Of Dojos and Study:
The Structure and Leadership of the Kakita Academy
The Kakita Academy, or the School of the Quiet Arts, trains the Kakita duelists and the Kakita artisans, some of the finest swordsmen and artists in the Empire. It was founded at the order of the first Emerald Champion, Kakita, by his sister Kiyamori, and his son Shimazu, very early in the Empire's history.
As a Crane Holding, the Academy lies ultimately under the authority of the Crane Clan Champion through the Daimyo of the Kakita Family, who is charged with supporting and defending it.
The Daimyo of the Kakita will often select a Grandmaster of the Kakita Academy who is in charge of being the final arbitrator for the the Academy or representing the Academy in the Imperial Court, if need be. The Grandmaster rarely is involved in the day to day operations of the Academy. At the time of the Scorpion Clan Coup, the Kakita Daimyo is Lord Kakita Yoshi, and the Grandmaster of the Kakita Academy is his brother, Kakita Toshimoko, though he has little care for managing the affairs of the school.
The day to day leadership of the Kakita Academy is done by the Council of Master Sensei. All of the Sensei who teach one of the formal disciplines of the School of the Quiet Arts gather and select a representative to serve on the Council of Master Sensei to represent the Sensei and students within their particular discipline. The representative can be chosen based on skill, political savvy, leadership, or title. They can be removed with a vote of no confidence by the other Sensei of the discipline. Frequently, Master Sensei will choose to step away from the life of running the academy to focus on their individual arts and return to it later. The Council of Master Sensei is a quirky and idiosyncratic bunch, and arguments are common and heated. The Iaijutsu Master Sensei, as the one who runs the largest group of students, tends to have more weight in most matters for practical purposes, but formally the Master Sensei are all considered equal on the Council. Special respect is given to the older Master Sensei.
The Primary Disciplines of the Academy which almost always have a representative on the Council are:
Other disciplines may end up having a representative on the Council of Master Sensei, if they reach a sufficient level of acclaim with a great enough number of students, but this is not always the case. Other disciplines taught are Oratory, Storytelling, Acrobatics, Sculpture, Gardening, Puppetry, Archery, and Song.
Each discipline can have a number of Sensei who have students. A Sensei may be serving at the Academy, or may be assigned to various tasks by his Daimyo....serving at a Winter Court for entertainment, or facing a duel on a prominent issue of the Imperial Court. Elderly Sensei may choose not to have any students, simply devoting their lives to their art. Sensei compete with each other for status based on their own skill and the quality and numbers of their students.
Each sensei generally will end up having a large group of students under them. Once those students reach gempukku, some may stay to continue to teach younger students, but most travel to other duties assigned to them by their family or daimyo.
Beginning at the Kakita Academy
Promising young children between the ages of six and seven are brought to the Kakita Academy to be tested for entrance. While most are Crane, other clans can be granted, as a favor, to bring their own children as potential candidates. Each student is supposed to be already aware of the basics: how to sit still and speak politely with a sensei, how to write and read adequately, an understanding of the precepts of Bushido, and so on. Candidates for the Iaijutsu school move through some very basic, unarmed forms, and follow the lead of an instructor, while candidates for Artisan school might be evaluated on their ability to understand color and form, or their grace, or manual dexterity. Every candidate is supposed to be evaluated on their own merits alone, though certainly the child of a Clan Champion or the Emperor will likely be judged favorably despite a lack of skill, Those who fail the entrance test for the Academy are recommended to more local dojo in the Crane clan close to their home towns, or, if showing the aptitudes, to study with the Daidoji or the Doji. This test is often the most nerve-wracking moment of a parent's life, and even very small children are carefully taught by their mothers, fathers, and other family members to get them to be ready to take it. But while many take it, less than a hundred students are accepted each year.
