This is the background I submitted and had approved. Much thanks goes to Togashi's player for all his help and patience in setting this up. ^_^
Izumi was the last child of Matsu Suri, a magistrate of the Lion Clan. Her mother was old and a weathered woman, her youthful beauty faded with the many children she had born over the years prior to her daughter's birth. Her father was a proud man, honorbound and stubborn to the rule. He was an influential man of power and strength with a small estate near the lands of the Dragon, but by the time Izumi was conscious of who her parents were, Suri had grown bullheaded and thoughtless in his actions.
But her mother played a more active role in Izumi's life in the beginning than her father; she was a tired, lonely woman, not what you would expect the wife of a Lion Clan samurai and magistrate to be. Flesh had gathered around her waist and midsection, and she could no longer walk with pride as she had in earlier times. Her husband had adopted a courtesan not long after Izumi was born, a pretty young thing that, without meaning to, drove Izumi's mother into the depths of dispair. She clung to her daughter like a life preserver, taking comfort from her childish needs and her innocent company.
Matsu Izumi had been born on the hour of the rabbit. She was shy and sensitive as was common for those born to that hour, and the aspects of her personality were increased by her mother's overwhelming presence. She was sheltered and unaware of what it mean to be what it was, and even her father failed to notice how far his youngest daughter was drifting from her heritage until she was nearly a preteen. To be a magistrate was to accept responsibility that required much of his attention, and he often neglected his wife and her doings to be with the lone courtesan he kept in relative privacy. And when he did, it seemed as if all hell broke loose. To her dismay, Izumi was all but wrenched from her comfortable place at her mother's side. Her father, as temperamental as he was, took a minor thing and blew it out of proportion. Izumi was thrust into the studies headlong. She was frightened and confused, and she had started her studies years later than her siblings and cousins. Izumi became withdrawn and silent, which contrasted sharply to her fellows's stubborn natures.
At first, it did not go overly wrong. Her unpracticed hands held the sword clumsily and her self confidence wallowed in the gutter. She was alone and years behind everyone else; the art of kenjutsu did not come as easily as she thought it would and Izumi began to despair. It was hard, too hard, and frightened her with all its difficulities and hurdles to overcome.
Izumi tried, though. She tried hard and for years she struggled until she finally made it. The sword held steady in her hand, the slices flew smoothly, and the stabs drew out as fluidly as they went iin. Self confidence blossomed and self assurance bloomed; Izumi could walk with chin lifted high and no longer clung to shadows and corners to avoided being noticed. With time, the lion conquered the rabbit and all shyness and sensitivity vanished in its wake.
Her mother was shoved to the back of her mind, but never forgotten. As Izumi's studies and training slowly drew towards an end, her mother came back into the picture. The old woman gave her daughter a tentative smile, not knowing what to make of the young lady that stood before her. Visits had been brief and rare when they were apart and it was hard for her mother to see the shy, young rabbit within the proud, strong lion. She tried, she truly did, but eventually her mother only bowed her head and smiled through moist eyes, and whispered some words about how proud she was of her. Then, she departed once again.
A few more years passed until her studies finally drew to an end. No longer a student, Izumi could now call herself a bushi of the Lion Clan. What had originally been a source of frustration and uncertainty was now an extention of herself; she wielded the katana as if it were merely another limb and not a foreign object as she had in the beginning. In the meantime, her father's rashness was intensifying. It came to a head when local bandits began to harass his land. Suri's workers pursued the bandits, trying to stop them by themselves, and ended up chasing them into a neighboring Dragon family's territory. The bandits promptly disappeared there and Suri, frustrated over the failure, accused the family of granting the bandits asylum. Refusing to believe that harassment and trouble had been dealt in equal amount on the other side of the border as well, Suri demanded that Togashi Husume 'surrender them or face the consequences.'
The magistrate sent several Lion bushi to force the surrender. The growing conflict began to gather attention and tension started to thicken the air. Only after it was discovered that the bandits were hiding in a cave hidden deep within a forest outside of Togashi land did Suri calm down. Unfortunately, however, the damage was done and the two families were now hung in a precarious balance. In hopes to smoothen ruffled feathers and ensure such a situation would not reaccure, Suri offered Izumi as a bride to Togashi Tomoru, a shugenja of the Dragon Clan and Husume's grandson.
The miai - marriage meeting - went well, for both parties found each other acceptable and Suri was anxious to undo the damage he had wrought. Izumi and Tomoru were married, and Izumi soon found to her bewilderment that the romance was not as smooth and easy as she had originally thought. But, like the difficult path she had to take to become a bushi, Izumi was stubbornly determined to overcome this obstacle and eventually the strained union evolved into a relationship of respect and tentative affection.
A year passed. Bayushi Shoju siezed the palace. The time came for Shoju to be removed from his place on the throne and restore the Emperor's son to his rightful place, and Izumi was sure to follow her family in the army to take back the palace. Tomoru was there with her. Something awakened inside Izumi during that time and after Shoju was dead, she returned to Tomoru's estate different. The lion was growing up.
The change could not come at a better time, for conflicts were growing more and more frequent. Parts of the Dragon army were placed under Toturi's command; Tomoru remained home with Izumi, keeping peace in his and her family's lands. Izumi watched much of her family go to war, but watched her husband as well as he dealt with the disputes that were growing more commonplace, and the conflicts with the bandits, raiders, and shadowcreatures that would challenge the protection of his family. His ways with common disputes were intriguing in that they were often both peaceful and successful. For Izumi, it was different compared to the stubbornly blunt and rash ways of her family, herself often included.
Izumi's personality could best be broken down into two parts: the lion and the rabbit. The rabbit represents her gentler, skittish side, the part of her that was dominant during her early childhood that was spent with her mother, attending to her. It is rare that she slips into this mindset, for she has long since grown out of it. The rabbit is the weaker side, the minor aspect of her personality that only shows in quirks.
Because of her mother's influence, Izumi fears children. She wants to start a family with Tomoru so that his name will live on but a memory nags at the back of her mind, of her mother tired and old, and without life inside her. To hold a child in her arms and to be able to call it hers is something she dreams of -- and fears. Would a child mean loss of her self? Of the life of a warrior, instead restricted to maternal duties that other wives are? She is lucky, she knows, that Tomoru respects her wishes and does not let her stagnate in the home.
But Izumi is also the lion, the fierce warrior with teeth to match. She can be blunt, she can be hard-headed, and there are some things you just can't beat her in an argument over. She does not revel in war and not look forward to dying honorably, but her life is an invigorating one. It keeps her alert, aware of who she is and where she is. The lion grants her a freedom she never had before, and that it is why she is the lioness today and not the rabbit.
Upon occasion there is conflict, for even if the rabbit does not dominate it still exists. Izumi's softer side shows, especially in the arts. She's attained skills in brush painting and haiku over the years, and personal frustrations and anxieties are often expressed within her works. Izumi is a stubborn woman, not afraid to speak her mind. She just rarely chooses to and so things often go unsaid. What cannot be said in words is instead expressed in the arts; those that want to can see them, but it doesn't bother Izumi if they do not. They have relevance to her at least and that's what matters.