The Isawa are the greatest shugenja in the Empire, and while the family would never claim this openly, the behavior of those who have trained in their prestigious School bears this out. Fortunately, most others recognize the truth of it as well, and accept it with varying degrees of resentment or resignation. The Isawa are nearly twice as a large as the next largest shugenja family in the Empire. Indeed, there are so many among their ranks that they are nearly the size of a typical bushi family. That so many among them are born with the gift to speak with the kami has allowed teh family to diversify into numerous areas of magical specialization, but the core of their power has always been the Isawa Shugenja School. It is literally the oldest School of its kind in Rokugan, and the Isawa have been struggling to master the secrets of the universe for more than a thousand years.
The Isawa Shugenja has no particular specialization, but instead are constructed around the premise that being the finest at spell-casting in general. their ability to choose an Affinity without a corresponding Deficiency, and their unrestricted Free Raise on all Spell Casting Rolls of their Affinity, make them extremely competent and the equal of virtually any other shugenja character.