Seppuku the head could, both metaphorically and literally, rest in its owner's hands. Those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to carry out seppuku. Samurai generally could carry out the act only with permission. Sometimes a "daimyō" was called upon to perform seppuku as the basis of a peace agreement. This weakened the defeated clan so that resistance effectively ceased. Toyotomi Hideyoshi used an enemy's suicide in this way on several occasions, the most dramatic of which effectively ended a dynasty of "daimyōs". When the Hōjō were defeated at Odawara in 1590, Hideyoshi insisted
Code of the Clans a mini-story, Whitestorm teaches Firepaw, Graypaw, Ravenpaw, Sandpaw, and Dustpaw about border tactics.) Code Twelve begins when the RiverClan medicine cat, Graywing, and a couple of warriors see WindClan kits fall into the gorge. Graywing says that it is only WindClan's loss and there is nothing they can do. But the StarClan kits come to Graywing and tell her the importance of kits in a Clan and Graywing and the warriors get the kits' bodies out of the gorge. (In a mini-story, Tigerkit (Tigerstar as a kit) is saved by a couple of warriors from ShadowClan from a fox.) Code