Heresy of the Five Rings

The Heresy of the Five Rings was an event which spanned the years 519 to 535. It claimed there was an imbalance in the Empire, and proclaimed that if each Great Clan was directly connected to one of the Elements, there was one clan too many, so the Empire was unbalanced.

Origins
This religious belief was a side-effect of the First Rise of Iuchiban. The imperial edict ordering cremation of the dead was controversial, and it was seen as somehow cutting the connection with their ancestors. Some suggested the Empire was suffering some manner of spiritual imbalance.

Five Rings, Five Clans
The famous monk Gorinno during a meeting at Nikesake claimed the Crab Clan to be a Clan of Earth, the Crane and Scorpion a Clan of Air, the Dragon a Clan of Fire, the Lion a Clan of Water, and the Phoenix a Clan of Void. One of the two Clans of air had to merge in one single clan in order the restore Celestial Balance, as the Ki-Rin Clan, a Clan of Water, had already left the Empire to avoid this unbalance before. His idea was widely dismissed as heretical nonsense.

Heresy of the Five Rings
A series of peasant revolts followed, and soon the Brotherhood of Shinsei itself was plagued by acts of violence between its various sects. Isawa Amiku embraced the teachings Gorinno proposed and with the Kuni Daimyo Kuni Watabe created a religious movement which would be known as the Heresy of the Five Rings.