Editing Kensei (section)

===Kuge Units===
* Kuge Daimyo

Daimyo are the leaders of their clans, and any battle they are involved in are major events. They bear O-Yorai, the best kind of armor available and can be found mounted and carrying many different kinds of weapons. 

Kuge Daimyo represent the more liberal Daimyo of the Sengoku era as well as the forces of the early medieval era such as the Genpei War. Which your army is closer to depends largely on if and how many Teppotai you field. Kuge clans should also have their origins tracing back to the earliest days of Imperial rule, which in real life Japan means their ancestry can be traced back to Kyoto and the nobles who served the first six Emperors, most of whom were related to said Emperors. Their actual ancestry can be forged or questionable, as some Daimyo's claims were based on an ancestor who was a non-inheriting third son of the actual famous clan or could not actually be proven with reliable records. 
Some real life Daimyo who would fit as Kuge include Oda Nobunaga, Imagawa Yoshimoto, and Taira no Kiyomori. Some non-Kuge type Daimyo who could field armies and behave in such a way as Kuge would be Date Masamune and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, whereas Takeda Shingen had the lineage of a Kuge but his army was closer representative of the Buke. 

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Image:Kuge Diamyo 1.jpg
Image:Kuge Daimyo 2.jpg
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* Kuge Taisho
Also called a Shirei-kan. Second in command of the clan, chosen by the Daimyo as a relative or one of the greatest warriors. 

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* Kuge Hero Katana

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Image:Kuge Clan Hero 1.jpg
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* Kuge Hero Naginata

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Image:Kuge Clan Hero 4.jpg
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* Kuge Hero Yumi

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Image:Kuge Clan Hero 2.jpg
Image:Kuge Yumi.jpg
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* Heroine

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* Onna Bushi
Onna Bushi are warrior women trained using the Naginata, raised from birth as the servants to the Kuge who possess a degree of loyalty not seen anywhere else in the Buke caste. Their dedication is without compare, sacrificing their lives just to increase chances of victory for their clan. Either out of desire to impress or amazement of their dedication, troops around them are inspired to fight at their best.

In real life the families of many Samurai were expected to do anything the patriarch could do. A son was expected to be able to lead an army from a very young age, a wife was expected to pick up a weapon and march to battle if need be. There was a surprising number of female Samurai who were recorded as taking command and going to war after the death of a father or husband, many becoming folk heroes and a few being worshiped as guardian spirits for the people who's ancestors they fought with/for. Real life Onna Bushi were called Onna-bugeisha if they were members of the Samurai caste by birth or marriage. 

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Image:Onna Bushi.jpg
Image:Onna Bushi Real.jpg|An 1851 depiction by Utagawa Kuniyoshi of a real Onna Bushi named Tomoe Gozen, a legendary figure from the Genpei war. 
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* Teppotai
Teppotai are Ashigaru equipped with Teppos, also known as arquebus or flintlock rifles. Kuge allow the One God faith to be spread among the peasantry in exchange for the weaponry, allowing their still-loyal peasants to kill the highly trained Buke traitors with ease. After marching to their position, they erect walls of stakes to protect them from cavalry and to duck behind to protect them from arrows while reloading. 

Early on in the history of firearms in Japan the gun was expensive, troops were inexperienced with them, quality was poor, and the Japanese weren't familiar with how to deploy units of them effectively; thus they were mostly given to Samurai, who were prepared by a lifetime training to use literally every weapon available to use the unfamiliar shootas. Twenty years later they were producing their own with improvements to the design and devising complex battle tactics on par with those of any other dakka-using nation. By this point the Ashigaru were often armed with them, since it took a lifetime of training to learn to use a bow effectively and take advantage of the superior range/accuracy whereas mere peasant recruits could be trained to use guns in a short period of time. No Samurai leader took to use of firearms better than Oda Nobunaga, to the degree that (as one anon on /tg/ once stated) "Everyone loved guns, but Nobunaga LOVED guns. As in a thirty year old man with an unhealthy attachment to a body pillow of a fictional prepubescent girl level of love."

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* Kuge Great Guard
Great Guard are the elite among the Buke caste, zealots dedicated to the divinity of the Kuge lines who each hope to become a Tennin. Their ferocity and dedication is such that their foes flee before them rather than face them and their mighty blows in combat. 
Each Great Guard is personally selected from candidates, leading to families who can claim that each patriarch of their line served the Daimyo of the clan. In peace they guard the halls of castles. 

Great Guard aren't based on anything specific in real life, and there's many examples of similar soldiers across Japanese history although in varying degrees of fame. The Oban of the Tokugawa Shogunate are the most famous, and were made up of elite soldiers assigned to defend Nijô castle as well as both defending Osaka castle and policing the sections of Osaka itself where Samurai were prone to making trouble. Their most elite were the personal guards of the Shogun while in Edo. The Oban numbers expanded greatly over the years, being made up equally of some of the most famous and skilled warriors as well as younger samurai who were members of powerful families. 
In general, any elite unit that has been recognized by the leader of the faction they are in would be a Great Guard unit, usually defending an important position or acting as bodyguards in an honor guard capacity. 

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* Onna Kiba Musha
Onna Kiba Musha are Onna Bushi, mounted on horseback. The graceful elegance and classical nature of their tradition makes them a favorite of Kuge lords to show off their superiority to the other castes. Those destined to be Kiba Musha are taken from their family and trained for their entire lives, and are more dedicated and disciplined than any horsemen the Buke can boast. 

