Under the Rising Sun, a Japan Interactive AAR

[zenphoenix]

I shall join the Self-Strengthening Faction ((can samurai join factions?)). I recommend our motto to be "Revere the Emperor, Expel the foreigners!"

((Also, Sakamoto's stats are butcher and steadfast))

 

[naxhi24]

((can samurai join factions?))

((Yes, they can))

 

[VibraniumTaco]

For the glory of Japan, I pledge my allegiance to the Self-Strengthening Faction. This are perilous times we have the misfortune of living in, and the refusal to unite and to grow as a nation will lead to our subjugation. Surely, we do not wish to suffer the same fate as the once-proud nations of India, played against each other by foreigners and conquered by Western overlords. We must welcome the winds of change, for I fear that we do not have much choice.

- Daimyo Takahashi Ake of Nara

 

[Artistove]

I shall join the Self-Strengthening Faction, as I feel that this is the only way Japan will make it in this barbaric, cruel world.
- Tarou Seita

 

[Marschalk]

While travelling to Edo and stopping in a tavern, Naritaka speaks before his samurai retainers.

You must know, my trusted servants, that I would be honored, with the blessing of the Ancestors, to join the Thunder Alliance, for I believe than in this union lays the future greatness of the Nihonjin.While I may be in sympathy of the many principles professed by the Unity and Honor faction, I believe that the edges of the Samurai sword have guarded the Sons of Amaterasu for hundreds of years and it is neccessary for the Empire and the daimyo to have strong and able armies - as well as, if it is truly neccessary, learn certain new ways of warfare to strengthen our holy land. I do hear much about the doings of the white-haired gaidzin who, by force and by cunning, bring other people under their dominance.The land of the rising son should be strong and united in case barbarian dangers come from beyond seas.

- Asano Naritaka, Lord of Clan Asano, 10th Daimyo of Hiroshima

 

[EmperorBasilius]

Name: 西村浩, Nishimura Hiroshi
Date of Birth: August 9th, 1805
Class: 大名 Daimyo
Province of control: 福岡 Fukuoka, 九州 Kyushu

Bio: Hiroshi was 20 years old when his father died. 西村一郎 Nishimura Ichirou, the father, was killed by his brother 二郎 Jirou. Jirou always envied his brother and had an ambition to be the Daimyo. Jirou stabbed Ichirou while Ichirou was visiting him, and proceeded to call himself the Daimyo. But Jirou was a fool as he had almost no supporters and very few loyal soldiers. Hiroshi however was very popular and led his men against his uncle. Hiroshi won as his uncle was killed and he continued to rule Fukuoka. Hiroshi is a popular ruler. He is smart and charismatic, yet is also impulsive and gets angry very quickly. He even has some ties with foreigners from the nearby Nagasaki port.

((When creating this character I planned him to be from Nagasaki, hence the reference.))

 

[Towll]

I shall join the Unity and Honour faction.

--Hayashi Tadafusa

 

[mrlifeless]

((When creating this character I planned him to be from Nagasaki, hence the reference.))

Join the club

 

[EmperorBasilius]

I shall join the 自己強化派閥 (Jiko Kyōka-Habatsu) Self Strengthening Faction.

The 日本人 (Nihonjin) Japanese strength has always been learning. And as a smart people, we must learn to adapt to the new world. We can no longer hide behind the walls of isolation. We need to open to the world, learn the foreigners' secrets in order to remain the best nation the world has seen!

~ 西村浩 Nishimura Hiroshi

 

[LordTempest]

Name: Hosokawa Mitsuhide (細川 光秀)
Title: Higo-no-kami, Lord of Higo/Kumamoto
Birth: 2nd of July, 1815. (21)
Clan: Hosokawa
Specialty: Daimyo
Province: Higo (Kumamoto)

Bio: Born into the wealthy and prestigious Hosokawa clan, Mitsuhide possessed both a pedigree and an upbringing which scant few of his fellows would not envy. Schooled almost from birth in arts both material and martial, as a child he was courteous and of quick intelligence, and excelled at both the katana and the brush, wanting for nothing except perhaps for a few hours of free time. His over-possessive father, the former lord of Higo, was the very embodiment of a Confucian patriarch, and ensured that young Mitsuhide's education in kenjutsu, kyudo, calligraphy, pottery, court etiquette and in the Classics, Chinese and Japanese alike, would be rigourous and absolute. These were measures which well-prepared the young Mitsuhide for life as the Lord of his province, but did little to endear him to his father or his methods.

