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In feudal Japan (1185–1868), a rōnin (/ˈroʊnɪn/ ROH-nin; Japanese: 浪人, IPA: [ɾoːɲiɴ], 'drifter' or 'wandering man', lit. 'unrestrained or dissolute person') was a samurai who had no lord or master and in some cases, had also severed all links with his family or clan. A samurai became a rōnin upon the death of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or legal privilege.


In modern Japanese, the term is usually used to describe a salaryman who is unemployed or a secondary school graduate who has not yet been admitted to university.
Etymology
The word rōnin is usually translated to 'drifter' or 'wanderer'; however, per kanji, rō (浪) means "wave" as on the water, as well as "unrestrained, dissolute", while nin (人) means "person". It is an idiomatic expression for 'vagrant' or 'wanderer', someone who does not belong to one place. The term originated in the Nara and Heian periods, when it referred to a serf who had fled or deserted his master's land. It later came to be used for a samurai who had no master. In medieval times, the ronin were depicted as the shadows of samurai, master-less and not honorable.
Status
According to the Bushido Shoshinshu (the "Code of the Warrior"), a samurai was supposed to commit seppuku (also harakiri, "belly cutting", a form of ritual suicide) upon the loss of his master. One who chose not to honor the code was "on his own" and was meant to suffer great shame. The undesirability of rōnin status was mainly a discrimination imposed by other samurai and by daimyō, the feudal lords.[citation needed]
Like other samurai, rōnin wore two swords.Rōnin used a variety of other weapons as well. Some rōnin—usually those who lacked money—would carry a bō (staff around 1.5 to 1.8 m (5 to 6 ft)) or jō (smaller staff or walking stick around 0.9 to 1.5 m (3 to 5 ft)) or a yumi (bow). Most weapons would reflect the ryū (martial arts school) from which they came if they were students.[citation needed]
During the Edo period, with the shogunate's rigid class system and laws, the number of rōnin greatly increased; confiscation of fiefs during the rule of the third Tokugawa shōgun Iemitsu resulted in an especially large increase of their number. During previous ages, samurai were able to move between masters and even between occupations. They could also marry between classes. However, during the Edo period, samurai were restricted, and were—above all—forbidden to become employed by another master without their previous master's permission.[citation needed]
Because the former samurai could not legally take up a new trade, or because of pride were loath to do so, many rōnin looked for other ways to make a living with their swords. Those rōnin who desired steady, legal employment became mercenaries that guarded trade caravans, or bodyguards for wealthy merchants. Many other rōnin became criminals, operating as bandits and highwaymen, or joining organized crime in towns and cities. Rōnin were known to operate or serve as hired muscle for gangs that ran gambling rings, brothels, protection rackets, and similar activities. Many were petty thieves and muggers. The criminal segment gave the rōnin of the Edo period a persistent reputation of disgrace, with an image of thugs, bullies, cutthroats, and wandering vagrants. After the abolition of the Samurai, some of the ronin continued with their thuggery and their mercenary work and activities, such as participating in the infamous assassination of Korean Empress Myeongseong of the Joseon Dynasty in 1895, the Eulmi Incident.[citation needed]
History
Until the Sengoku period, peasants accounted for the majority of daimyō armies, so they accounted for the majority of ronin.[citation needed]
Especially in the Sengoku period, daimyō needed additional fighting men, and even if a master had perished, his rōnin was able to serve new lords. In contrast to the later Edo period, the bond between the lord and the vassal was loose, and some vassals who were dissatisfied with their treatment left their masters and sought new lords. Many warriors served a succession of masters, and some even became daimyō. As an example, Tōdō Takatora served ten lords. Additionally, the division of the population into classes had not yet taken place, so it was possible to change one's occupation from warrior to merchant or farmer, or the reverse. Saitō Dōsan was one merchant who rose through the warrior ranks to become a daimyō.[citation needed]
As Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified progressively more significant parts of the country, daimyō found it unnecessary to recruit new soldiers. The Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 resulted in the confiscation or reduction of the fiefs of large numbers of daimyō on the losing side; consequently, many samurai became rōnin. As many as a hundred thousand rōnin joined forces with Toyotomi Hideyori and fought at the Siege of Osaka. In the ensuing years of peace, there was less need to maintain expensive standing armies, and many surviving rōnin turned to farms or became townspeople. A few, such as Yamada Nagamasa, sought adventure overseas as mercenaries. Still, the majority lived in poverty as rōnin. Their number approached half a million under the third Tokugawa shōgun Iemitsu.[citation needed]
