Xanthus
Site Admin
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:22 pm Posts: 49
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Re: Isawa Shigeru
Some time in the twelfth century as counted by the Isawa calendar, Isawa Shigeru was born to the house of Isawa to parents Isawa Rin and Isawa Hiroki, formerly Kakita Hiroki. Isawa Rin had been a shugenja of no small note within the Isawa clan and when she married to Kakita Hiroki, though he was an accomplished duelist in his own village, his status was not of the same scope as Isawa Rin's, as a city magistrate.
The 5th of 7 children, Shigeru was tested as is the standard and found to be possessed of talents as a shugenja in addition to a curious sort of elemental blessing. The kami of water seemed to have a particular liking towards the boy. The eldest of Shigeru's sisters, Yoshiko, also happened to be talented as a shugenja, but did not share his particular favor. Yoshiko had been 17 at the time of his birth and had her gempukku and moved away from the family dwelling in performance of her duties before Shigeru has been tested or started his training.
His mother, Isawa Rin impressed on Shigeru at an early age the usual Phoenix ideals of honesty and scholarship, though he took to them perhaps a bit too literally and a bit too far. Shigeru, at an early age, displayed a total lack of comprehension for any reason why any samurai would lie, bend or distort the truth in any circumstance. Later he understood the reasons more pragmatically, however, he was never able to overcome his early prejudices and remained a totally incapable liar as well as being highly intolerant of any dishonesty in his presence.
As would be expected of a child who immediately outed his classmates on their indiscretions, he was not well liked, and as a smart young child, he understood why. Rather than changing his own code of honor to fit in, he developed a strong dislike of most of his classmates and, in fact, most people in general.
Conversely, his father, though not a bad man by any real standard of the empire, taught Shigeru perhaps not the best of standards of behavior. His father, though not exactly offering full lessons in his views on etiquette, offered hundreds of lessons by way of example. His father was a womanizer a shameless lecher and a frequent visitor of the local geisha. By some strange blessing of the Kami and his Crane upbringing, he was able to maintain a certain level of discretion and peace with his wife, Rin, though over the years his particular variety of views and behavior towards woman and their mysteries was not lost on Shigeru.
Along with being fairly unpopular with his male classmates for his frequent exposure of their lies and half-truths to their teachers and parents, he wasn't exactly a friend to his female classmates either as he more likely to be trying to catch a glimpse of their private moments and trying to wile his way into their bedchambers more often than anything else. This was additionally difficult, as one would imagine, due to his blatant and remorseless honestly in these attempts. His teachers often laughed to each other that Shigeru spent the majority of his time with a bruised cheek on both ends.
Shigeru, at around 15 or so, ran afoul of a particularly skilled female classmate while trying to weasel his way up a tree adjacent to her bedroom window. Without fully understanding what she was doing, she managed to place a curse on him with the attentions of the realm Sakkaku, which persists to this day. Not understanding the extent of her spell, or perhaps not caring, Shigeru didn't change his behavior much and persisted in his attempts to deflower or debase any female that would let him. Further attempts took him towards the baths where another female classmate frequented on a day he knew her to be there alone. Kakita Akina was an odd student, studying here at the Isawa school with permission from the clan and by all accounts, a skilled shugenja despite her non-Isawa blood.
This time, however, Shigeru escaped discovery by, or the ire of, his female classmate, when several large bushi not bearing any clan mon accosted him and drug him out of the bathhouse and into a nearby secluded grove of trees. A beating and a short 'talk' later, Shigeru was fully apprised of what would happen to him if he furthered his interests in Kakita Akina and none of these consequences were good, or temporary. Thinking this perhaps a warning not just in terms of this girl, but perhaps a hint of what might come in the case of any of his indiscretions, Shigeru lightened his lechery and focused on his studies for some time.
Due to his elemental blessing and his redoubled efforts, Shigeru graduated nearly at the top of his class and managed much special study time with his sensei. Gempukku now past and ready to move on to his duties as an adult, who knows what might happen next...
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