The inspiration for Onna Kiba Musha is the exact same as Onna Bushi. Samurai women who serve in battle because they belong to a Samurai family that has need of another warrior or officer. 
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Image:Onna Kiba Musha 1.JPG
Image:Onna Kiba Musha 2.JPG
Image:Tomoe Gozen Horseback.jpg|An 1898 portrayal of Tomoe Gozen in battle, created by the artist Toyohara Chikanobu. 
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* Ninja
For generations the Kuge clans have been patrons of secret ninja clans who's loyalty is (usually) absolute, and through a sense of mutual advancement the Kuge the can field units of assassins while other castes can only secure the services of a single agent at high cost. They execute their tasks and targets without a hint of remorse or hesitation. Before battles they will hide, waiting for their target to draw close before they leap out and spread confusion using smoke and fire whereupon they slay their foe and quickly vanish once more to pursue other quarry. 

Real life ninja, as most on the internet have discovered, were unlike media depictions of ninja. The only sort who would cover themselves in dark colors would be scouts rather than assassins, which instead would have worn simple and inconspicuous clothing. Most ninja were saboteurs, intelligence gatherers, and bodyguards rather than hitmen. Ninja were historically far more trustworthy than Samurai, to the degree that Tokugawa Ieyasu's life was saved by a small group of ninja who escorted him a great distance back to his people simply because they owed him a financial debt (not an oath or loyalty expected by society, just money) regardless of the fact that they were offered almost literally a hoard of wealth to turn him over. 
Most ninja would actually have been plainclothes civilians, ashigaru, servants, and even sometimes samurai who would develop intelligence networks similar to those today , or would position themselves in a place where they could do damage to a clan (basically as terrorist sleeper cells). The idea of ninja wearing all-black dates back to Kabuki plays where stagehands dressed in black to not be seen by the audience and clever writers used a trick that normally told the audience who they were supposed to ignore to suddenly bring a character into the story and surprise the audience as much as the characters. Real life ninja may have worn black or dark blue to blend in when spying at night while assassins may have used dark red to disguise blood on them, but this was hardly a uniform. Ninja philosophy generally leans on the idea of social mobility, and a deep belief that there was little true difference between the castes of society. 

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* Yabusame
Yabusame are mounted archers, the most skilled and elite there are among their art. Annually the Kuge held festivals where the archers of the Buke would compete, and those who showed the most promise were recruited into the Yabusame ranks. This conflict marks the first time they have been fielded in war. 
They utilize hit and run raiding tactics to diminish the foe. 

To understand what Yabusame is, please note the following. 
Archery is extremely important in Japanese military history. In the earliest wars known to have occurred in Japan, 600 years before recorded Japanese history began, the primary weapon was a bow with spear support rather than spear with bow support like most civilizations. The bow is also used to depict the divinity of the mythological first Emperor of Japan, Emperor Jimmu. Beginning around the year 400 archery was the mark of the noble warrior caste (so proto-Samurai) since it required a vast amount of training to be competent which only the warrior caste had the luxury to attain, and such warriors were the only ones that could afford a horse resulting in most of these early not-Samurai being mounted archers. Samurai duels were more often fought with arrows than swords, being given three each and a horse to ride with the result being whatever the combatants felt satisfied their honor (so a challenge to determine who has superior marksmanship could be used in place of simply killing your opponent). 
Using the katana to represent Samurai is a more modern trope. The katana itself was actually considered the weapon of Ashigaru and other peasant soldiery, Samurai carried a much longer and more curved blade called a Tachi which enabled them to strike easily from horseback although as a weapon of last resort when surrounded rather than one to charge into battle with The katana only emerged around the year 1400 when combat changed to favor speed over reach due to the large number of heavily-armored infantry Samurai deployed in increasing numbers while horses were used far less. 
The preceding information is why when sometime in the late 1100's Minamoto Yoritomo, the future creator of the Shogunate and first Shogun of Japan, noticed that his army was dangerously low on skilled archers he created the custom of Yabusame, which is a religious and sportsman's ritual combined into one which encouraged the military tradition of archery and mounted archery to survive regardless of the current state of war. It should be noted that Yabusame is NOT a type of soldier, it is a type of training/recreation/prayer. 
The following, from Wikipedia, describes the Yabusame ritual. "''A yabusame archer gallops down a 255-meter-long track at high speed. The archer mainly controls his horse with his knees, as he needs both hands to draw and shoot his bow. As he approaches a target, he brings his bow up and draws the arrow past his ear before letting the arrow fly with a deep shout of In-Yo-In-Yo (darkness and light). The arrow is blunt and round-shaped in order to make a louder sound when it strikes the board. Experienced archers are allowed to use arrows with a V-shaped prong. If the board is struck, it will splinter with a confetti-like material and fall to the ground. To hit all three targets is considered an admirable accomplishment. Yabusame targets and their placement are designed to ritually replicate the optimum target for a lethal blow on an opponent wearing full traditional samurai armor (O-Yoroi) which left the space just beneath the helmet visor bare.''"
Yabusame ritual competitors were drawn from all castes of society from peasant straight off the farm to Daimyo's son; whoever was good at shooting and could be trained to ride a horse was eligible. Yabusame is still practiced today. 
 
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Image:Yabusame Model.JPG
Image:Yabusame Real.jpg|A Yabusame performed for Ronald Reagan during a trip to Japan.
Image:Yabusame Gear.jpg|The gear of a Yabusame. Even in Minamoto's era this was considered traditional dress. 
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