Kenzo Kurata

Authored by Katy Darrah

Character Biography

Kenzo’s family traces it’s origins back to 1258, from a lone Samurai who’s clan was slaughtered by a rival. To distance himself from his clan’s failure this lone figure changed his name, continuing to offer his services to his Daimyo. Over the next few centuries the Kurata clan would grow to prominence as powerful Samurai and were known far and wide as some of the most honorable.

As time went on, the family remained Samurai through the Meiji period. When being a Samurai was officially abolished, the family maintained the training and status in secret. Following the Bushido became one of their greatest prides, and what kept the family together. However, in 1980, a small separation began to occur. Western influences taught the children that they could do without following the code, and the family began to split, though maintained family ties.

By the time the 21st century rolled around, the family was split in half, with the more traditional half, who followed the ways of Bushido, living in the family compound high in the mountains of Japan. While the more modern half, who followed the new ways, had moved more into the cities and countryside closer to more modern Japan. Though ties remained, the family was essentially two isolated groups.

In 2123, Kenzo was born to the group who practiced Bushido. Until he was around the age of 2, his life was relatively normal. At this point, his mother died, and his grandmother, who was of the group who didn’t practice the old ways, came to collect him. He was subsequently raised by her for the rest of his life, only having minimal contact with the rest of his family during the family gatherings every 2 years. Throughout this time, he was constantly a source of tension, as his father blamed his grandmother for taking him from the Samurai lifestyle, despite, as Kenzo would later put it, it being “quite drab and boring”.

When Kenzo was 18, he enrolled in Starfleet Academy, desperate to get away from the family drama. Far away from the drama, he could make new friends, learn everything he could about space and a starship, and prepare to get even further away from the drama. Upon graduation, he was assigned as an Armory Officer to one of the many Deltas that patrolled the system. It was during this time that his father tried to make several ploys for him to come home, frequently submitting false bereavement requests to Starfleet to send him home. Kenzo would grow fed up with these, and during a short period of leave, would eventually go home to the compound.

It was there that he realized there were a few tenants of Bushido he might’ve considered had he been left in the lifestyle, but still found the life of a Samurai quite dull and boring. He demanded his father stop submitting false requests to Starfleet, and for that half of the family to leave him be, he was not returning to be a Samurai, and that Starfleet was where he wanted to be. After a tense few weeks, he returned to Starfleet and would have no contact with his father for a few years.

3 years later, shortly after he turned 24, Kenzo would be informed that his grandmother had passed. He immediately applied for, and was granted, bereavement leave to attend her funeral, where, he was surprised, the entirety of both sides of the family attended. After the funeral, Kenzo noticed, in passing , that his father didn’t look well, but he brushed it off, as the man had recurrent health problems through his life.

Just over 2 years later, not long after Kenzo applied for an open Chief slot on the SS Sojourner, he was informed his father had passed, and that he had been asked to attend the funeral. Using the last of his saved-up leave, Kenzo attended, intending to sit in the rear of the ceremony, and leave as soon as it was over. But instead, he was given a place of honor near the front, much to his surprise. The ceremony was mostly a lot of the family doing mock combat and telling tales of his father’s abilities. Once it was finally over, Kenzo stood to leave, but was stopped, as one of his uncles handed him his father’s Katana. The elder man had wanted Kenzo to have it upon his death, though Kenzo had no ide what he was going to do with it, he accepted it, leaving it at his home in Japan before checking if his transfer and promotion request was approved.