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For a street tough, being known is what protects him: strangers get looked down on, and the known man is treated as a hero. A public humiliation therefore threatens more than pride. It wipes out the standing he lives on, which is why he would rather stay locked in a cage for good than show his face.
An honour ritual meant to prove sincerity can be turned into leverage. Staging a ritual suicide, with the kimono off and the sword handed over, pressures others to back down, and it was used to dodge debts and punishment rather than to die.
Hereditary status does not feed a man who never gets an official post. A low samurai living on a meagre stipend fell back on dealing in swords, selling protection to shopkeepers, and living by muscle and wits. That left him consumed by money even while he explained his misdeeds.
With no learning and only bad friends, a person can lack any standard for telling right from wrong. He then takes his own excesses for the conduct of brave men. Only from much later, at forty-two, did he see that the bravado had been folly.
The reformed man measures his new righteousness by how dutiful others are to him: a filial son, devoted daughters, a wife who never crossed him. His lesson in harmony and compassion is still told from the head of the household's chair.
When a hereditary warrior class has no wars to fight and too few posts to fill, society comes to see it as parasitic. Its members then struggle to justify their place. One man's debts, defiance of superiors, and slide toward the urban underworld reflect these wider economic and social tensions.