#samurai childhood

[talesofedo]

Ceremonies & Stages of Samurai Childhood

"Edo-era childhood was differentiated into various stages, each of which had its expectations and goals for advancement. Movement into each succeeding stage was socially marked by ceremonies involving family and friends and entailed changes in dress and hairstyle that indicated clearly even to strangers what stage the child had achieved." (Roberts, Growing Up Manly: Male Samurai Childhood in Late Edo-Era Tosa)

Shaving an infant's head.

Shichiya / O-Shichiya / お七夜 (Seventh Night) Ceremony, takes place on the 7th day after birth

The child is named: samurai girls receive the name they'll use throughout their lives, including in adulthood, while samurai boys are usually given a childhood name (yomyo) they will use only until their coming-of-age ceremony.

Yomyo are sometimes reused in multiple generations of a household or clan. However, they start being less common during the last century of the Edo period. You can often recognize childhood names because they end in -chiyo or -maru.

The child has their head shaved: this is done for both boys and girls and is considered to help keep the head clean and prevent diseases. Families continue to shave their little ones' hair until they reach age 3, for both boys and girls.

A celebratory dinner follows, to which are invited the family's relatives, and (where applicable) the midwife, doctor, and wet nurse. Visitors give gifts of baby clothes and toys, and the family gives money and food to visitors, as well as to relatives who couldn't attend.

Registering the Child No ceremony, no set age

The child's father must decide whether he will add the child's name to the family register. Although this is usually a given if the mother is his wife, he may choose not to register a child whose mother is his concubine or servant. Their children are only recognized as being his offspring - and, in the case of boys, potential heirs - if he officially acknowledges them.

Because there's no specific age at which registration must be completed, a father might wait to add boys born to concubines or servants to the register, or choose not to add them at all.

An assortment of children's hairstyles.

Kamioki-no-gi / 髪置の儀 (Ritual of Placing the Hair) Ceremony, takes place at age 3

Following this ceremony, the child's hair is allowed to grow... in a manner of speaking, since boys' hair continues to be shaved at the crown, which will continue into adulthood.

Classroom at Aizu's hanko, Nisshinkan.

Education Beginning at age 6 or 7

Samurai boys start going to school outside the home around the time they begin wearing hakama and have their forelock tied back, around age 6 or 7.

Samurai boys attend han schools (hanko), of which there are some 200 across the country by the end of the Edo period. Hanko are established and funded by the domains to educate the children of daimyo and their retainers living in castle towns. Hanko are generally modeled after Shoheiko, the shogunate's academy.

Samurai boys outside of castle towns attend either gogaku, provincial schools, or shijuku, private schools whose classrooms may be located in someone's home or at a temple. (But not to be confused with terakoya, temple schools, which educated the children of commoners.)

The curriculum in samurai schools focuses chiefly on kangaku (Chinese learning), such as The Five Classics and The Four Books, but because there's no single official curriculum, can include anything from the basics of calligraphy and arithmetic to advanced subjects (for older students) that may include medicine and yogaku (Western learning).

Samurai boys often attended more than one type of school in their lives. Takasugi Shinsaku started his studies in the castle town of Hagi where he was raised, later joined Shoka Sonjuku, Yoshida Shoin's private school, and then attended Shoheiko.

A wakashu alongside an adult.

Genpuku / 元服 Ceremony, age varies

The most important part of a young samurai boy's genpuku, or coming-of-age ceremony, is shaving off his forelock to transition to an adult's hairstyle.

Other parts of the ceremony may include changing from the furisode (long-sleeved kimono) of an adolescent to the short-sleeved kimono of an adult, and wearing two swords in public, instead of only a single short sword as younger boys do.

However, whether these are part of a boy's genpuku depends on the part of the Edo period in which he lives, the boy's domain of origin, or even the social standing of the boy's family. For example, Tosa boys in the 1800s often wore two swords starting at a young age, and boys from low-ranking families often did not wear furisode due to the cost.