Those children without the family connections, promise, or rank to secure the opportunity to test for the elite Academy, or those who fail the test, will return to their home towns. Many home villages have smaller dojos, where Sensei not linked to the elite academy and their Sempai teach the essential skills of the samurai caste. These village dojos tend to take the aspect of the town that they are situated in and the family of samurai who have led that town for generations.
The First Years
Those children who are successful in passing their tests are assigned to a Senior Senpai...a student of one of the Sensei at one of the schools, who is charge of acting as a leader and teacher for the children, or kohai, under his or her care. Each Senpai has about fifteen kohai. They look after two chambers of kohai, one for male students, and one for female students, and will usually sleep in between the two chambers. In return for this time consuming and important duty, Senior Senpai get special classes from the Sensei or even the Master Sensei for their discipline, and the position is therefore coveted. Senior Senpai compete amongst themselves for who has the best students, and those whose students win get particular favor from the Sensei. The competition can get quite fierce.
The young children learn in groups from their senior Senpai, assisted by other students a few years ahead of them for some exercises. While they focus on their own art in particular, the whole group of kohai are taken regularly to get lessons from other Senpai in areas of skill that everyone should know, like Etiquette and various arts, as well as improving their writing and reading and thinking skills.
In addition to their normal learning, kohai are expected to do various chores around the academy....these are considered learning opportunities for judgement and character, and students are expected to embrace their chores as a learning opportunity.
Advancing
On a regular basis, the Sensei will observe the kohai being taught by the various senior senpai. When they feel the student has advanced enough, they will assign the student to a new Senpai, one who will work with a smaller group of students in a more focused way. Each senpai is competing on the quality of their own kohai, so are very motivated for their kohai to be successful.
The most promising of the kohai earn the opportunity to do the very best chores. Cleaning the dojo, for example, is a valued chore because it gives the opportunity to see the older senpai and even the sensei practice their arts...a learning opportunity. Serving as errand runners introduce a young person to many sensei and visiting dignitaries, and serving meals at banquets or acting as servants to guests teach the students etiquette and how to manage themselves in court. The better the student, the better opportunities and the better chores are assigned.
Eventually a student might be assigned to teach a few things to younger students of their own. At this point, they have become senpai themselves, and they get to continue to teach in order to earn greater and greater opportunities to study with their betters until they too can stand as a strong representative of the arts of their school. As their schooling continues, they will have different kohai assigned to them. If they are lucky, and appropriately good-natured, they may become a senior senpai to a dorm of six year olds of their own....and the special lessons from the Master Sensei that come with it.
Only the very best of the best would be granted the privilege of testing for the right to represent the Kakita Academy at the prestigious Topaz Championship. Others go through a more family-oriented gempukku, lauded by their parents and their peers.
Failing
It would cause political strife if students were ever expelled from the Kakita Academy for poor performance or anything other than dishonorable behavior. Not to mention their failure reflecting poorly on their senpai. However, not every student is of the caliber to be a highly successful artisan or duelist. Those who do not do well find themselves assigned to senpai who focus more on the homemaking arts, or the normal business of day to day affairs, without kohai of their own to study with. When a wedding is arranged for them, they will be considered to have their training complete and go on their way. If they refuse, they will find themselves without teachers at all. At that point, they are expected to withdraw themselves from the school. For particular students, a sensei may come to offer them a single lesson: an opportunity for the sensei to see if there is some particular deficit or that a different kind of instruction or a change in discipline that might help. If there is, they can be reassigned to a different senpai with better advice on how to train them. But if that fails, they will drift to their gempukku without further education. On their gempukku, their daimyo will be informed, as he is for all the new graduates, of the student's qualities and failures.
Returning after Gempukku
If a student has had their gempukku and advanced out of the school, they are assigned a duty by their daimyo. But it is expected that they would continue to keep in touch with their sensei. From time to time, they may return to visit the Academy. They might stay briefly or for a while, stepping back into a temporary senpai role to teach a group of young ones about how life in the real world really is, and learning the advanced techniques of the Academy while they were there.
