ever think that samuri kill themselves over shame a little easy sometimes? it just seem that every movie i watch one of them decides to slice himself up over something. I could understand killing youself after losing a battle, or failing to save you children or something, but isn't suicide over spilling you lunch a little much?
not only after losing a battle, if you have your katana taken and you still have your wakizaki, you kill yourself, if your (I can't remember the term, oba nobunga was one) feudal lord died you killed yourself, all sorts of conditions could bring about hara kiri consider how intense this society was, the word japanese tsujigiri means "to test a new sword on a chance passerby" intense....
also testing new katanas involved cutting up live criminals, there were large primers on the subject of keeping the victim alive as long as possible....
