1.Skill test
My first tothe was " yeeey, they keep roll and keep mechanic, only diffrece is symbols not numbers on the dices" . But then I read more. Why rings don't have body/spirit aspects? There are not pre-defined ring for anything you want to do /you can make anything havig just one high ring? D oes that mean that if i have Earth ring at 4 I'm resilient bushi, strong willed politican, great smith, etc. ?
After a few conversations with a friend I came to such thoughts. What makes a man a master in a given craft? The answer can be only one - long years of learning and practice. Good approach and personal qualities in favorable circumstances can significantly affect skills but will not replace them.
So here is what he suggests:
make skill a "keep die" and ring "roll die", change skll die to d6 and ring die to d12. Change simbols on a dices
D6 skill die
1. -
2. success
3. success
4. success
5. expl. success and strife (or normal success instead)
6. opportunity and strife

D12 ring die
1.-
2.-
3. success
4. success and opportunity
5. success and strife
6. expl. success
7. expl. success and strife
8. expl. success and strife
9. expl. success and strife
10. opportunity
11. opportunity and strife
12. opportunity and strife

A word of explanation.
As a "keep die" has an impact on the magnitude of the potential success. Skill gives you great chances of success (50%, 66% if count expl. succes) and small chances of strife (16%),
so it gives you a good foundation to be sure of the basics success. This is the "keep die" that tells you how well you perform your Giri and does not lose On. On the other hand you have a "roll die" of rings - it talks about your passions, inspiration, temperament and desires. It have 58% of success (33% of exploding) and 42% of strife - it gives you a chance for extraordinary success but at price of showing emoctions.
What do you think about these changes?

A little proposal in the topic of combat

Change basic TN of hiting in melee to 1 but add 1/2/3 if you have 1/3/5 rangs in hand to hand or melee skill . This is why samurai don't want peasant learn any kind of combat.