Initially, the shogunate viewed them as dangerous and banished them from the cities or restricted the quarters where they could live. They also prohibited serving new masters. As rōnin found fewer options, they joined in the Keian Uprising of 1651. This forced the shogunate to rethink its policy. It relaxed restrictions on daimyō inheritance, resulting in fewer confiscations of fiefs, and it permitted rōnin to join new masters.[citation needed]
Not having the status or power of employed samurai, rōnin were often disreputable and festive, the group targeted humiliation or satire. It was undesirable to be a rōnin, as it meant being without a stipend or land. As an indication of the shame felt by samurai who became rōnin, Lord Redesdale recorded that a rōnin killed himself at the graves of the forty-seven rōnin. He left a note saying that he had tried to enter the service of the daimyō of Chōshū Domain but was refused. He killed himself, wanting to serve no other master and hating being a rōnin. On the other hand, the famous 18th-century writer Kyokutei Bakin renounced his allegiance to , in whose service Bakin's samurai father had spent his life. Bakin voluntarily became a rōnin, and eventually spent his time writing books (many of them about samurai) and engaging in festivities.[citation needed]
In the 19th century, Emperor Meiji abolished the Samurai class and any status the ronin had died with them.[citation needed]
Notable rōnin
- Forty-seven Rōnin
- Kyokutei Bakin
- Miyamoto Musashi
- Sakamoto Ryōma
- Yamada Nagamasa
Portrayals in media
Numerous modern works of Japanese fiction set in the Edo period cast characters who are rōnin.[citation needed]
Comics
- The moniker Ronin has often appeared in Marvel Universe comic series, and has been used by many characters such as Echo (Maya Lopez) and Hawkeye (Clint Barton).[citation needed]
- Usagi Yojimbo depicts an anthropomorphic rabbit rōnin main character, Miyamoto Usagi, whom Stan Sakai based partially on the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi.[citation needed]
Film
- Rōnin are often depicted in the jidaigeki of Akira Kurosawa, in particular Yojimbo, Sanjuro and Seven Samurai.
- The 1954 film Seven Samurai follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven rōnin to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops.
- The 1961 film Yojimbo tells the story of a rōnin who arrives in a small town where competing crime lords vie for supremacy. The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard. The film inspired the Spaghetti Western films A Fistful of Dollars and Django,[citation needed] and spawned the 1962 sequel Sanjuro.
- The 1962 film Harakiri is set in Edo period of early 17th century Japan, and concerns two Ronin who present themselves at the palace of the Ii clan to request permission to commit ritual suicide.
- The 1998 film Ronin portrays former special forces and intelligence operatives who find themselves unemployed at the end of the Cold War. Devoid of purpose, they become high-paid mercenaries. There is also a direct comparison of the characters to the forty-seven rōnin.
- The film 47 Ronin is a 2013 Japanese-American fantasy action film depicting a fictional account of the forty-seven rōnin.
- The 2015 film, titled Last Knights, is a more stylized version, a joint production among the UK, Czech Republic and South Korea.
Television
- In the manga and anime Rurouni Kenshin, the hitokiri Himura Kenshin becomes a rōnin after the end of the Edo period, wandering for ten years in order to mend his sins and to complete the restoration.
- Samurai Jack, the protagonist of the eponymous animated television series, is technically a rōnin because he serves no master and is mostly seen wandering the land, searching for a resolution to his quest to defeat his nemesis, the shapeshifting master of darkness, Aku, after the latter opens a time portal that sends Jack into a future where Aku reigns supreme.[citation needed]
- In the 2004 anime series Samurai Champloo, one of the protagonists is the rōnin Jin. Along with the vagrant swordsman Mugen, he accompanies a young girl named Fuu on a quest to find the "samurai who smells of sunflowers".
- In the 2023 anime series Revenger, the protagonist becomes a rōnin after a meeting with a shadowy organization following an assassination attempt.
Video games
- The main character in each game of the Way of the Samurai series is always an archetypal ronin who wanders into the setting one day and must choose a faction to work with or find a way to unite them against a greater foe.
