GURPS: Michinoku

Campaign Background

Michinoku was a historical region of Japan that comprised the northeastern portion of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It was first officially designated c. 654 during the Asuka Period. This shortly followed the Taika Reform, which is the law that put into place the civil structure that gave rise to the Samurai class and social structure that persisted during the Japanese middle-ages up through the Tokugawa era. Michinoku consists of two provinces, Dewa to the west, and Mutsu to the east. The events of GURPS: Michinoku will take start in the Dewa province, in the area that is known as the Akita Prefecture in modern Japan, during the Nara Period, which itself commenced in 710. GURPS Michinoku is set in an alternate timeline, but is based on real-world Nara Japan.

Michinoku in the Nara period was overrun with strife, conflict, and intrigue. Loyalists to the court at Nara were pushing the Empress’s borders northward, vying for power with each other and disloyal lords and people of the Emishi and Ainu groups, who were largely outside the social structure of feudal Japan.

There are a few cultural points to consider that makes Michinoku different than other areas and periods. First, the climate in Dewa is characterized by cold, snowy winters. It is also rugged, with vast tracts of forest and mountains, including some active volcanoes. Modern Akita dogs are named for the area and were bred from Matagi dogs, which were well adapted to the cold and rugged terrain and used by bear and boar hunters in the vast forests of the region to hunt in the winter. Also of note, during the Nara Period, women were allowed to be samurai. This tradition didn’t carry on into later periods of feudal Japan, but there were women lords and samurai at the time. Finally, early samurai did not fight with a two-weapon style, but they did carry two swords, either two katanas or a katana and wakizashi. Only samurai were allowed to carry two swords.