Just skimming over what you have here, it looks great.

  When I have time I will take a more in

depth look into your school techniques and get back to you with my thoughts.  In the mean time,
here's a couple things.
Shields would have their own skill.  It will have skill masteries similar to the Tessen (war fan)
skill that is in the core book (giving you small additional TN bonuses based on skill level).
When using the shield as a weapon (shield bashing, fuck me I lost my axe moments, etc) it
would use the improvised weapons skill.
Rules for shields are in the Burning Sands books.  They cover the gaijin races surrounding
rokugan.  I will try to get what I have to fish or someone on a usb drive.
Flavor text and journals: fucking awesome.  I was pretty sure your character didn't have any
interest in serving the emerald magistrates on a permanent basis so I didn't quite know what to do
with you over the interim.  If you want to write a travel journal the time span will be about 4
months.  At the end of the 4 months I will either need to link up your character with one of the
other three groups, or we can just write you straight into the beginning of the next adventure. 
The other groups will be in the following locations:
Fish, Mike, and Kevin:  Oshima province in a village south-east of Cloud Water village (between
Phoenix, Crane and Lion lands).
Ted, Pat, and Keith:  In the Northern Phoenix lands on the border of the Isawa forest.
Miller: He will either end up in Ryoko Owari in northern Scorpion lands just south of Unicorn
lands, in southern Crane lands, or somewhere washed up on a river bank.
If you don't want to link up with another group, the next story will occur in Ryoko Owari.
The shield stats of 4/2 seem good as well as the +4 to athletics TNs.
Improvised weapons rules: yes.  Shield damage and knockdown bonus look correct.
I think that covers everything except for the techniques.  I will look at those when I have more
time.  I'm glad you're pumped about the character and campaign.  The next story will occur
closer to your clan provinces and will have prominent Unicorn elements featured in it.
Good job, I can't wait to see the journal.
So would the skill governing shield use be Improvised weapons or would it have it's own skill? Based on
what you sent me I would think improvised weapons would be the most appropriate. I mainly ask for
writing my kata and school skills/tech. Where these rules in one of the books or did you find it
elsewhere? I started working on the school techniques I would like to use. Most off them are adapted
from existing school techniques so that they don't get overpowered. I am also working writing a little
flavor text that would be my characters journal as to how he came about coming up with the techniques.
I will be getting these to you when I get it done. this will also be the basis for what my character is doing
in the interim between campaigns. the basic jest is he is traveling and studying what makes men good
defenders. So far for the tech. I have the following
Rank 1: add your skill with shields to your TN to be hit.  use and wield large weapons one handed
Rank 2: gain the large advantage for free or refund points and gain free raise for knockdown maneuver
Rank 3: gain second attack with large, improvised(for using shield as weapon) and samurai weapons
Rank 4: when in a defensive stance a number of times per skirmish equal to your(void ring or school
rank) after you have been attacked but before damage you may make a contested roll(not sure what role
should be used here) against the attack roll. if you win you immediately attack the source of the attack
negating the original attack. you may use raises for the increase damage maneuver.
Rank 5: ????
So this is what I have so far let me know if you have anything to add or any changes you think are
needed. like I said I tried to keep it in line with the rest of the game as possible but their is always a
tendency to gear up your own creations.
     As far as the shield goes I would like to engineer something in between the two examples you have.
So that would be +4 TN and +2 reduction. I think that this would put it in the size range to be used on
foot and horse back. I would also think that the penalty to athletics would be in the +4 TN area. Your
thoughts?
    I would also like to work on some rules for using a shield as an improvised weapon. I came up with
the following. Shield 0K2 confers free raise for knockdown maneuver (due to large amount of surface
area and weight increasing energy transfer)
Let me know what you think about all this, I know it's a lot. I am pretty excited about the campaign and
this character. Also I am totally in for the little mini prologue prior to us starting again.

Shield fighting techniques can be learned from the Yodotai (similar to Greeks/Romans) fighting
with large round shields called Parma, or large rectangular shields called Scutum.  Shields use
the "wielding two weapons" rules for penalties to attack rolls and confer a penalty to athletics
depending on the size/weight of the shield.  Shields provide an additional TN bonus (on top of
the dual wielding bonus) as well as a small reduction bonus.
Parma: +3 TN, +1 reduction
Scutum: +5 TN, +3 reduction