Ronin

A rōnin (浪人, "drifter" or "wanderer") was a samurai without a lord or master during the feudal period (1185–1868) of Japan. A samurai became masterless upon the death of his master or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege.

In modern Japanese usage, sometimes the term is used to describe a salaryman who is unemployed or a secondary school graduate who has not yet been admitted to university.

Portrayals in media

Actors portraying ronin on left and right, employed samurai in the middle Numerous modern works of Japanese fiction set in the Edo period cast characters who are rōnin.

Film

• Rōnin are often depicted in the jidaigeki of Akira Kurosawa, in particular Yojimbo, Sanjuro and Seven Samurai.
• The 1954 film "Seven Samurai" follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven rōnin to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops.

  The 1960 "spaghetti western" "The Magnificent Seven" with Yul Brynner is a remake of the "Seven Samurai"

• The 1961 film Yojimbo tells the story of a rōnin who arrives in a small town where competing crime lords vie for supremacy. The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard. The film inspired the Spaghetti Western films A Fistful of Dollars and Django.
• The 1962 film Sanjuro is a sequel to Kurosawa's 1961 Yojimbo.
• The 1962 film Harakiri is set in Edo period Japan (early 17th century) and concerns two Ronin who present themselves at the palace of the Ii clan and request permission to commit ritual suicide.
• The 1998 film Ronin portrays former special forces and intelligence operatives who find themselves unemployed at the end of the Cold War. Devoid of purpose, they become high-paid mercenaries. There is also a direct comparison of the characters to the forty-seven rōnin.
• The film 47 Ronin is a 2013 Japanese-American fantasy action film depicting a fictional account of the forty-seven rōnin.

Television

• In the manga and anime Rurouni Kenshin, the hitokiri Himura Kenshin becomes a rōnin after the end of the Edo period, wandering for ten years in order to mend his sins and to complete the restoration.
• Samurai Jack, the main protagonist of his eponymous animated television series, is technically a rōnin because he serves no master and is mostly seen wandering the land, searching for a resolution to his quest to defeat his nemesis, the demon wizard Aku, after he casts a time travel spell that sends Jack into a future where Aku reigns supreme.
• In the 2004 anime series Samurai Champloo, one of the main protagonists is the rōnin Jin. Along with the vagrant swordsman Mugen, he accompanies a young girl named Fuu on a quest to find the "samurai who smells of sunflowers".

More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Ronin ]

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