Yoriki

Yoriki were the chief assistants to magistrates.
== Duties ==
Yoriki would perform investigative and police work for their lords, such as finding witnesses to crimes and recording their testimonies, handling prisoners and conducting questioning (including torture), and overseeing the doshin in their master's service. The Way of the Magistrate, by Scott Gearin (Imperial Herald #10)
The yoriki were the samurai who actually enforced the laws and prepared the cases instead of rendering judgment. However, the yoriki did not enjoy the diplomatic immunity that magistrates had from local daimyo. As such, they had to be careful in the execution of their duties, lest they run afoul of local law enforcement. Despite this, yoriki had a great share of autonomy in the execution of their assignments.
Commonly charged with inspecting the travel papers of all those who passed their waystations, it was required that anyone passing through a village with a Yoriki in it would have to pay them a visit and inform them of their intentions and destination. GM's Survival Guide, p. 87
== Loyalty ==
Like a magistrate would to a Chief Magistrate, yoriki generally swore fealty to the magistrates they served. Unlike magistrates, however, yoriki were hired directly by their superiors. Each magistrate was responsible for finding and paying his own yoriki. 
=== Out of Clan Service ===
While clan magistrates were nearly always members of the clan they serve, yoriki to those magistrates were often of different clans. This allowed magistrates to hire personnel with specific knowledge and abilities -- a Scorpion's knowledge of the criminal underworld, or an Isawa's knowledge of spellcraft, for instance -- that might otherwise be unavailable from members of their own clans.
== External Links ==
* Yoriki (Enemy of my Enemy)
Category:Law and Government
Category:Rokugani Language