As the young Mitsuhide grew older and came of age, he increasingly chose to rebel against his father and all that he stood for. He quickly earned a reputation, not fully deserved, for recklessness, as he began flirting with dangerous new ideas from across the seas. His father strongly disapproved of his son's penchant for Rangaku and all things Nanban, perhaps something he inherited from his great-grandfather, and tried to curb his increasingly dilettantish behaviour. The results for Mitsuhide's father... were not pleasant, to say the least. He did not take his son's rebelliousness well, and soon after lost his head in a truly tragic shaving accident. His son, stoic to the end, shed not a tear.

The Young Mitsuhide stands as something of a walking contradiction: courteous, yet brash; radical, yet conventional; honourable to the core, yet at times ruthless to his fingertips; cultured in the old ways, yet a devout follower of the new. It remains to be seen in what ways the young daimyo and his clan will shape the new Japan...

((Edited))​

 

[naxhi24]

((Claimed In-Game Provinces at this Point:

Dadarian: Niigata
Oxford: Kochi
Glueth: Fukui
Otto: Sendai
Firehound: Akita
Terra: Yokohama
Noco: Kagoshima
Marschalk: Hiroshima
Davout: Nagasaki
TJDS: Wakayama
Towll: Chiba
mrlifeless: Osaka
Andre: Kobe
Michaelangelo: Miyazaki
Qwerty7: Yamaguchi
VibraniumTaco: Nara
EmperorBasilus: Fukuoka
LordTempest: Kumamoto

Provinces Open:
Matsue, Okayama (Chogoku)
Matsuyama, Tokushima (Shikoku)
Kanazawa, Toyama, Nagoya, Nagano, Shizouka (Chubu)
Mito, Urawa, Utsunomiya (Edo)
Fukushima, Yamagata, Morioka, Aomori (Tohoku)

Regional Daimyo picking begins tonight at 9:00 PM EST or Tomorrow at 1:00 AM GMT

Continue))

 

[LordTempest]

I shall join the Self-Strengthening Faction ((can samurai join factions?)). I recommend our motto to be "Revere the Emperor, Expel the foreigners!"

((Also, Sakamoto's stats are butcher and steadfast))

((Ummm, the SSF don't seem to be in favour of Sonno Joi: they want to learn from the Barbarians, trade with the Barbarians and so on. They also appear to be pro-Shogunate, so I really don't think that motto would be appropriate. ))

 

[TJDS]

((Ummm, the SSF don't seem to be in favour of Sonno Joi: they want to learn from the Barbarians, trade with the Barbarians and so on. They also appear to be pro-Shogunate, so I really don't think that motto would be appropriate. ))

((We are pro-modernization, that does not mean that we are pro-Shogunate, we just wish to make Japan ready for the storm to come, also we can work with Barbarians without inviting them into our country with unequal treaties by modernizing. If we do not modernize, we have to sign those treaties and if we have to sign those treaties, we have to start thinking about repelling and resisting the Barbarian incursion into our country))

 

[zenphoenix]

((I just selected the motto because it was something Sakamoto's son came up with in real life when he formed a faction, and I could just be meaning it symbolically, as in revere the emperor as the nominal ruler of Japan but obey the Shogun as the one who has the power.))