There's no set age at which a boy has his genpuku and is considered an adult, although it's most commonly held between the ages of 15 and 17.

In some instances, a boy's genpuku might take place at a younger age; for example, if his father dies and he has to take over as head of the family.

And in some instances, a boy's genpuku might be delayed well into his 20's; for example, if he's a daimyo's favorite page, a position in which he couldn't continue once he's considered an adult.

Genpuku is also when a boy receives his adult name. Well, names in the plural for most samurai boys of the Edo period.

The first of these is his kana, or common name, which is what people will call him. The second of these is his imina, his forbidden name or real name, which is used only by his lord, his parents, and after his death. It would be considered very rude for other people to call someone by their real name.

Actors portraying father and son in the Chushingura.

Being Able to Legally Adopt an Heir At or after age 17

Even if a samurai boy had his coming-of-age ceremony before age 17, he cannot legally adopt an heir, should it become necessary for whatever reason, until he is at least 17 years old.

This may seem like a strange concern, but if his father died young and he has become the head of the family at a young age without younger brothers to take his place should something happen to him, it may be something he's concerned about, especially with frequent epidemics such as measles and cholera.

[mischievousdog]

Rivalship

[almoststedytimetravel]

Larry being an incredibly talented artist is the funniest gag in the Ace Attorney series. Every time he shows up, Phoenix and Edgeworth always make snide remarks about his art, but it's always really good.

Like from case one of the first game, Larry clearly had mad sculpting ability when he made the thinker clock. He's a good enough actor to play the Steel Samurai at an international display of goodwill. He was able to perfectly paint a variety of scenes he would only have seen for a few seconds across multiple games.

But he's always getting clowned on by the rest of the cast because he's such a pathetic cringefail in every other aspect of his life.

[azalawa-scroggs]

About Eddie Fender and why he was a dick to Miles

I first started this post in response to something, but it got so long I decided against inflicting it on OP. This is very long and very meandering and the form is kinda weird, as a warning. It's also kinda spoilery for Ace Attorney Investigations 2.

When we first start playing AAI2 and are introduced to "Ace Attorney Eddie Fender," it's true he doesn't come across as very likeable. The first thing he says to Miles is basically "Oh, look! Here comes Manfred von Karma," and the game happens three years after the truth about DL-6 came out. That's incredibly low, very petty, cruel even. He does start off as a dick to Miles, unfair on him until he gradually realises he isn't as bad as he thought, and as he starts warming up to Miles we start warming up to him.

But also... I kind of get it.

Like... Imagine you're 19 years old. Your boss just died in a sudden and shocking murder. You inherit the law firm even though you haven't even passed the bar yet. You're grieving as you keep working hard to become an attorney, now without the guidance you used to have. Maybe you even blame yourself a little - after all, you worked on that case too, you were likely there for the trial, you left both Edgeworths to take that elevator by themselves. Had things played out differently you would have been there, too.

Did you think of your boss's son, in the middle of this whirlwind? Probably a little, but you're a 19 year-old law student. You're nowhere near a suitable place in your life to even think about fostering a kid. Besides, Gregory Edgeworth was your boss. Someone you greatly admired and whose death you will never stop mourning, but still just your boss.

(It's unclear how well Eddie knew Miles. Enough for Miles to recognise him instantly, but certainly not as close as Miles and Phoenix were.)

You take it on yourself to continue the work he left behind, to help the clients Gregory can no longer help. For ten years you try your best to uphold the reputation and the values of his firm and name, and every day you witness a little more how corrupt the system really is.

Then, one day, you start hearing about this young new prosecuting upstart. Passed the bar at 20 and already has the legal world in his pocket. Rumours of forged evidence, backstreet deals, manipulated witnesses. Not only is that just like the whole lot of them, the tactics you became so familiar with over the years - no, it sounds painfully, specifically familiar to that one long, drawn-out case, the last one you worked with Gregory. It turns out the young prodigy is the student and protégé of Mr. Perfection himself, the man who never lost a case in thirty-five years, even though he should have lost against you ten years ago if the world was even a little fair. You would hate the boy for that alone, but on top of that he's also the son of the mentor you lost, the son of the man you both used to admire so very much.