- The 2020 video game Ghost of Tsushima features many rōnin as part of the story, including Ryuzo (Leonard Wu), the childhood friend of the protagonist Jin Sakai.
- In the 2020 video game Genshin Impact, the first playable character from the nation of Inazuma, Kaedehara Kazuha, became a rōnin not too long before the game's events.
- The 2023 video game Honkai: Star Rail features Acheron, a rōnin from the fallen planet of Izumo, as a playable character starting from version 2.1.
- The protagonist of the 2024 video game Rise of the Rōnin is a rōnin navigating the tumultuous period of 19th-century Japan, making pivotal choices that influence the nation's future.
See also
- Gonin Gumi – groups of households which united for collective protection against rōnin
- Japanese holdout
- Knight-errant, a similar figure in western literature
- Youxia
- SHINSENGUMI 新選組 Shinsengumi Website
References
- "Rōnin, Japanese warrior". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2009-08-29.
- Stephane Lun (2021). A Guide on Shinsengumi: the background and management.
- Till, Barry (2005). The 47 Ronin: A Story of Samurai Loyalty and Courage. Pomegranate. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-7649-3209-0.
- Akihiko Yonekawa. Beyond Polite Japanese. page 25. Kodansha 2001. ISBN 4-7700-2773-7
- 浪人 at Japanese-English dictionaries: プログレッシブ和英中辞典 Archived 2013-02-18 at archive.today or ニューセンチュリー和英辞典 Archived 2013-02-19 at archive.today
- Hubbard, Ben (2014-06-02). Samurai: Swords, Shoguns and Seppuku. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-5725-0.
- Rankin, Andrew (2012-11-20). Seppuku: A History of Samurai Suicide. Kodansha USA. ISBN 978-1-56836-448-3.
- history, Kallie Szczepanski Kallie Szczepanski has a Ph D. in; College, Has Taught at the; U.S, high school level in both the; Korea. "What Was a Ronin in Feudal Japan?". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
- Forbes, Andrew ; Henley, David (2012). Forty-Seven Ronin: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Edition'David (2012). Forty-Seven Ronin: Utagawa Kuniyoshi Edition. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books. ASIN B00ADQM8II
- Stewart, Sara (1 April 2015). "Freeman, Owen casualties of bloody bad 'Last Knights'".
This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Rōnin news newspapers books scholar JSTOR January 2023 Learn how and when to remove this message In feudal Japan 1185 1868 a rōnin ˈ r oʊ n ɪ n ROH nin Japanese 浪人 IPA ɾoːɲiɴ drifter or wandering man lit unrestrained or dissolute person was a samurai who had no lord or master and in some cases had also severed all links with his family or clan A samurai became a rōnin upon the death of his master or after the loss of his master s favor or legal privilege A woodblock print by ukiyo e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi depicting famous rōnin Miyamoto Musashi having his fortune toldUkiyo e woodblock print by Yoshitoshi depicting Oishi Chikara one of the forty seven rōnin In modern Japanese the term is usually used to describe a salaryman who is unemployed or a secondary school graduate who has not yet been admitted to university EtymologyThe word rōnin is usually translated to drifter or wanderer however per kanji rō 浪 means wave as on the water as well as unrestrained dissolute while nin 人 means person It is an idiomatic expression for vagrant or wanderer someone who does not belong to one place The term originated in the Nara and Heian periods when it referred to a serf who had fled or deserted his master s land It later came to be used for a samurai who had no master In medieval times the ronin were depicted as the shadows of samurai master less and not honorable StatusAccording to the Bushido Shoshinshu the Code of the Warrior a samurai was supposed to commit seppuku also harakiri belly cutting a form of ritual suicide upon the loss of his master One who chose not to honor the code was on his own and was meant to suffer great shame The undesirability of rōnin status was mainly a discrimination imposed by other samurai and by daimyō the feudal lords citation needed Like other samurai rōnin wore two swords Rōnin used a variety of other weapons as well Some rōnin usually those who lacked money would carry a bō staff around 1 5 to 1 8 m 5 to 6 ft or jō smaller staff or walking stick around 0 9 to 1 5 m 3 to 5 ft or a yumi bow Most weapons would reflect the ryu martial arts school from which they came if they were students citation needed During the Edo period with the shogunate s rigid class system and laws the number of rōnin greatly increased confiscation of fiefs during the rule of the third Tokugawa shōgun Iemitsu resulted in an especially large increase of their number During previous ages samurai were able to move between masters and even between