A lot of Star Wars players have replaced Range Bands with Zones. It's a pretty clean conversion in that game, it makes keeping track of positioning easier, and it allows easier tagging of terrain. Anyone in the same Zone as you is at Short range, and you can just put your figures together to indicate Engaged.
This would be pretty darn easy in L5R except for one thing: Range 0. I get what they're going for. If you have a knife, trying to close in on a guy with a katana is going to be dangerous. On the flip side of the coin, if you're wrestling an enemy, that knife is going to be a lot easier to stick in his ribs than a 3' sword.
However, it seems to me that an extra range band is more of a pain to overcome mechanically than it should be. Near as I can tell, if I'm in spear range to an enemy, (so, in the same Zone, but not directly engaged), and all I have is a knife, Water stance is my only option to attack, regardless of what they're armed with (aside from Kata). I know Water is the movement stance, but this is just crossing a room. Thematically, Air of Fire should do that pretty well.
I'm trying to think of a simple way to make engagement a single move, but reflect the advantages of different weapon lengths. Increase the TN by one? Require an Opportunity?