Just a note for everyone: I found a good site for finding Japanese Samurai-related vocabulary/terms. If you need any references,
this site should have 'em.
Name: Takei Masashi (Westernized – Masashi Takei)
Age: 36
Height: 5’ 9”
Weight: 165 lbs.
Hair Color: Black, hints of red from excessive outdoor exposure
Eye Color: Brown
Class: Samurai, under the Daimyo Kaga
Styles: Kenjutsu, jujitsu, tai-chi, Crane and Snake-style Kung Fu, Kama, Kusari-gama, iaijutsu
Weaponry:
-- Katana,
Tengu: Masashi’s blade is named Tengu, for a fictional creature in Japanese mythology. A Tengu is a man with a crow’s head and black feathered wings. It is known for its guile and trickery, as well as its speed and skill with a blade. Masashi’s katana is build with an extended handle and tang for greater stability, with a longer blade to balance it out for quicker, more precise strikes. Its 29 inch blade length makes it as close to a hand-and-a-half sword as a Japanese sword smith could bring himself to make. The handle is not quite long enough for it to be called a dai-katana, and certainly not long enough to call it a nagamaki, but it does the job it was made for.
-- Wakizashi,
Ki’rin: Again named for a mythological creature, a ki’rin is a unicorn-like flying creature that glides on air and gallops through the sky with unmatched grace. Similarly, Masashi’s wakizashi slices through the air to parry attacks coming at him from the sides, or is excellently suited to make a surprising cutting slash from an unexpected angle. The back edge of Ki’rin is laced with brass rings that make a ringing sound when Masashi swings it in a certain way, causing a disembodied and disorienting metal ringing sound to reverberate up and down the blade.
-- Tanto: Masashi has two tanto – daggers – which he uses when necessary. They are balanced and can be thrown, but are more suited for close attacks when either his ability to use Tengu or Ki’rin has been compromised.
-- Kusari-Gama: A
kusari-gama, or lashknife, is usually a weighted chain with a handle at one and, and a
kama attached at the other. Masashi’s
kusari-gama is significantly longer than most – the chain is 12 feet long – and is usable in multiple forms. The
kama – a sickle-like weapon used by monks and
sohei – has a more hooked blade than most, and has an ergonomically-carved handle. This allows Masahi to use it either as two weapons – a weighted chain and a
kama, or for its intended purpose, as a weapon of misdirection and distance. When used correctly, a
kusari-gama can attack from behind obstables, around corners, or even from behind an opponent Masashi is facing from the front. The chain can also be used to snare, disarm, or trip opponents.
Armor:
-- Lamellar plate armor: Masashi wears gray armor with gold and red trim. Lamellar consists of steel plates with leather backings tied together by steel and leather cord. The armor is both flexible and protective, but can be easily damaged or dismantled by well placed, unblocked strikes. The armor also includes a fitted
kabuto, or helmet, that protects the neck and shoulders with lamellar plating, and the top of the head with solid steel, leather-and-cord-trimmed to match the body armor. The chest plate of the lamellar is solid, and is jointed at the thoracic-abdominal midsection, and covered with a decorative but functionally useless sash – usually blue to indicate Masashi’s loyalty to Daimyo Kaga.
Techniques:
Masashi is trained in most forms of unarmed combat, and specializes in Crane, Snake and Dragon. His weakness lies in his inability to counter most jujutsu and judo techniques because of his body’s relative density in the lamellar armor, but when unarmored, he is a formidable unarmed opponent for even the most skilled judo masters. When armed and armored, Masashi prefers close combat, but will not pass up a chance to eliminate or incapacitate a foe with a well-placed shot from his dai-kyu. When in close combat with a sword, his first thoughts go to iaido – drawing a blade quickly, decapitating an opponent, cleaning the blade, and returning it to the scabbard all within about ten seconds. If this becomes impossible, or is thwarted, he will resort to kendo, and use his swords in regular combat, relying more on speed and avoidance than brute strength.
Background:
Takei Masashi was not born into that name. He was originally born Watashiro Saka, to a farmer living in Chugoku, subsisting off of whatever koku of rice his father did not pay as tithe to the local daimyo and to Tokugawa. At age fifteen, when he was supposed to take up farming, he rejected his father’s life and went off on his own to follow what he called his “personal destiny.” He left Japan for mainland China, knowing full-well that he would probably not ever be able to return to Japan.
Upon arriving in China, he moved south to Tibet, where he lived with a group of Zen Buddhist monks until he was twenty-five years old. Those ten years were spent training in the arts of meditation, tai-chi (a Chinese martial art emphasizing balance and control), two specialized styles of Kung Fu, and the way of the blade, as taught to him by the local
sohei, or warrior monks. The
sohei taught him all they could about combat after realizing his voracity for both spiritual and physical learning, showing him the proper use of
kama – scythes – and of the
kusari-gama – the lashknife. However, since the monks did not use full swords in combat, he instead trained with
bokken, or wooden swords. He eventually developed the skill necessary to use a
bokken as viciously and effectively as he would a
shinken, and left the monastery to travel to the Middle East.
After staying in Baghdad for a few years, and doing little other than smoking opium and
hashish and becoming a general slob, Saka decided to start a slow journey back to Japan, to see if the borders would be open to him. On his way, he met another exile from Japan, a sword smith named Takei Shushei. Shushei was the one who forged both Tengu and Ki’rin for Masashi, but only after three full years of training to re-hone his skills as a warrior. When he came to Shushei, Saka was an opium addict, strung-out, and lacking control over himself. When he had completed his re-training, he was thirty years old, had lighter hair, and was as strong – if not stronger – than he had been with the
sohei of Tibet. Shushei also taught Saka the art of
iaijutsu – the art of killing with as little effort and motion as possible with a blade. Watashiro Saka was nor more, and the man who was once him assumed a new name, Takei Masahi, after Shushei told him he would take him in as a member of his family – a great honor, even though the Takei line had been in self-imposed exile in Nepal for three centuries.
When he returned to Chugoku, he found his family long gone, moved on to somewhere in Hokkaido to live amongst the Ainu. Seeking refuge with a neighboring daimyo, Masashi was able to demonstrate his skill with a blade when two pickpockets attempted to steal his coinpurse in an open market. In a magnificently flashy display of skill, Masashi drew Tengu and Ki’rin in one motion, and decapitated both of them with the sound of ringing bells echoing off of Ki’rin’s blade. It just so happened that Daimyo Kaga had been coming through the market to go on an embassage to Tokugawa in Edo that day, and he asked Masashi if he was bound to a lord. When Masashi said no, Daimyo Kaga immediately took him into his care, and issued him a blue sash of Kaga to tie around the waist of a set of armor that was to be made for him.
Since then, Masashi has served in Kaga’s armies as a lieutenant, and lived quietly on his small estate when not needed. Every so often, however, he aches for a little excitement, and goes in search of an opportunity to re-sharpen his skills with a blade.