New Minor Clan? Advice?
Long backstory on our game and I don't want to be one of those people who give an entire game history. I'll try to be quick. There was a sword that belonged to one of Totori's friends when he was a Ronin general. The friend was reported killed and an upset Totori said essentially "I'll give up anything in my power for his sword to be returned to his family". Well, rumors of his death were greatly exaggerated and he lived a long and full life. Eventually however his son died with the sword and it was lost. A group of ronin/mercenaries heard this tale from an elderly ronin who was there and decided to fetch the sword. The PC's daimyo didn't want this to happen and the PC's fetched the sword themselves to become a minor clan and get status, etc. Daimyo bit the dust and the PC's returned it for themselves but claimed no reward. Fast forward 3 years of game time and in the fiction Totori III dies and the PC's are currently in Shinsei's Last Hope. I was thinking of having him offer the PC hero his own Minor clan when they encounter each other in the Shadowlands. Has anyone ever formed a minor clan in their game? Advice on what works and what doesn't?

If the rebirth of the Crane Clan in my KYD game is an accurate example (which it may not be), whoever is in charge of the Minor Clan will likely become the focal point of the story (unless the entire party is comprised of people with at least 7 ranks of Status or 7 ranks of Glory). Rather than giving the new Daimyo all his Status at once, my co-GM gave out a Rank here or half a rank there whenever the Daimyo made another major step towards establishing his autority. (The first big jump came when the Unicorn decided to regard the rebirth of the Crane as legitimate, the second big jump came when he accepted the vows of some 400 or so samurai who wished to follow his banner). Since your game has a universally acknowledged Emperor making the declaration, he should probably get most of his status right off the bat. It's unlikely that someone is going to question the legitimacy of an imperial appointment.