rōnin

In Japanese history, a samurai who had no allegiance to a feudal lord. Especially numerous in the 16th and 17th centuries, many of them engaged in brigandage and in 1651 they were responsible for an unsuccessful rebellion. The rōnin took part in attempts to expel Westerners from Japan in the mid-19th century, but were eradicated when samurai privileges were withdrawn in 1873, shortly after the beginning of the Meiji era.