occupations They could also marry between classes However during the Edo period samurai were restricted and were above all forbidden to become employed by another master without their previous master s permission citation needed Because the former samurai could not legally take up a new trade or because of pride were loath to do so many rōnin looked for other ways to make a living with their swords Those rōnin who desired steady legal employment became mercenaries that guarded trade caravans or bodyguards for wealthy merchants Many other rōnin became criminals operating as bandits and highwaymen or joining organized crime in towns and cities Rōnin were known to operate or serve as hired muscle for gangs that ran gambling rings brothels protection rackets and similar activities Many were petty thieves and muggers The criminal segment gave the rōnin of the Edo period a persistent reputation of disgrace with an image of thugs bullies cutthroats and wandering vagrants After the abolition of the Samurai some of the ronin continued with their thuggery and their mercenary work and activities such as participating in the infamous assassination of Korean Empress Myeongseong of the Joseon Dynasty in 1895 the Eulmi Incident citation needed HistoryGraves of the forty seven rōnin at Sengaku ji Until the Sengoku period peasants accounted for the majority of daimyō armies so they accounted for the majority of ronin citation needed Especially in the Sengoku period daimyō needed additional fighting men and even if a master had perished his rōnin was able to serve new lords In contrast to the later Edo period the bond between the lord and the vassal was loose and some vassals who were dissatisfied with their treatment left their masters and sought new lords Many warriors served a succession of masters and some even became daimyō As an example Tōdō Takatora served ten lords Additionally the division of the population into classes had not yet taken place so it was possible to change one s occupation from warrior to merchant or farmer or the reverse Saitō Dōsan was one merchant who rose through the warrior ranks to become a daimyō citation needed As Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified progressively more significant parts of the country daimyō found it unnecessary to recruit new soldiers The Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 resulted in the confiscation or reduction of the fiefs of large numbers of daimyō on the losing side consequently many samurai became rōnin As many as a hundred thousand rōnin joined forces with Toyotomi Hideyori and fought at the Siege of Osaka In the ensuing years of peace there was less need to maintain expensive standing armies and many surviving rōnin turned to farms or became townspeople A few such as Yamada Nagamasa sought adventure overseas as mercenaries Still the majority lived in poverty as rōnin Their number approached half a million under the third Tokugawa shōgun Iemitsu citation needed Initially the shogunate viewed them as dangerous and banished them from the cities or restricted the quarters where they could live They also prohibited serving new masters As rōnin found fewer options they joined in the Keian Uprising of 1651 This forced the shogunate to rethink its policy It relaxed restrictions on daimyō inheritance resulting in fewer confiscations of fiefs and it permitted rōnin to join new masters citation needed Not having the status or power of employed samurai rōnin were often disreputable and festive the group targeted humiliation or satire It was undesirable to be a rōnin as it meant being without a stipend or land As an indication of the shame felt by samurai who became rōnin Lord Redesdale recorded that a rōnin killed himself at the graves of the forty seven rōnin He left a note saying that he had tried to enter the service of the daimyō of Chōshu Domain but was refused He killed himself wanting to serve no other master and hating being a rōnin On the other hand the famous 18th century writer Kyokutei Bakin renounced his allegiance to in whose service Bakin s samurai father had spent his life Bakin voluntarily became a rōnin and eventually spent his time writing books many of them about samurai and engaging in festivities citation needed In the 19th century Emperor Meiji abolished the Samurai class and any status the ronin had died with them citation needed Notable rōninForty seven Rōnin Kyokutei Bakin Miyamoto Musashi Sakamoto Ryōma Yamada NagamasaPortrayals in mediaActors portraying ronin on left and right employed samurai in the middle His chonmage makes him identifiable as an employed samurai Numerous modern works of Japanese fiction set in the Edo period cast characters who are rōnin citation needed Comics The moniker Ronin has often appeared in Marvel Universe comic series