Investigative Report: the Hagoromo Clan
Wait, this exists? That changes everything.
Younger Hagoromo are divided between the orthodox faithful, those enjoying the moral superiority while only paying lip service to the actual ideals, and those earnestly (and quietly) struggling to reconcile teachings from centuries ago with a reality that no longer quite fits, though it's hard for an outsider to tell which is which.
We'll still need deeper information if we want a direct dialogue with the moderates. Have to figure out which ones legitimately are trying to reconcile teachings, and which would sell us out if we try to talk to them.
However, multiple comments from those with long-term ties to the Hagoromo suggest that the events of the past year have been pushing the Hagoromo towards greater fanaticism.
The Hagoromo used to make an excellent living as scribes, with sidelines in bookbinding, illumination, and papermaking. That crashed with the invention of the printing press, which they believe to have been an act of economic warfare against them from the Nara. Relations have been strained ever since.
Similar to irl, worsened economic conditions for them have increased their conservatism.
They still have the papermaking business, but it's a sideline. You have identified their sources and the location of their papermill.
… and we made it worse. Well, this is awkward.
Their primary business is textiles. They have their own fields from which they source raw materials, and you have located those fields and the farmers that work them. (About 100 acres divided among 3 fields, each one a few hours outside of Leaf.)
Pretty sure we haven't collapsed this entirely,
yet. Our spider silk trade is going to strain them even more, though.
We should identify the strongest moderate leader among the Hagoromo, and make overtures towards him/her, offering to set up a deal to route more of the spider silk trade through the Hagoromo's textile workers. The conservatives will undoubtedly refuse point blank as a matter of pride, which will give moderates the chance to not only paint conservatives as harming the clan's economic prospects, but also the chance to offer a visible and immediate way back to prosperity if they were in charge. Once the moderates gain control, we should work out more deals with them to increase the Hagoromo's income, thus cementing the moderates' power while at the same time tying the Hagoromo to us.
In the meantime, we should continue training Harumitsu, and accelerate his sealing training to make him a primary source of their clan's income as soon as possible. Maybe have him learn a bit from the Jiraiya notes that we released whenever we aren't around? We should obviously continue to get closer to him and get him to become friends with Mari, Snowflake, Kei, etc. Basically what we were planning to do already. But we can also get information on who's in the moderate faction by asking him about his friends in the Hagoromo, or at least who's the most tolerable. If we could influence him to increase his Rapport, that would be invaluable to helping him influence the Hagoromo from within.
TLDR: Ally with Hinata, give her a scroll, make Hyuuga great again and secretly take over the conservative faction. We do owe her for sending Oro after Cloud and saving Kei.
And we should absolutely do this as well. Hinata would be an extremely good person to have on our side, especially because if she's against us she can simply undo a lot of our hard work by enriching the Hagoromo herself.
…And because she just seems to be a really nice person and I want to be friends with her.