And that hurts. That none of Gregory's legacy lived on in his son. That this sweet, kind boy, who Gregory always used to worry about not making any friends, became a parody of all they used to despise.

Perhaps you even get to see him. You catch a glance of him in the courthouse corridor as he passes you by without so much as a nod to acknowledge you, or you stumble upon a picture in the same paper that struck Phoenix Wright so deeply. You see that damn suit. That damn smirk. That damn waggly finger. His features may have something of Gregory but everything in him screams von Karma. He's spent a decade trying to shape himself into him, and it shows.

Prosecutors are a privileged bunch, and the Edgeworth kid grew up into a downright brat. Entitled. Rude. Arrogant. Obsessed with his fucking perfect record. You hear he goes around cutting the salaries of detectives that make a tenth of what he does and insulting the opposing counsel in court. He became the worst of them all, taught by the worst of them all, he is everything Gregory fought against and everything you hate.

Why would you want to associate with that? Why would you ever think he is not perfectly fine where he is, with his cushy office and his cushy sports car and his doubtlessly cushy pay?

A couple years later you hear he's been arrested for murder. Maybe you follow the trial, maybe you only see the headlines after everything, after DL-6 is finally solved. Honestly, that's when you start having a reason to reach out. When, had you been less embittered and jaded by the thanklessness of your job, you might have wondered what it was like for him to grow up in the shadow of his father's murderer. You might have been stricken with compassion and horror at the thought of fifteen years spent in crushing guilt, believing he killed the father he used to love so much. You might have empathised, despite your contempt for von Karma, with how his ward might feel to be so cruelly betrayed, thrice over, by the man who raised him since he was nine, who taught him everything before throwing him away like a piece of used junk.

But you still think of how he was like a son to von Karma, of how he got to spend fifteen years in wealth, following a shiny, easy, corrupt new path while you grieved and desperately tried to keep the pieces of your shared dream together. You think of how uneasy Gregory seemed with the idea of von Karma as a teacher, you think of how eager Miles seemed to follow in his footsteps and how much Gregory would have hated it. You think of the many defendants this boy callously condemned with barely a thought, just like his mentor. Of how he may not have his father's blood on his hands, but with the way he acts you'd think he had his murderer's in his veins. And you really, really don't want to deal with any of that.

You think, somewhat unfairly, that maybe Miles ought to have seen it coming. It's not like it's much of a secret that Manfred von Karma is a piece of shit, and good riddance to him.

Three years later, you actually have to interact with him again. It's been 18 years since you last saw him in his father's shadow, looking at him like he hung the stars in the sky, back when everything was so simple for the three of you. It's been 3 years since the truth about his oh-so-esteemed mentor was uncovered. He still wears the cravat. His brow is still furrowed, his eyes are still piercing.

But slowly, begrudgingly, you talk to him. You start realising he actually has some honour to him. That he's not really the Demon Prosecutor the papers made him out to be, that maybe you misjudged him a little bit, in you grief-stricken, angry bitterness. That maybe he can be trusted, after all, with his father's legacy.

Why would you think he ever needed saving?

[tithsokphanny31]

🎃CN Halloween👻🩸

[kisses4mizu]

(current) mizu as your childhood friend + lover

this is actually based on my self-insert oc’s story so i hope you guys don’t steal this oc lore idea for your own ocs 😭🙏 btw, these are much more longer headcannons just so you know!

- Both of you first met at Master’s Eiji home.

- Let’s edit the story a little: When Mizu snuck into Master Eiji’s home, you noticed her and tried to tell Master Eiji about it. Of course, he was well-aware (bro practically has super-hearing) about it but just brushed you off, wanting Mizu to make the first move for interaction.

