Article
Published by Marcel Curiel on the 28th of November 2017A Personal Issue With the Term "Ronin"
This is an excerpt from a previous article I had written entitled The Final Note on the Gotham Halo. However, several individuals from this community came forward to discuss the issues I had, and I agreed that I would take down the post pending further revision.
And Lord knows it’s had about twenty so far.
Remarkably, there was an overwhelming response to a brief passage I’d penned concerning the term rōnin, and I decided to leave that particular passage intact.
It should be noted that the original article was posted 28 Nov 2017 at 00:03.
Just thought you should know.
“... Individuals such as myself, solitary practitioners with no political or social allegiances, are referred to as, 'rōnin.' Not that many are aware, but this term is actually unfathomably disrespectful.
“Allow me to explain with a brief history lesson. In feudal Japan [...] villages were run as sort of principalities by landholding mandates called daimyō, who hired samurai to uphold law and collect taxes. According to the Bushidō code of the samurai, should a daimyō pass away or fall in battle, the samurai on his payroll were obligated by principle to follow their master to the grave by committing ritual suicide by disembowelment. Those who, for whatever reason, did not follow through with or objected to performing the ritual were referred to as rōnin.
“The culture of the Gotham Halo grooms and conditions individuals into believing that joining a House, Tribe, Pack or other consolidated group is ultimately desirable, and to remain rōnin is undesirable. This culture bred an anti-culture where rōnins celebrated their solitude, which is not wrong in itself, but is flawed because they use the term rōnin in an attempt to reappropriate it, a movement even I found myself swept up in.
“One glance at the definition, etymology and even written form of the actual word rōnin shows that it isn’t anything to take pride in. In Japanese, rōnin translates as ‘vagrant’ or ‘wanderer.’ The first character, 浪, translates roughly to ‘wave,’ making the term ‘wave man,’ and presenting the image of a transient. Its Old Chinese compound lang-nyin literally meant, ‘wasteful or reckless person.’ Far from a proud solitary warrior.
This passage in particular seems to have caused more controversy than the entire article, so much so that it has started an explosive discussion all across the online vampire forums regarding whether or not the term rōnin is offensive. Of course, my argument was totally chucked out the window, and it seemed more entertaining to bring up whether or not the term is culturally appropriating. Welcome to 2017, folks.
In any event, your mileage may vary. I personally don’t care whether you use it or not, just don’t use it on me. I’m only presenting my viewpoint based upon personal experience and the term’s etymological history.
Update: Also interesting to note, there is a lone figure fighting tooth-and-nail to stay relevant within the vampire community who has taken to copying the subjects of my articles for his own website.
But we know who the superior blogger is here.
“By their attitudes and even their very vocabulary, individuals within the Gotham Halo relegate rōnins to second-class citizens. There are a handful of individuals who claim that, up until very recently, rōnins had next to no political voice, though this claim is debated. Dive farther back into the history of the Gotham Halo and the Sabretooth Clan and you’ll find individuals who sired others into their Houses simply to boost membership numbers, or individuals who exchanged sex for House membership or other political benefits...”
Credits
This article is the property of
Marcel Curiel (2017)