and has been used by many characters such as Echo Maya Lopez and Hawkeye Clint Barton citation needed Usagi Yojimbo depicts an anthropomorphic rabbit rōnin main character Miyamoto Usagi whom Stan Sakai based partially on the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi citation needed Film Rōnin are often depicted in the jidaigeki of Akira Kurosawa in particular Yojimbo Sanjuro and Seven Samurai The 1954 film Seven Samurai follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven rōnin to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops The 1961 film Yojimbo tells the story of a rōnin who arrives in a small town where competing crime lords vie for supremacy The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard The film inspired the Spaghetti Western films A Fistful of Dollars and Django citation needed and spawned the 1962 sequel Sanjuro The 1962 film Harakiri is set in Edo period of early 17th century Japan and concerns two Ronin who present themselves at the palace of the Ii clan to request permission to commit ritual suicide The 1998 film Ronin portrays former special forces and intelligence operatives who find themselves unemployed at the end of the Cold War Devoid of purpose they become high paid mercenaries There is also a direct comparison of the characters to the forty seven rōnin The film 47 Ronin is a 2013 Japanese American fantasy action film depicting a fictional account of the forty seven rōnin The 2015 film titled Last Knights is a more stylized version a joint production among the UK Czech Republic and South Korea Television In the manga and anime Rurouni Kenshin the hitokiri Himura Kenshin becomes a rōnin after the end of the Edo period wandering for ten years in order to mend his sins and to complete the restoration Samurai Jack the protagonist of the eponymous animated television series is technically a rōnin because he serves no master and is mostly seen wandering the land searching for a resolution to his quest to defeat his nemesis the shapeshifting master of darkness Aku after the latter opens a time portal that sends Jack into a future where Aku reigns supreme citation needed In the 2004 anime series Samurai Champloo one of the protagonists is the rōnin Jin Along with the vagrant swordsman Mugen he accompanies a young girl named Fuu on a quest to find the samurai who smells of sunflowers In the 2023 anime series Revenger the protagonist becomes a rōnin after a meeting with a shadowy organization following an assassination attempt Video games The main character in each game of the Way of the Samurai series is always an archetypal ronin who wanders into the setting one day and must choose a faction to work with or find a way to unite them against a greater foe The 2020 video game Ghost of Tsushima features many rōnin as part of the story including Ryuzo Leonard Wu the childhood friend of the protagonist Jin Sakai In the 2020 video game Genshin Impact the first playable character from the nation of Inazuma Kaedehara Kazuha became a rōnin not too long before the game s events The 2023 video game Honkai Star Rail features Acheron a rōnin from the fallen planet of Izumo as a playable character starting from version 2 1 The protagonist of the 2024 video game Rise of the Rōnin is a rōnin navigating the tumultuous period of 19th century Japan making pivotal choices that influence the nation s future See alsoJapan portalGonin Gumi groups of households which united for collective protection against rōnin Japanese holdout Knight errant a similar figure in western literature Youxia SHINSENGUMI 新選組 Shinsengumi WebsiteReferencesWikimedia Commons has media related to Rōnin Rōnin Japanese warrior Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved 2009 08 29 Stephane Lun 2021 A Guide on Shinsengumi the background and management Till Barry 2005 The 47 Ronin A Story of Samurai Loyalty and Courage Pomegranate p 11 ISBN 978 0 7649 3209 0 Akihiko Yonekawa Beyond Polite Japanese page 25 Kodansha 2001 ISBN 4 7700 2773 7 浪人 at Japanese English dictionaries プログレッシブ和英中辞典 Archived 2013 02 18 at archive today or ニューセンチュリー和英辞典 Archived 2013 02 19 at archive today Hubbard Ben 2014 06 02 Samurai Swords Shoguns and Seppuku The History Press ISBN 978 0 7509 5725 0 Rankin Andrew 2012 11 20 Seppuku A History of Samurai Suicide Kodansha USA ISBN 978 1 56836 448 3 history Kallie Szczepanski Kallie Szczepanski has a Ph D in College Has Taught at the U S high school level in both the Korea What Was a Ronin in Feudal Japan ThoughtCo Retrieved 2019 09 18 Forbes Andrew Henley David 2012 Forty Seven Ronin Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Edition David 2012 Forty Seven Ronin Utagawa Kuniyoshi Edition Chiang Mai Cognoscenti Books ASIN B00ADQM8II Stewart Sara 1 April 2015 Freeman Owen casualties of bloody bad Last Knights