#The Fallen — People Who Live on the Road
Contents
Beyond the four estates of warrior, farmer, artisan, and merchant, there are still people. Those who hold no fence in the world.
Period note: Some of what appears in this chapter — Yoshiwara, fumie, the eta/hinin system, kakure Kirishitan — took root at the end of the Sengoku era and was formalized and intensified in the later Edo period. Read the text as meaning "the seeds of that shape were already visible in this age." Clear period distinctions are noted in the text itself.
#The Word "Fallen"
Rakuhaku (落魄) — "falling" raku, "soul" haku. Literally, "one whose soul has fallen." One who has lost their place and wanders.
In Japanese: "ruro (流浪)" or "hinin (非人)." Hinin means literally "one who is not human" — a cruel expression, but that is what the society of this age called them.
This chapter looks at their way of living. Not with judgment, but with a gaze.
#Ronin (浪人)
#The Samurai Who Lost His Lord
A samurai whose lord was destroyed, who was driven out by his lord, or who left on his own. He has no stipend now. No livelihood.
Yet his status is still that of a samurai. He carries a sword, and his manner of speech is a samurai's. Except — he has nothing to eat.
#A Day
He sleeps on the road. Beside a gate, beneath an eave, and if lucky, in the stable of a waystation inn. He cannot bathe. His clothing wears thin. His hair tangles. His sword alone — he polishes. Every day.
He looks for work. Service under another daimyo. But there is much competition. Daimyo already have many samurai of their own. There are few spots for a new ronin.
If lucky, he takes escort work. A merchant heading a long road hires him. He receives a measure of rice at a time. He survives for several weeks on that rice.
If unlucky — he becomes a vagrant. Eventually he sells his sword. A ronin who has sold his sword is a ronin no longer. He has become something that is neither farmer nor merchant.
#Taryu-jiai and Musha-shugyo
Some ronin set out on the path of musha-shugyo (武者修行) — warrior pilgrimage. They travel through provinces and challenge the warriors of various houses and schools to taryu-jiai (他流試合) — duels across schools. Win, and a name attaches: "the one who defeated so-and-so of this province." Work comes in through that name. (The "dojo-breaking" practice that would develop in the later Edo period was rare in the Sengoku era, when the dojos themselves were scarce. Warriors of this era honed their skills mainly through family-transmitted kata and actual combat.)
Lose, and he may lose his life, or be driven off more humiliatingly. He moves on to the next village.
"For one who holds a sword, there are two roads. The road with a lord, the road without one. The road without is the road that never ends." — A ronin's soliloquy
#A Ronin's New Work in This Age
After the Spirit Realm opened, yoma extermination became a new trade for ronin. When a yoma appears in a village and troubles people, they hire a ronin. "You — clear that yoma and I'll give you five bales of rice." The ronin takes his sword and goes.
More often than not, he wins — when the yoma is weak. Sometimes he dies — when the yoma is strong. Even if he dies, the villagers shed no tears. They do not know his name.
But now and then — a single old woman sets up a grave marker for him. A grave with no name.
#Yujo — Courtesan (遊女)
#One Who May Bear a Samurai's Child
A yujo — a woman who sells her body. She works in a district called a yukaku (遊郭). The Rokujo (六条) district of Kyoto can be used as-is for a Sengoku setting, but Edo's Yoshiwara is strictly a place that exists only after 1617. So if a Sengoku setting calls for "a space like Yoshiwara," it is better handled as the precursor to an officially licensed brothel district in Edo, or as the street that would become the prototype for later Yoshiwara.
#Who Becomes One
Most often, a daughter of a poor household. Parents driven into debt had to sell their daughter. Parents say through tears — "Hold on for just a few years and I will come for you." That promise is almost never kept.
Another case — a woman taken in war. A woman plundered from an enemy domain is sold to a yukaku. She loses her name. She receives a new name in the yukaku. She remembers her old name — but does not speak it.
#A Day
During the day, sleep. A yujo's work is at night. In the evening she dresses — a long kimono, elaborate hair ornaments, white makeup. That dressing itself is an art.
At night, guests. Perhaps a samurai, perhaps a merchant. She pours sake, sings songs, recites waka — and does the rest as well. All of this she does as a craft. Separated from feeling.
When the guest is someone special — she can ascend to concubine (妾). A samurai who takes a liking to her extracts her from the yukaku and makes her his concubine. This is considered good fortune. But a concubine is not a wife. Her child is not a legitimate heir. A complicated life waits.
#Another Face of the Yujo in This Age
After the Spirit Realm opened, a special one appears among the yujo. One who has formed ties with yoma. A yoko (妖狐) borrows a yujo's body, or a yujo comes to hold a fragment of Uka-no-Mitama (Inari).
