Japan has always used suicide as a protest. In this 1703 film, a mercantile class transforms samurai society. Unscrupulous people took advantage of the unraveling social compact before the order was restored. Rich merchant offers his clerk an I.O.U. instead of salary. When the clerk gives the paper to the merchant at the agreed upon hour, the guy explodes into a rage and pretends he never wrote it, claiming the clerk is trying to scam him. His henchmen beat the clerk.