The Arai Clan has held Ariki as long as anyone can remember. Their mon is a white crane feather on black. The clan presently numbers 4 - Tetsuo, (51, head of the clan, resident at Ariki), his older brother Togai, (55, currently banished to Kanto province where he serves the lord Ikeda as a Gokenin), Tetsuo's son Ogame (18, recently returned to Ariki after a spell at the school of Bujutsu in Muso Shinden) and his sister Kozokura, (46, married to a minor court official near Kyoto). Lord Tetsuo's wife died in childbirth. He has not remarried but has taken a concubine (Namiko, 27). Tetsuo and Togai's uncle (Haruhiso, 78) has retired to a monastery in Otsu, near Kyoto.
In addition, Tetsuo has 4 Shi-Tenno ("picked men" - although one is in fact a woman). The first three are the military commanders of the castle - the role of the fourth is undefined except that they are all companions to the lord. They are:
Inohara Renshin (48) The hatamoto. An excellent spearman and also known as a masterly tactician. A friend of Lord Arai's during his earlier days as a samurai in Kanto province and known to have played a role in the southern clan wars as a minor general.
Kaneko Gohei (36) A huge bearded warrior. He is a master of Bojutsu, and is sometimes seen practising with a tetsubo on the bujutsu field. he is known to have a quick temper but it is not so well known that he is also a master tactician. He served with Renshin in the clan wars
Chibanosuke Munekiyo (39) A flashy swordsman and a keen hunter. He has been a friend of Lord Arai since boyhood and his family has served the Arai for generations.
Hane Tomoe (31) Unusually, she is a woman warrior. It is rumoured (and disputed) that she has had/is having an affair with the lord. She is obviously samurai and rumour also has it that she is Kunoichi and an excellent swordswoman. She is from a family that lives near Hoden monastery. Obviously no-one knows much about her outside the castle.
There are 47 other samurai of varying qualities in the castle and town and the castle can raise another 200 ashigaru. In addition, given time, a much larger force could be gathered from the countryside, of both samurai and ashigaru.
Personalities in the castle include:
Chibanosuke Shoan (67) Munekiyo's uncle and chancellor of the castle. Has a reputation for being better with accounting than a sword or soldiery, but his loyalty to the family is undoubted.
Kamadai Senkei (29) A castle samurai. Trained at Takenouichi, a school specialising in close combat
Tendo Katsuiki (42) Wrestling trainer of White Feather Castle. Lives in the Bujutsu hall.
Kanemaru Hidiyaki (31). Bushi. Also a skilled wrestler. Stocky and muscular.
There are several dozen servants in the family's home, White Feather Castle (named for the mountain that towers above Ariki). White Feather Castle is not heavily fortified, but enjoys a commanding position on a ridge above the village and river valley.
The fief of Ariki is bordered on the north by the Nakanishikawa family's lands and to the south by the Miyajima. The Nakanishikawa are a fairly poor mountain clan. They resent the fact that the Arai have shown no inclination to upgrade the rough road that connects Ariki to Shingan and the fact that they have to pay extra to import most of their material through Ariki. This resentment has not flowed into hostility because of the superior numbers of bushi that the Arai command and their reputed better quality (especially Tetsuo and his Shi-Tenno, who are worth 50 ordinary bushi). The Miyajima family is wealthier as they have the town of Kubota as their seat - the only port of any size on this rugged coast. Their lands extend several days march southward, and their attention is focused mainly on their larger neighbours southward and on controlling the valley of the Two Horses river. They have cordial relations with the Arai, but in truth the two families have little to do with each other.
The land all along the coast is rugged, with steep foothills leading into mountains, their upper slopes clothed with bamboo and pine. The villages mostly cling to the edges of rivers with their margin of cultivatible land or make their living from fishing the rocky coast. Most communication with the rest of Nippon is by ship, although there is a rough track running past Hoden monastery over the mountains.
