakita himself guided the boy's hand. Togama looked at his student, and prayed that in that moment of clarity, when sword, samurai and strike as as one, that the Crane would one day find the enlightenment that Togama sought all his life.
His son's skill brought fame to Giri, and many great Lords offered their daughters in marriage. Giri refused, for he knew that the Emperor's eldest daughter was of an age with his son. Giri told his son to prepare to travel to the Imperial court. The son was greatly saddened by his father's word - for Hantei the 23rd disliked dueling, and had banned it within Otosan Uchi. If he went to the
Court, he would never again know the deadly joy of the sword. Finally, the boy reached the age of his gempukku, when he would choose his adult name. Giri told his son that once he was an adult, he would straight-away got to the Imperial court to woo the Emperor's daughter. Togama overheard this, and counseled his student to flee, to go out into the world and perfect his technique and find enlightenment and joy in the sword. The day of the gempukku ceremony came...
Water is the element of change. As the river flows into the sea, so our life is ever changing but always reaching an end. As a river cuts its own path through the forest, thus our lives cut our path into the world...
The day of the gempukku ceremony came...
The young man stood his ground in the circle, showing all his sword skills.. none knowing the inner turmoil that taw at his very soul.
To marry the Emperors daughter was a great honor to him and his family, but if he were to follow is heart, and his sword then surely he would be dishonored and all would be lost.. His eyes sort out his fathers and there he found pride, and joy that his son would soon be a man, not a boy.
"Is that all I am to him?" he thought.. " A pawn to be used by him.. and then by everyone else".. He finished his dance with his sword and left the circle, leaving the next to follow in his flawless moves.
Oaku Karo - Earth
Night fell and the cold was biting as he sort shelter in the sparse forest. From this moment on, he had no name, no family, no past.. only his sword and his heart of fire. He had turned his back on all he had known to follow this path. He had turned and left the Gempukku before its end, and thus was a boy still, never to be a man, never to marry the daughter of the Emperor. He pulled his cloak around him and tried to sleep. The sounds of the night strange, and his dreams vivid...
His name called a thousand times in the night.. a scream in the darkness.
"Wha?" he sat up, expecting the guards to be there, his father frowning at him over his fan... No.. only the russle of the leaves, and the silent watching of a deer. He lay down again to sleep..
A soft voice, a singing.. his mother's voice. He sat up realizing that he was no longer in the forest, but within a palace of gold and emerald. The Imperial Palace. There he watched as the Emperor was given the news that the boy had gone missing. There the Emperor sighed as he read the message, there the Emperor declared that he would not stand by and let his slight on his honor go unavenged....
Something moved, there he saw his father, blood tricking from his lips as he plunged the sword into his chest, he's spirit joining the ancestors who seemed to dance around all present. The Spirit of his father stared the boy in the face and silently screamed his anger and pain before turning to mist and disappearing in to the night
"Is this what you want my son? his mothers voice again You are not worthy to follow your fate! You who betrayed your family, your clan.. because of your selfish whims a great family within the Empire will end.. Turn back my child, and you can repair the damage you have caused.. Turn back"
The visions faded, leaving a hungry tired boy, and a doe who watched him from the tree line..
Bayushi Hituro - Air
Someone had indeed come to find the young man, but it was not his father nor his mother, they had already turned their back on the son that had left them, and were contemplating how they might best make their peace with their ancestors and remove the stain of shame from the sight of the Emperor. Instead it was Togama the swordmaster who came upon the boy in the dark forest where he still struggled with his soul.
When the boy saw his sensei he fell to his knees and wept, begging him to end his shame now by being his second as he took his own life, but Togama refused. "You have not done wrong" he said, "For to follow the way of the sword was the choice even of your most noble ancestor Kakita himself, you should never be sent to a place where you would be forbidden to wield the blade." The boy protested that it was the will of his father that he should do so, and what loyalty could be greater than to his own lord. "The loyalty to your ancestors is even greater" said his Sensei.
