Rōnin

thumb|right|A woodblock print by [[ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi depicting famous rōnin Miyamoto Musashi having his fortune told]]

thumb|right|Ukiyo-e woodblock print by [[Yoshitoshi depicting Oishi Chikara, one of the forty-seven rōnin]]

In feudal Japan to early modern Japan (1185–1868), a rōnin ( ; , , 'drifter' or 'wandering man', ) was a samurai who had no lord or master and, in some cases, had also severed all links with his family or clan. A samurai became a rōnin upon the death of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or legal privilege.

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

Etymology

The word rōnin is usually translated to 'drifter' or 'wanderer'; however, per kanji, means "wave" as on the water, as well as "unrestrained, dissolute", while means "person". It is an idiomatic expression for 'vagrant' or 'wanderer', someone who does not belong to one place. The term originated in the Nara and Heian periods, when it referred to a serf who had fled or deserted his master's land. It later came to be used for a samurai who had no master. In medieval times, the ronin were depicted as the shadows of samurai, master-less and not honorable.

Status

According to the Bushido Shoshinshu (the "Code of the Warrior"), a samurai was supposed to commit seppuku (also harakiri, "belly cutting", a form of ritual suicide) upon the loss of his master. One who chose not to honor the code was "on his own" and was meant to suffer great shame. The undesirability of rōnin status was mainly a discrimination imposed by other samurai and by daimyō, the feudal lords.

As with other samurai, rōnin were armed with two swords. Rōnin used a variety of other weapons as well. Some rōnin—usually those who lacked money—would carry a bō (staff around ) or jō (smaller staff or walking stick around ) or a yumi (bow). Most weapons would reflect the ryū (martial arts school) from which they came if they were students.

During the Edo period, with the shogunate's rigid class system and laws, the number of rōnin greatly increased; confiscation of fiefs during the rule of the third Tokugawa shōgun Iemitsu resulted in an especially large increase of their number.

Kyokutei Bakin
Miyamoto Musashi
Sakamoto Ryōma
Yamada Nagamasa

Portrayals in media

thumb|Actors portraying ronin on left and right, employed [[samurai in the middle. His chonmage makes him identifiable as an employed samurai.]]

Numerous modern works of Japanese fiction set in the Edo period cast characters who are rōnin. Ronin Jin from Samurai Champloo being one

Comics

The moniker Ronin has often appeared in Marvel Universe comic series, and has been used by many characters such as Echo (Maya Lopez) and Hawkeye (Clint Barton).
Usagi Yojimbo depicts an anthropomorphic rabbit rōnin main character, Miyamoto Usagi, whom Stan Sakai based partially on the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi.

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 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, and spawned the 1962 sequel Sanjuro.
The 1962 film Harakiri is set in Edo period of early 17th century Japan, and concerns two Ronin who present themselves at the palace of the Ii clan to 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.
The 2015 film, titled Last Knights, is a more stylized version of the story of the forty-seven rōnin, a joint production among the UK, Czech Republic and South Korea.

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 protagonist of the 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 shapeshifting master of darkness, Aku, after the latter opens a time portal that sends Jack into a future where Aku reigns supreme.
In the 2004 anime series Samurai Champloo, one of the 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".
In the 2023 anime series Revenger, the protagonist becomes a rōnin after a meeting with a shadowy organization following an assassination attempt.

Video games

The main character in each game of the Way of the Samurai series is always an archetypal ronin who wanders into the setting one day and must choose a faction to work with or find a way to unite them against a greater foe.
The 2020 video game Ghost of Tsushima features many rōnin as part of the story, including Ryuzo (Leonard Wu), the childhood friend of the protagonist Jin Sakai.
In the 2020 video game Genshin Impact, the first playable character from the nation of Inazuma, Kaedehara Kazuha, became a rōnin not too long before the game's events.
The 2023 video game Honkai: Star Rail features Acheron, a rōnin from the fallen planet of Izumo, as a playable character starting from version 2.1.
The protagonist of the 2024 video game Rise of the Rōnin is a rōnin navigating the tumultuous period of 19th-century Japan, making pivotal choices that influence the nation's future.