Skill and Trait max
Can someone please find the rule in the book that says skills and traits max out at 10?

On Rings. Rings havea scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being below average and 10 being superhuman. Most samurai have Rings between 2 and 5. Exceptional individuals may possess rings of 6 or 7, and truly legendary heroes may have one or more Rings of 8 or even 9. No mortal creature has ever achieve a Ring of 10, though divine creatures such as Fortunes or foul demons such as Oni may attain such power. On Skills Like Rings and Traits, Skill ranks range from 1 to 10. A rank of 1 in a particular Skill indicates that the character has been introduced to the basic elements of that particular activity. A rank of 10 in a Skill is exceptionally rare, possessed by only a handful of individuals throughout the Empire." Shawn Carman clarified that Skill rank 10 was a hard cap. By reverse inference, Traits and Rings cap at 10 as well.

Well Isawa Chuckles was pointing out that skill go from 1 to 10 and thus if you have no ranks in a skill then you have a 1 rank in the skill since the min is 1. However, characters that have no void do not have a void of 1.

Skills don't go from 1 to 10. Skill *ranks* go from 1 to 10. If you don't have ranks, you can't claim to have 1 because that's where they start. If you have no ranks in a skill, you're not rank 0. You have no rank period, so you can't claim it must be 1 because that's the minimum.

The only skills a character "start" with an actual value in are in the character's School Description. All the rest, the player has to buy with character points. I don't have my book with me, but I do recall it being fairly clear. If somebody is reading too much into the sentence limiting dice pools to 10, refer them to the character creation rules.

“I” fully understand all of this. I was looking for the page number. Thank you all. If Chuckles comes asking, I’ll send him here.

The problem being, that the Rulebook doesn't contain clear rules for Null values, and where they apply. This problem also crops up when you consider the ronin who decides not to take a school at rank 1. Does he have minimum honor (0.0) or does he have NULL Honor (Empty Set). Using Ronin Status as an example proves that the system is capable of Null Values when it expressly states them, however, it does not provide NULL as the default value for unexpressed ones. Also, Common Sense says you can have Null Skill Value, and I agree that having no ranks in a skill should mean having no ranks, but I'm looking at this mechanically.

Also, Common Sense says you can have Null Skill Value, and I agree that having no ranks in a skill should mean having no ranks, but I'm looking at this mechanically. This exception is handled on page 22 under "Unskilled Rolls." When you have no ranks in a skill your dice don't explode, no raises can be declared, and they cannot be used with bonuses from kata or techniques. The problem being, that the Rulebook doesn't contain clear rules for Null values, and where they apply. This problem also crops up when you consider the ronin who decides not to take a school at rank 1. Does he have minimum honor (0.0) or does he have NULL Honor (Empty Set). Using Ronin Status as an example proves that the system is capable of Null Values when it expressly states them, however, it does not provide NULL as the default value for unexpressed ones. The True Ronin that has no family or school is completely shafted. He has no starting skill ranks and he gets no extra trait bonuses. They did state that Honor is based on school selected, which does not help our guy. I don't think this is a case of a NULL value as much as a case of the lack of proof reading.

Hum ... And how about the old rules saying that you must know Shinseism as the back of your hand to grow your skills/stats ahead 5 ? Simply vanished in 3rd ed. ?