#Closing Words — When You Return to the Table
Contents
#One Breath
We have passed through twelve swordmasters. Their lives, their swords, and their final breath.
Iizasa Choisai's 102 years, Tsukahara Bokuden's wisdom upon the boat, Kamiizumi's living sword, Yagyu Muneyoshi's three defeats, Ito Ittosai's single stroke, Ono Tadaaki's counterstrike, Miyamoto Musashi's 60 consecutive victories, Sasaki Kojiro's one and only defeat, Togo Shigekata's first stroke, Yagyu Munenori's politics, Chiba Shusaku's system, the final flame of the three of the Shinsengumi.
And the 30 of the roster — from Yagyu Jubei to Okada Izo and Iba Hachiro.
They all lived, and then died. Records remain sparse, and the night-tales remain abundant. As for what is fact and what is legend, there are parts that, by now, are hard to tell apart.
#Upon Your Table
When you close this book and return to the table, what will you take with you.
#To the PC
When your PC meets a new school, or encounters a singular swordsman, one of the faces in this book may come to mind. "Is he a disciple of this swordmaster, or a figure out of that swordmaster's night-tales?" That one question — deepens the encounter.
#To the GM
You can summon a swordmaster of this volume as a scenario's enemy, teacher, or helper. The Lord-grade sheet and the if you fight them / if you would serve them section in each chapter are tools for that moment. And even letting just the name of one swordmaster you will not use directly — one of the 30 of the roster — slip into a session makes the world a little more three-dimensional.
#To the Reader
May what this book leaves with you not be only the numbers upon the table. May a single swordmaster's gaze, a single line of his final breath — come to mind suddenly on some evening. When such a recollection comes, this book has done all of its work.
#The Names Left Out
This volume could not contain all the names of the swordmasters of Japan. Among those left out are — one whose very name is unknown yet who surely taught the sword to someone, one who, after winning a single duel, returned quietly to his own village, and an ashigaru who guarded his lord with a single life-risking stroke on the battlefield.
Their names are not here, but a strand of the sword they made flows through every chapter of this volume. To them, too, this closing word is dedicated.
#In the Next Session
When your samurai draws his sword at the next table, pause for a moment and consider — from whom did this stance come. However far back through the generations you trace, at the tip of your PC's sword there touches some single strand of the lineage of Japanese swordmasters.
Bearing that lineage on your back — you draw a single stroke.
"A swordmaster's story does not end when he dies. The moment his next disciple draws the sword, that story begins again."
#Closing This Volume
May this book rest long upon your table. Do not read it in haste; one chapter at a time, slowly. And you may forget it. If on some night a single name comes to mind — then open it again.
The sword is heavy. But the story of the person who took up that sword is — not light.
To the twelve swordmasters and the thirty names. May their swords still flash somewhere even now.