Straw Hats (菅笠衆; Sugegasa-shuu) are a powerful group of ronin on the island of Tsushima. By the time of the Invasion of Tsushima, they are led by Ryuzo, Jin's old friend. They can be identified by their various types of straw hats, in which their name originates.
Biography[]
The date in which the Straw Hat ronin were founded is unknown. After losing to Jin in Lord Nagao's tournament, Ryuzo became a ronin and joined the Straw Hats.
The Straw Hats participated in Battle of Komoda Beach, where their leader and half of their members died from the Mongol onslaught before eventually fleeing. Since then the Straw Hats had fallen under hard times, with many of their surviving members wounded and/or starving. Ryuzo becomes the leader of the Straw Hats afterwards.
Jin encounters Ryuzo hunting in the forest for food but failing to find any. In the exchange, Jin asks Ryuzo for aid in attacking Castle Kaneda and freeing Lord Shimura, though Ryuzo is reluctant, as he states most of the Straw Hats were in no shape to fight. After fighting off Mongol attackers, Jin accompanies Ryuzo back to the Straw Hats camp. Desperate for need of supplies, the Straw Hats attack Fort Ohira with Jin's help. When they did not find food in the fort, they later resorted to raiding the nearby Mongol ships that were docked, but Jin and Ryuzo found none there either. However, in the process of raiding the ships, Jin finds reports on Mongol supply routes, which he gives to Ryuzo. Jin then helps Ryuzo in rescuing his imprisoned comrades at Fort Yatate, using his new grappling hook to sneak into the fort and free the Straw Hats.
Ryuzo and the Straw Hats are later bribed by Khotun Khan to join the Mongols against their own people following the Battle of Castle Kaneda, winning them over due to the Straw Hats' desperate need for supplies, instilling the notion that the Mongols will win the war against the Japanese, and that Lord Shimura's leadership would get them all killed. Jin defeats and wounds Ryuzo in a duel, but Ryuzo escapes and regroups with Khotun further north. Khotun later forces Ryuzo to burn civilian hostages in a successful attempt to pressure Castle Shimura's defenders into surrendering.
At some point later, Jin later encounters five Straw Hats led under the psychopathic Kojiro, who wishes to claim the bounty on Jin's head. Kojiro was notorious for his violent and ruthless behavior, even within the Straw Hats, and he and his group were kicked from Ryuzo's Straw Hats. The five Straw Hats that follow Kojiro are Yasumasa, Tomotsugu, Kiyochika, Hirotsune, and Kanetomo, all of whom Jin defeats in a duel. This causes Kojiro to personally challenge Jin at Omi Monastery, which Jin manages to defeat as well, obtaining his Kensei Armor.
Later, Ryuzo baits Jin into infiltrating Fort Koyasan, luring both him and Taka into a trap and capturing both of them. Taka is murdered by Khotun after defiantly refusing to kill Jin. After Taka's death, Jin and Yuna avenge him by killing all the Straw Hats in Fort Koyasan, effectively wiping out the last of the Straw Hats save for Ryuzo. Jin then confronts Ryuzo at Castle Shimura, killing him in a duel after the latter fails to convince Jin to lie to his allies that he'd been spying for him. The Straw Hat Ronin were no more.
Note that despite the apparent end of the Straw Hats, there will still be ronin found wandering the island, either survivors who have turned to banditry or unrelated ronin who happen to be wearing similar gear.