Some yukaku stand in the back garden of an Inari shrine. The yujo of these yukaku are called daughters of the fox. The blessing they bestow — gives a wealthy merchant a season of good fortune. In return, one must never ask her true name.
#The Outcastes — Senmin (賤民・非人)
#The Lowest of the World
People who exist beyond the boundary of official status — those who would later be strictly segregated under the discriminatory "eta (穢多) and hinin (非人)" system in the Edo period. In the Sengoku era, institutional segregation was less rigid, but practical discrimination was already clear. Literally translated: "those with much defilement." They do work connected to death.
- Corpse disposal — carrying and burying the dead after battle.
- Skinning animals — considered defiling work under Buddhist teaching; ordinary people do not do it.
- Hide and leather processing — an extension of the above.
- Executioners — beheading criminals or flogging them.
- Caring for lepers (癩者) — tending to those with Hansen's disease.
They live apart, gathered outside the village. The buraku (部落) at the fringe. They cannot marry ordinary villagers. Their children are eta from birth.
#Their Pride
Yet — there is texture to their lives as well. They form communities among themselves. There are songs, there is dance, there is their own faith. They cannot enter ordinary shrines — but they worship their own gods. Their god is most often Jizo Bosatsu (地蔵菩薩). Jizo is the bodhisattva who descends to the very floor of hell to save all beings. The god nearest to those who are lowest.
#War and the Outcastes
When war comes, the outcastes become the busiest. Clearing the dead from the battlefield. Sorting what is valuable from the corpses (the battlefield's cleaning). This is dirty work — but it pays. At times, outcastes accumulate more money than the samurai's own attendants.
#Another Face of the Outcastes in This Age
After the Spirit Realm opened, those among the outcastes with a strong spiritual sense began to stand out. Having handled so many corpses — they hear the voices of the dead. They see onryo. They speak with yoma.
Some were elevated by that talent to onmyoji or miko. But most — are silent. If they speak, they become heretics. If they do not speak, they carry it alone. The choices are not good.
#Wandering Performers — Horo-Geinin (放浪芸人)
#Artists Without Names
Biwa-hoshi (琵琶法師) — a blind monk who travels with a biwa on his back, singing stories of war (The Tale of the Heike). Noh (能) actors — those who wear masks and dance in the gardens of the nobility. Some travel as roving troupes through the provinces. The harbinger of kabuki (前兆) — Izumo no Okuni (出雲の阿国) begins to dance in Kyoto near the end of this age. The beginning of kabuki. Puppet players (傀儡子, kugutsu) — those who perform puppet theater. At shrine festivals and markets.
They travel from road to road. No fixed home. They belong to no particular domain. Outside a daimyo's jurisdiction. So they become conduits of information. They carry the rumor of one domain to another. Spies often travel wearing a performer's mask.
#Those Who Are Close to the Gods
Their official status is low — but they hold a special place at shrines and temples. A shrine festival cannot be held without their dance and music. Their songs summon the gods.
So the village people fear them and invite them at the same time. Near neighbors of the gods.
#Kirishitan (切支丹)
#A Faith That Arrived
After Francisco Xavier came to Japan in 1549, the Catholic faith spread. Especially in Kyushu and Sakai. Even among the great lords there were converts — Otomo Sorin (大友宗麟), Omura Sumitada (大村純忠), Takayama Ukon (高山右近).
#Welcome and Suppression
At first they were welcomed. There were advantages in Nanban trade. Teppo, iron, sugar, new knowledge. Even Toyotomi Hideyoshi tolerated them for a time.
But — Hideyoshi's Bateren Expulsion Edict of 1587, the Edo shogunate's full prohibition of 1612–1614. After that, Kirishitan are executed. (The fumie (踏み絵) — the ritual of stepping on an image of Jesus or Mary; anyone who refused was judged a Kirishitan and executed — would be systematized from around 1629 onward. That is an Edo-period scene.)
From the end of the Sengoku era and throughout Edo, many Kirishitan went into hiding. These are the kakure Kirishitan — hidden Christians. They hide a Madonna figure inside the house, disguise it as a Kannon figure, and act like Buddhists in public. They hid across generations.
#Among the Fallen of This Age
Some Kirishitan become fugitives. Discovered in Kyushu, they flee eastward. They change their names and live in Kyoto or Edo. They quietly teach their children Catholic prayers. "Tell no one of this."
#Closing with a Single Scene
A winter night, a country road. Snow falls.
A ronin sits under an eave. Cold. At his side a biwa-hoshi sings — a song of the Genpei War. From down the road, a Kirishitan mother passes, holding her child's hand. The child grips the hem of the mother's robe with hands frozen stiff.
They do not look at each other. They pretend not to notice each other's presence. That pretending not to notice — is their courtesy. The fallen do not ask about one another. Not asking is compassion.
Snow keeps falling. Each of them endures their own night.