The Kakita Academy, or the School of the Quiet Arts, trains the Kakita duelists and the Kakita artisans, some of the finest swordsmen and artists in the Empire. It was founded at the order of the first Emerald Champion, Kakita, by his sister Kiyamori, and his son Shimazu, very early in the Empire's history.
As a Crane Holding, the Academy lies ultimately under the authority of the Crane Clan Champion through the Daimyo of the Kakita Family, who is charged with supporting and defending it.
The Daimyo of the Kakita will often select a Grandmaster of the Kakita Academy who is in charge of being the final arbitrator for the the Academy or representing the Academy in the Imperial Court, if need be. The Grandmaster rarely is involved in the day to day operations of the Academy. At the time of the Scorpion Clan Coup, the Kakita Daimyo is Lord Kakita Yoshi, and the Grandmaster of the Kakita Academy is his brother, Kakita Toshimoko, though he has little care for managing the affairs of the school.
The day to day leadership of the Kakita Academy is done by the Council of Master Sensei. All of the Sensei who teach one of the formal disciplines of the School of the Quiet Arts gather and select a representative to serve on the Council of Master Sensei to represent the Sensei and students within their particular discipline. The representative can be chosen based on skill, political savvy, leadership, or title. They can be removed with a vote of no confidence by the other Sensei of the discipline. Frequently, Master Sensei will choose to step away from the life of running the academy to focus on their individual arts and return to it later. The Council of Master Sensei is a quirky and idiosyncratic bunch, and arguments are common and heated. The Iaijutsu Master Sensei, as the one who runs the largest group of students, tends to have more weight in most matters for practical purposes, but formally the Master Sensei are all considered equal on the Council. Special respect is given to the older Master Sensei.
The Primary Disciplines of the Academy which almost always have a representative on the Council are:
- Iaijutsu
- Painting
- Poetry
- Ikebana
- Dance
- Acting
- Origami
- Calligraphy
- Music
- Jesting
Other disciplines may end up having a representative on the Council of Master Sensei, if they reach a sufficient level of acclaim with a great enough number of students, but this is not always the case. Other disciplines taught are Oratory, Storytelling, Acrobatics, Sculpture, Gardening, Puppetry, Archery, and Song.
Each discipline can have a number of Sensei who have students. A Sensei may be serving at the Academy, or may be assigned to various tasks by his Daimyo....serving at a Winter Court for entertainment, or facing a duel on a prominent issue of the Imperial Court. Elderly Sensei may choose not to have any students, simply devoting their lives to their art. Sensei compete with each other for status based on their own skill and the quality and numbers of their students.
Each sensei generally will end up having a large group of students under them. Once those students reach gempukku, some may stay to continue to teach younger students, but most travel to other duties assigned to them by their family or daimyo.
Beginning at the Kakita Academy
Promising young children between the ages of six and seven are brought to the Kakita Academy to be tested for entrance. While most are Crane, other clans can be granted, as a favor, to bring their own children as potential candidates. Each student is supposed to be already aware of the basics: how to sit still and speak politely with a sensei, how to write and read adequately, an understanding of the precepts of Bushido, and so on. Candidates for the Iaijutsu school move through some very basic, unarmed forms, and follow the lead of an instructor, while candidates for Artisan school might be evaluated on their ability to understand color and form, or their grace, or manual dexterity. Every candidate is supposed to be evaluated on their own merits alone, though certainly the child of a Clan Champion or the Emperor will likely be judged favorably despite a lack of skill, Those who fail the entrance test for the Academy are recommended to more local dojo in the Crane clan close to their home towns, or, if showing the aptitudes, to study with the Daidoji or the Doji. This test is often the most nerve-wracking moment of a parent's life, and even very small children are carefully taught by their mothers, fathers, and other family members to get them to be ready to take it. But while many take it, less than a hundred students are accepted each year.