Then Togama told him a secret that he had been told by one at court, that the Emperor had offered the hand of two of his daughters, one who would stay within the sacred walls of Otosan uchi, and another who would leave the Imperial City to become part of the household of her husband. "Were you to marry the second." said Togama, "You could remain in the Doji palaces and devote yourself to the blade and bring great honor to your house together. But your father's will was that you should marry the other, I do not know the reason for this, but I have been told that perhaps there is someone else who compels him to make the choice that will see his own son doomed in the eyes of the Emperor."
When he heard this the boy's heart became steel, and his eyes took on the glint of his blade, which made his Sensei nod in approval. He knew now that there was still a chance, he must find the man who sought to seal his doom, and marry the daughter of the Emperor that would bring his family great honor and yet allow him to answer the call of his ancestors. All that remained was to complete that seemingly impossible task before his unknown enemy could complete his plans and rob him of his life and honor.
Ikoma Arematsu - Fire
The Ring of Fire symbolizes many things. It can symbolize cunning, and to those who know it well, the skills of the agile. But it can also symbolize great destructive potential when those skills are turned towards malice.
As the boy returned home, he readied his blade to bring vengeance upon his enemy. It's identity was unknown, but his young, not-quite-a-man head, so "enlightened" by the Kakita storytellers that visited his home, drew all manner of ethereal foes into his mind. There was the cunning Scorpion, who had no doubt forced this choice in order to make the Crane lose face. There was the uncultured Lion, who had no doubt done so to ensure that the beloved Hantei favored their clan above all others. And there was even the crafty Ninja, whose motives where never known, but always terrible.
What the young boy could not have know, or would not, is that his enemy was, in reality, another Crane, a brother Doji in fact. The boy's own cousin had grown up with his eyes inexorably drawn to every great kitana or wakizashi he had seen. He had studied the techniques of dueling popular to all the clans, and, when he came of age, had begged his father to allow him to train at the school of the Kakita. His father, a man whose loyalty to the Emperor was unquestionable, though his loyalty to his family was not, refused. The cousin, he said, would become a courtier, and so increase the standing of the Crane in the Imperial Assembly. The cousin was further enraged to find that the boy, whose story we now tell, was to have his gempukku on the same day as his, on the same family lands, and had been trained by a master duelist. But the cousin was not a foolish man. He used the tricks that lie in all crane's hearts, and produced a plan.
And so, when the boy returned to his lands to claim his rightful position, his cousin, armed with a Kakita blade, and a young lifetime of devotion to Iajitsu, stood before his family, ready to challenge him for the prize of the Emperor's daughter.
Rikimaru - Void
The boy stood before his cousin, his katana resting in its saya. Never taking his eyes from those of his cousin, he dropped in his stance. His cousin watched him a moment longer before assuming his own stance. Despite his efforts at emptying his mind, his thoughts drifted to his childhood.
The carefree years in which he had no responsibilities and had been free to play and dream of what he might become seemed long gone. The years in which he had played with the very man he now faced. He remembered how they used to find sticks to serve as boken for their childish pretend iaijatsu games. He remembered how even then, he had beaten his cousin every time, almost without difficulty.
He cleared his mind once more and returned his focus to the duel.
His cousin's blade left the saya blindingly fast. His technique was a little sloppy, but he had not studied the sword formally. The boy however made no move for his own blade.
As the boy was cut open by his cousin's blade, Togama watched from behind. Once the boy had fallen to the ground, Togama looked to the lord watching the duel, and knew from the look on his face that the cousin would never win the Emperor's daughter in marriage now. There was no honour to be found by killing a man who does not defend himself.
Walking over to look at the boy, he was not entirley surprised to find a look of contentment on his lifeless face. Altough he had not been named as a man, with the shame of his actions removed from his family and his rival's ambitions foiled he had died as one.
Perhaps he had found the enlightenment Togama sought after all.
Thus ends the tale of a boy who sought to be a man, and in the end, taught several men something new. Let all who hear these words benefit from their wisdom, avoid their mistakes, and emulate their glories.
-Ikoma Arematsu