 

[LordTempest]

((We are pro-modernization, that does not mean that we are pro-Shogunate, we just wish to make Japan ready for the storm to come, also we can work with Barbarians without inviting them into our country with unequal treaties by modernizing. If we do not modernize, we have to sign those treaties and if we have to sign those treaties, we have to start thinking about repelling and resisting the Barbarian incursion into our country))

((But expelling the barbarians means Sakoku, and trading with them means inviting them to Japan in order to do business. You lot are in favour of repealing Sakoku and for removing barriers to trade with the West, both of those policies are directly at odds with the principles of Sonno Joi. You may not be explicitly pro-Shogunate, but you're not explicitly anti-Shogunate either! ie. you still want to work with and through the Shogunate to build schools and whatnot, not replace it altogether. ))

 

[LordTempest]

((I just selected the motto because it was something Sakamoto's son came up with in real life when he formed a faction, and I could just be meaning it symbolically, as in revere the emperor as the nominal ruler of Japan but obey the Shogun as the one who has the power.))

((You have to admit though, it would be pretty silly for someone who supports the idea that barbarians should trade with Japanese outside of Dejima to suggest that all barbarians should be expelled from Japan! ))

 

[TJDS]

((But expelling the barbarians means Sakoku, and trading with them means inviting them to Japan in order to do business. You lot are in favour of repealing Sakoku and for removing barriers to trade with the West, both of those policies are directly at odds with the principles of Sonno Joi. You may not be explicitly pro-Shogunate, but you're not explicitly anti-Shogunate either! ie. you still want to work with and through the Shogunate to build schools and whatnot, not replace it altogether. ))

((Well, I want change and at the moment the Shogunate is the only one willing and able to supply change, also, we need a more liberal system like that with the Dutch on Dejima, rather than complete capitulation to Western forces, like the Qing were forced to accept after the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion, and if we do find a middle ground between cooperation and capitulation, which I believe we will with moral modernization (Western Techniques, Eastern Morality) there is no need for Sonno Joi.))

 

[LordTempest]

((Well, I want change and at the moment the Shogunate is the only one willing and able to supply change, also, we need a more liberal system like that with the Dutch on Dejima, rather than complete capitulation to Western forces, like the Qing were forced to accept after the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion, and if we do find a middle ground between cooperation and capitulation, which I believe we will with moral modernization (Western Techniques, Eastern Morality) there is no need for Sonno Joi.))

((It's obvious though that you cannot favour expelling the barbarians and yet also favour opening up Japan to barbarians; that's contradictory. The SSF needs to be explicitly anti-Sonno Joi if it wishes to remain ideologically consistent: you cannot both support letting barbarians trade outside of Dejima and repealling Sakoku and also support maintaining Sakoku and expelling the barbarian traders at the same time. That of course does not mean it should let foreigners do whatever the hell they please, you don't need to be a supporter of Sonno Joi to think that foreigners should abide by the laws of Japan when doing business in Japan.))

 

[Ignominius]

It is in my humble opinion that faction and sedition are dangerous for our nation. They lead men asunder, they replace the loyalty to family, to the Emperor, and to the Shogun with faction and division. My decision to join a faction therefore comes from a sense of obligation to protect the traditions and customs which I hold to be most valuable in this world; I have a vested interest in protecting Japan, and I believe that to do so I must regrettably submit to the system of faction to voice my opinion in a meaningful space.

I wish to join the Unity and Honour Faction

 

[TJDS]

((It's obvious though that you cannot favour expelling the barbarians and yet also favour opening up Japan to barbarians; that's contradictory. The SSF needs to be explicitly anti-Sonno Joi if it wishes to remain ideologically consistent: you cannot both support letting barbarians trade outside of Dejima and repealling Sakoku and also support maintaining Sakoku and expelling the barbarian traders at the same time. That of course does not mean it should let foreigners do whatever the hell they please, you don't need to be a supporter of Sonno Joi to think that foreigners should abide by the laws of Japan when doing business in Japan.))

((KMT, they were pro modernization and against Westerners, this does not mean, however, that I am against westerners at the moment, but if they, due to the lack of modernization brought down upon us by the Thunder Alliance and friends, do take advantage of our weakness, I can assure you, the SSF will be less friendly to westerners))