Those children without the family connections, promise, or rank to secure the opportunity to test for the elite Academy, or those who fail the test, will return to their home towns. Many home villages have smaller dojos, where Sensei not linked to the elite academy and their Sempai teach the essential skills of the samurai caste. These village dojos tend to take the aspect of the town that they are situated in and the family of samurai who have led that town for generations.
The First Years
Those children who are successful in passing their tests are assigned to a Senior Senpai...a student of one of the Sensei at one of the schools, who is charge of acting as a leader and teacher for the children, or kohai, under his or her care. Each Senpai has about fifteen kohai. They look after two chambers of kohai, one for male students, and one for female students, and will usually sleep in between the two chambers. In return for this time consuming and important duty, Senior Senpai get special classes from the Sensei or even the Master Sensei for their discipline, and the position is therefore coveted. Senior Senpai compete amongst themselves for who has the best students, and those whose students win get particular favor from the Sensei. The competition can get quite fierce.
The young children learn in groups from their senior Senpai, assisted by other students a few years ahead of them for some exercises. While they focus on their own art in particular, the whole group of kohai are taken regularly to get lessons from other Senpai in areas of skill that everyone should know, like Etiquette and various arts, as well as improving their writing and reading and thinking skills.
In addition to their normal learning, kohai are expected to do various chores around the academy....these are considered learning opportunities for judgement and character, and students are expected to embrace their chores as a learning opportunity.
Advancing
On a regular basis, the Sensei will observe the kohai being taught by the various senior senpai. When they feel the student has advanced enough, they will assign the student to a new Senpai, one who will work with a smaller group of students in a more focused way. Each senpai is competing on the quality of their own kohai, so are very motivated for their kohai to be successful.
The most promising of the kohai earn the opportunity to do the very best chores. Cleaning the dojo, for example, is a valued chore because it gives the opportunity to see the older senpai and even the sensei practice their arts...a learning opportunity. Serving as errand runners introduce a young person to many sensei and visiting dignitaries, and serving meals at banquets or acting as servants to guests teach the students etiquette and how to manage themselves in court. The better the student, the better opportunities and the better chores are assigned.
Eventually a student might be assigned to teach a few things to younger students of their own. At this point, they have become senpai themselves, and they get to continue to teach in order to earn greater and greater opportunities to study with their betters until they too can stand as a strong representative of the arts of their school. As their schooling continues, they will have different kohai assigned to them. If they are lucky, and appropriately good-natured, they may become a senior senpai to a dorm of six year olds of their own....and the special lessons from the Master Sensei that come with it.
Only the very best of the best would be granted the privilege of testing for the right to represent the Kakita Academy at the prestigious Topaz Championship. Others go through a more family-oriented gempukku, lauded by their parents and their peers.
Failing
It would cause political strife if students were ever expelled from the Kakita Academy for poor performance or anything other than dishonorable behavior. Not to mention their failure reflecting poorly on their senpai. However, not every student is of the caliber to be a highly successful artisan or duelist. Those who do not do well find themselves assigned to senpai who focus more on the homemaking arts, or the normal business of day to day affairs, without kohai of their own to study with. When a wedding is arranged for them, they will be considered to have their training complete and go on their way. If they refuse, they will find themselves without teachers at all. At that point, they are expected to withdraw themselves from the school. For particular students, a sensei may come to offer them a single lesson: an opportunity for the sensei to see if there is some particular deficit or that a different kind of instruction or a change in discipline that might help. If there is, they can be reassigned to a different senpai with better advice on how to train them. But if that fails, they will drift to their gempukku without further education. On their gempukku, their daimyo will be informed, as he is for all the new graduates, of the student's qualities and failures.
Returning after Gempukku
If a student has had their gempukku and advanced out of the school, they are assigned a duty by their daimyo. But it is expected that they would continue to keep in touch with their sensei. From time to time, they may return to visit the Academy. They might stay briefly or for a while, stepping back into a temporary senpai role to teach a group of young ones about how life in the real world really is, and learning the advanced techniques of the Academy while they were there.