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What do you think about the ronins? What is behind this world? Lot of people use this think without the true knowledge.
At the first I would like to tell you that the ronin status were not a good thing in the middle ages of Japan. They were a warrior who lost their master.
If you read the article below you will learn lot of things about mediaeval Japanese culture and lifestyle.

Who we call ronin?

The rōnin (浪人 rōnin?) was a lord less samurai during the feudal age (1185–1868) of Japan. A samurai who loss his lord from the ruin or fall of his lord, or after the loss of his lord’s favor or privilege.

Etymology

The word rōnin literally means “drifting person”. The term originated in the Nara and Heian ages, when it originally submitted to serfs who had fled or deserted their master’s land. It is also a term used for samurai who had lost their masters in wars.
Status

According to the Bushido Shoshinshu (the Code of the Samurai), a ronin was supposed to commit oibara seppuku (also “hara kiri” – ritual suicide) upon the loss of his master. One who chose to not honor the code was “on his own” and was meant to suffer great shame. The undesirability of ronin status was mainly a prejudice imposed by other samurai and by the daimyo (the feudal lords).

A ronin was given like respect to master-sponsored samurai by the common population and were actually preferred by Zen masters, artists, philosophers over their more obedient and nameless samurai counterparts. As completely bound men, most samurai resented the individual freedom enjoyed by wandering ronin. Ronin were the essence of self-determination; independent men who decided their own path in life, answering only to themselves and making decisions as they saw fit. And like regular samurai, some ronin still wore their daisho.

Rōnin might be hired as yōjimbō (bodyguards or mercenary fighters) by villagers, merchants, or others in need of protection.
During the Edo period, with the shogunate’s rigid class system and laws, the number of ronin really increased. Confiscation of fiefs during the rule of the third Tokugawa shogun Iemitsu resulted in an especially large boost. During previous ages, samurai were simply able to move between masters and even between occupations, and marry between classes. However, during the Edo period, samurai were restricted from doing so, and were above all banned to become employed by another lord without their previous master’s permission. Also, low-level samurai, often poor and without decision, were forced to leave or run away their lord.

History

In the Kamakura and Muromachi ages, when warriors held lands that they occupied, a ronin was a warrior who had lost his lands. During these ages, as small-range wars frequently occurred cross Japan, the daimyo needed to increase their armies, so ronin had opportunities to serve new lord. Also, some ronin joined in gangs, engaging in theft and uprisings.
Especially in the Sengoku period, daimyo needed more fighting men, and even if one’s master had fall, a ronin was able to serve a new lord. In difference to the later Edo period, the link between the lord and the samurai was loose, and some samurai who were dissatisfied with their treatment left their masters and sought new lords. Many warriors served a succession of masters, and some even became daimyo. As an example, Tōdō Takatora served ten lords. Additionally, the division of the population into classes had not yet taken place, so it was possible to change one’s occupation from warrior to merchant or farmer, or the reverse. Saitō Dōsan was one merchant who rose through the warrior status to become a daimyo.

As Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified more and more larger parts of the country, daimyo found it needless to employ new soldiers. Next, the Battle of Sekigahara resulted in the confiscation or reduction of the fiefs of large numbers of daimyo on the losing side; in effect, many samurai became ronin. As many as a hundred thousand ronin joined forces with Toyotomi Hideyori and fought at the Siege of Osaka. In the ensuing years of peace, there was less need to maintain expensive standing armies, and many surviving ronin turned to farming or became townspeople. A few, such as Yamada Nagamasa, sought adventure overseas as mercenaries. Still, the majority lived in poverty as ronin. Under the third Tokugawa shogun Iemitsu, their number approached half a million.
Initially, the shogunate viewed them as dangerous, and banished them from the cities or restricted the quarters where they could live. They also prohibited serving new masters. As ronin found themselves with fewer and fewer options, they joined in the Keian Uprising. This forced the shogunate to reorganize its policy. It relaxed restrictions on daimyo inheritance, resulting in fewer confiscations of fiefs; and it permitted ronin to join new masters.

Among the most famous ronin are Miyamoto Musashi, the famed swordsman, and the Forty-seven Ronin.
Not having the status or power of employed samurai, ronin were often disreputable, and the group was a target of disgrace or satire. It was undesirable to be a ronin, as it meant being without a stipend.

As an indication of the humiliation felt by samurai who became ronin, Lord Rosedale recorded that a ronin killed himself at the graves of the Forty-Seven Ronin. He left a note saying that he had tried to enter the service of the daimyo of the Chōshū Domain, but was refused. Wanting to serve no other master, and hating being a ronin, he had decided to kill himself.
On the other hand, the famous 18th century writer Kyokutei Bakin renounced his loyalty to Matsudaira Nobunari, in whose service Bakin’s samurai father had spent his life. Bakin became freely a ronin, and finally spent his time writing books (many of them about samurai).