- As she was hiding, you just ambled up to her and would hold her hand when it was freezing. God, just imagine two tiny kids holding hands like the amount of innocence in that is so 😭

- Secret! Secret! Master Eiji smiles everytime he hears you too running and laughing in the field outside

- When you guys play hide-n-seek, she would always hide at somewhere above your eye level so she could jump onto your back to surprise you

- You were her teenage crush but she was too afraid to confess because she was afraid of you seeing her more as a ‘brother’ and of ruining the friendship

- You try to help her out a little in her sparring like leg placement and hand positioning etc *

- Bro, the amount of physical contact is enough to make her explode… like she is NOT listening to you AT ALL when you teach her that

- Master Eiji always comments (when you weren’t around), “hm.. the big boy has a crush, I see…” + snickers just to annoy her further LOL

- He’s literally the gossip guy in an alternate universe 💯

- She hates that she feels this way about you… like she should be devoted to her goal of revenge but her mind was so clouded with you it was difficult to balance her focus 😕

- She’s either (1) trying to impress you by slashing the air in random directions with an unnecessary amount of force and swiftness OR (2) she’s feigning that confused look on her face so that you’d come and assist her >:)

- She adores how you were so set on ensuring her sword fighting skills were the best they can be

*

Your fingers brushed down her wrists, shifting the palm further from the other on the hilt. At one glance at her, the redness blossoming on her cheeks was a clear sign of her embarrassment—was she insecure? With a soft sigh, you trail your fingers delicately on her arms. with a soft reassuring smile, “Hey, hey, relax.. make sure not to tense up when you’re fighting.”

At the same time, Mizu was practically internally screaming. Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! Her little teenage heart was practically about to explode from inside of her chest at the amount of embarrassment and nervousness stirring inside. Her cheeks would flush, her breathing would grow heavy, her fingers slightly shaky.

“Mizu? You okay?” Your voice snapped her out from that daze.

“I—.. I’m alright..” she mutters as you shift her legs back a little to maintain her balance. Her skin tingled as if tiny ants were crawling on her and before she knew it, she just blabbered out, “your hands are nice and warm.”

Her own words took her a second to process and she could not fucking believe she said that.

“No wonder you liked to hold my hand when we were younger, hm?” You giggled, running a hand down your hair as Mizu watched you with adoration, trying to imagine your hand caressing her own head.

[xeavy]

Created by Element5Manga this is their twitter.

[theereina]

Who can you name?

Cartoon Network

[gumdefense]

You ever think about the aaic poster having the goddess of justice in the middle behind edgeworth separating a prosecutor’s badge with red lighting (normal prosecutor’s badge colour) on the left and a prosecutor’s badge with golden lighting (normal attorney’s badge colour) on the left symbolising his search for how he wants to fight for justice in aai2 and how Gregory and von karma are each facing the side of their ideals while being on Edgeworth’s shoulders like a devil and angel. Because i do

[whydousernamesevenexist]

I personally went through phases of sailors, pirates, cowboys, bandits from wild west stories, mafia, and criminals in general.

[life-set-to-random]

The plot twist that launched a thousand ships💙🐇🐢🇯🇵

[radaverse]

I might be hiding and cooking something

Smile hd but it's Samurai Jack (PoM au)

Mai as an adult finally having enough of everything and going rabid is sorta a very likely possiblity isn't it

(these 27 seconds were harder to make than I expected)

Starring!:

Roni ( @tireddovahkiin )

Mai

Jack

[wisteriawater]

Okay but Kabru from dunmeshi and Mizu from blue eyed samurai should be homies. They would understand each-other so well??

[ranarenee]

I forgot to post this here. Also sorry if the translation reads weird, no hablo inglés.

[satomikristen]

Memories

[valkerymillenia]

You know what would be a really interesting plot twist?

If Mizu actually did find her father and it turned out he just wasn't evil. Like, if the man, even as a foreigner, was a genuinely decent person.

It would be interesting to see the moral struggle for Mizu after her whole life's mission was to eliminate the guy. Plus, they vilify the white men so much but it would be interesting if one of them was just a man, not a colonialist horror.