Shiba Hirobumi was a shugenja of the Phoenix Clan. He was the twin brother of Shiba Hiroshisa, and both walked in the footsteps of their famous shugenja grandfather, one of the few to serve on the Council of Elemental Masters without blood ties to the Isawa. They had a older sister, Shiba Namika, who had not inherited their magical gifts and evemntually escorted them as their yojimbo. Their father was a low-ranking scribe of the Phoenix Clan Champion, and their mother was a gifted and inventive sculptor.