Thanks to the shogunate's ruthless policy of wiping out the provincial lords,
countless samurai lost their masters
and were cast out to wander the depths of hell.
How can those who never wanted for food or clothing understand their misery?
After all, this thing we call samurai honor
is ultimately nothing but a fa�ade.
He may have been a samurai,
but he was also a man of flesh and blood.
He could not live on air alone.
Why do you delay?
Draw your blade across! Pull it to the right!
I suppose he had no other recourse,
but even so, to bite off his tongue?
Would you say he was being resourceful, or just unseemly?
Whatever the differences in skill,
for a samurai to have his topknot taken
is the same as having his head stricken off.
It is an ineptitude, a disgrace,
that can scarcely be atoned for even by death.
The House of Iyi has no retainers
who could be felled or wounded by some half-starved ronin.
Former retainer of the Fukushima Clan, Hanshiro Tsugumo,
committed seppuku honorably, according to his wish.
All our men died of illness.
Their deaths have nothing to do with Tsugumo's.