He came to power as the protector of Honjowara Okido, who was then a child, and his mother, recently widowed by the very violence that had haunted the clan since its earliest beginnings. He shamed the gangsters for violating basic tenets of the clan, for doing violence to the wife and child of the oyabun, Honjowara -sama's father, and for other crimes, such as revealing secrets to enemies of the clan, and for having personal addictions to narcotics. He added to the gangsters' shame by reminding them of their ancestral ties to the feudal-era machi - yakko , who, though commoners, banded together to defend towns and villages, merchants and farmers, women and children, from maurauding bands of unemployed samurai warriors.