Right at the start I look at the card and what do I see? A Dragon?! I did not think we had warped their fighting practices so much! I would have accepted a Crab or perhaps even a Unicorn, but a Dragon! However, I whole-heartedly approve of the choice of opponent; Cranes don't deal with unfair that well.
Which brings us to the actual lesson. Dirty fighting is best used on honourable opponents; it off-balances them, so you'll probably use it to your full advantage against Crane, Lion and Phoenix. The Crab,are more than used to it, and the Mantis and Unicorn have odd enough fighting styles that it's hard to say if it'll be all that effective.
From a mechanics perspective, fighting dirty requires one thing: Raises. If you want to screw up your opponent you've got to pick your targets. If that means jamming climbing claws into a troll's nether regions, so be it. Against human opponents, however, there are less... unsavoury choices.
Firstly, if you examine any samurai you will most likely discover one undeniable truth: Everything is held together by their
Next, the ever popular 'throw sand in their eyes'. I'm sure more than a few ronin out thier are familiar with this 'technique'. Simply said, you throw sand into your opponent's face; if they happen to have their eyes open, they spend a few moments groping blindly. That said, this technique seems to be sorely lacking against Crane duelists-again I'm sure that many a ronin is well aware of this. The Crane seem to train their duelists to fight while blind, best demonstrated by Daidoji Megumi, the blind kenshinzen. The other major problem with this technique is that to throw sand you have to have sand. In most of Rokugan's plains and farmlands this is not too plentiful. So we will leave it to the Crab, Mantis and any ronin willing to take a chance.
Back to using raises to defeat your opponent... a swift jab to the gut or stomping on your opponent's foot never hurts (unless you're trying to be honourable or something). The Crab in fact have developed these hand-to-hand potshots into a martial art, Kobo Ichi-Kai, truely the dirtiest fighting around. Now, that said, you may be asking, "How do I learn Kobo Ichi-Kai?" Well, I'm sorry to say this but... you can't. The Crab gave a particularily nasty display of their new martial art to the Emperor when they first developed it and it nearly became illegal. The Crab are about the only people who use it, so I'm sure if you asked one nicely, and spent about a year on the Wall they'd teach you This of course presumes that you survived the year. That aside, a little bit of Juijitsu should do it-make a raise or two here and there for aimed blows, then watch your opponent double over. Easy as that.
Let's see now, kick them in the balls... sand in the eyes... cut obi... what is it I'm forgeting... Oh, yeah! Cut their weapons in half. Most polearms and many peasant weapons are made of wood, or at the very least wood is a rather major part of them. If you have a katana that is even resonably well made, you can cut through wood. If your opponent loses his weapon they generally are screwed. I suggest watching out for monks, though.
That is the end of lesson one. Now back to your kata!