A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
A player, 16 April 2012
A: If I grant an ability to a card, does it inherit all of its keywords (such as dropping two spirit of shadows on a thunder shugenja, is the granted ability a thunder action?)
B: If Fukuzo copies an ability with a keyword, does he copy any keywords associated with that ability? 1. in the above instance, should he target said shugenja later, does he copy ninja if he grabs the spirit of shadows ability because it is a 'ninja battle' or does he have to actually copy 'ninja' as a keyword and not part of the ability itself. 2. what about thunder? (possibly irrelevant based on answer to 'A'. We're going to assume he didn't take 'thunder' from the personality) This is more aimed to if he targeted a base ability on a card with base keyword ninja but doesn't copy 'ninja' specifically, is it still a 'ninja action'?
Fukuzo
Open: Remove a target Personality in any player's discard pile from the game: Fukuzo wears his skin. Until the next time this game this ability is used, Fukuzo copies one keyword, and one ability that does not itself copy abilities, from the Personality.
Spirit of the shadows
Limited: Choose your performing unbowed Personality: If he is a Ninja, permanently give him the ability, "Ninja Battle: Target two Personalities controlled by the same player at different locations: Switch their locations." Otherwise, permanently give him Ninja.
rules.l5r.com
An ability also has any keywords that are on its card. Example: An ability on a Ninja card is a Ninja ability.
An ability, a trait or a keyword on a card is one either printed on the card, or granted to it by some effect.
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 17 April 2012
A: If I grant an ability to a card, does it inherit all of its keywords (such as dropping two spirit of shadows on a thunder shugenja, is the granted ability a thunder action?)
B: If Fukuzo copies an ability with a keyword, does he copy any keywords associated with that ability? 1. in the above instance, should he target said shugenja later, does he copy ninja if he grabs the spirit of shadows ability because it is a 'ninja battle' or does he have to actually copy 'ninja' as a keyword and not part of the ability itself. 2. what about thunder? (possibly irrelevant based on answer to 'A'. We're going to assume he didn't take 'thunder' from the personality) This is more aimed to if he targeted a base ability on a card with base keyword ninja but doesn't copy 'ninja' specifically, is it still a 'ninja action'?
Fukuzo
Spirit of the shadows
rules.l5r.com
Under discussion.
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 20 April 2012
And we have an answer!
Investigation into this issue on the part of the Rules Team discovered that parts of the Copying Abilities section of the Wiki had not been properly updated during the EE changeover. That has now been remedied and the relevant section reads:
Copying Abilities:
"[A] copied ability has all keywords that are part of the base source ability itself, and all keywords inherited from the source's card.
Example 1: A Ninja Personality copies a Tactical Battle ability from a Lion Clan Samurai Personality. The copied ability would have the Ninja keyword from the card it is now "on", its Tactical keyword, and (ableit mechanically pointlessly so) the Lion Clan and Samurai keywords. Example 2: A Shadowlands Personality copies an action from a Unique Air Spell. The copied ability would have the Shadowlands keyword from the card it is now "on", the Air keyword, and (again, rather mechanically pointlessly) the Unique keyword.
NOTE: Those keywords are ONLY a part of the ability. They do not transfer up to the copying card itself. In Example 1, the Ninja would NOT be "Lion Clan" or a "Samurai", and in Example 2, the Shadowlands Personality would NOT be "Air" or "Uniqiue"."
So, in your examples, Fukuzo's copy of the abilities carries with it all keywords from itself and its original card. A Ninja action he/she/it copies is still a Ninja action, and a Thunder action he/she/it copies is still a Thunder action. HOWEVER, just because Fukuzo has a Ninja or Thunder ability, he/she/it is NOT a Ninja, and is NOT Thunder just for having such an ability. That is why he/she/it has a separate effect to also directly copy a keyword from the target.