| Mirumoto Masashige | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born: | Unknown |
| Died: | - |
| Children: | Mirumoto Ichirō (adopted) |
| Titles: | Mirumoto Daimyō |
| People | |
Mirumoto Masashige was the daimyō of the Mirumoto family. His hatamoto was Mirumoto Hitomi and his clerk Kobori Sozan. [1]
Mirumoto Daimyo[]
Family[]
Dragon Clan's fertility had been in decline for a long time and for unknown reasons. Peasants and samurai alike were having fewer children. As a result, to keep their numbers up, samurai families had been quietly adopting peasant children judged to have “sufficient spiritual merit. Masashige adopted Ichirō, a peasant-born. Once Ichirō reached his gempuku, Masashige confessed the truth. When Ichirō learned of his origins he denounced his father as a hypocrite. Masashige criticized the Perfect Land Sect on the one hand and, on the other, adopt a peasant as his own son, a practice considered to undermine the hierarchy of the Celestial Order. Ichirō abandoned his position and became a rōnin, joining Hige, the leader of the Perfect Land, [2] in 1120. [3]
Horse[]
Masashige sacrificed his horse Rakusetsu after the animal was badly injured by accident when leaving Shiro Mirumoto. [1]
Heresy[]
In one of his travels Masashige found that the nearly heretical Perfect Land Sect had taken root on Tall Pine Village, and reported such event to his lord. [4] Masashige's feelings toward the sect were complicated. He had long been worried about its destabilizing potential, but because his Clan Champion's policy has been one of toleration, Masashige had taken no direct action against the Perfect Land. [5]
The Rising Wave[]
Masashige was afraid the Lion Clan would turn their attention to the Dragon territory, and suggested his Lord Togashi Yokuni to break with the Unicorn in order to make another alliance with the Phoenix, because among of all the clans, the Phoenix were the most likely to have the wisdom necessary to solve the mystery of the Dragon decline, due a continuing failure of Dragon births. Another option was to maintain the Unicorn alliance and to strike against the Perfect Land Sect, as the Phoenix had been urging for years. Yokuni did not follow Masashige's advice, and after a vision of a Rising Wave Masashige was ordered to prepare his bushi, the Dragon must move beyond their borders at last. [4] His Clan Champion having left the fastness of the High House of Light, leadership of the Dragon fell to Masashige. [5]
Yokuni's Death[]
The traitor Bayushi Shoju, who had violently seized control of the Forbidden City, was killed. At the same time a Shadowlands horde who had breached the Kaiu Wall, led by Akuma no Oni, was defeated in the Battle of Cherry Blossom Snow Lake. [6] The Oni Lord, who had killed Togashi Yokuni on the battlefield, was killed as well. Mirumoto Hitomi was appointed to lead a contingent of Imperial Legionnaires who began the search of the missing Hantei heirs. Kitsuki Yaruma and Mirumoto Raitsugu remained in the capital as liaisons for daimyō Mirumoto Masashige until the lost heir to the Dragon Clan, Togashi Mitsu, made his location known. [7]
Conclave of the Brotherhood[]
In 1124 the Brotherhood of Shinsei held their annual conclave at the Mountain Song Temple under the hospitality of Masashige, being its main agenda item a vote on whether to formally bestow the label of False Path on the Perfect Land Sect, with the risk to fall into a violent schism. The conclave's usual leadership was lacking. The Emperor, the official head of the Brotherhood, was dead. Dōri, the Grand Master of the Four Temples would ordinarily lead this conclave, but she was too ill to travel, so Masashige was the leader who welcomed the gathered members of the Brotherhood and the assorted personnel assigned to serve for the duration of the conclave. Hige attended the conclave, and there Ichirō revealed not only his own identity and his father's hypocrisy, but the sheer scale of peasant adoption among the Dragon Clan. He recited the names of samurai he knew had heimin blood within the last three generations. [8]
Shinsei's Reincarnation[]
During the conclave some incidents happened, and eventually it was exposed that a peasant woman named Senzai was the reincarnation of Shinsei, the Little Teacher. She told to the conclave the Perfect Land did not exist, and the words of the kie had no power to free souls from the wheel of rebirth. Bur his moral message was correct: the samurai of Rokugan had indeed lost their way, and the Empire as a whole; all of Rokugani society was out of balance. The very concept of the Celestial Order had been warped over time, becoming a too-rigid system used to justify the oppression of those below for the gratification of those above. The effects of her declaration would ripple far beyond the conclave itself over time. Some Perfect Land communities broke up, others vowed to create the Perfect Land in the Mortal Realm, by righting what had gone wrong. [9]
| Preceded by: Unknown |
Mirumoto Daimyō ? - Present |
Succeeded by: - |
External Links[]
- Mirumoto Masashige (Seekers of Wisdom)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Her Father's Daughter, by D. G. Laderoute
- ↑ Imperfect Land, pp. 12, 27
- ↑ Snow and Sun, by Marie Brennan
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Rising Wave, by Marie Brennan
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Imperfect Land, p. 29
- ↑ The Battle of Cherry Blossom Snow: Chapter Five, by Robert Denton III
- ↑ The Battle of Cherry Blossom Snow: Epilogue, by Robert Denton III and Marie Brennan with Katrina Ostrander
- ↑ Imperfect Land, pp. 2, 6, 12, 19-20, 31
- ↑ Imperfect Land, pp. 23-25
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