I'm late to this party, but to everyone wondering why Shahai wasn't given clear orders: my take is that in Daiyu's mind, his orders were clear: teach the Seppun. But Shahai thought she saw some subtext that said, "Don't teach the Seppun". Hence her internal conflict.

Shahai comes across as someone who doesn't intuitively understand other people very well. She tries to make up for this by analyzing everybody, but that leads her to second-guess everyone's motivations, causing strife and misunderstandings with her siblings. It seems entirely in character that she'd misread her father, as well.

Unfortunately, Daiyu isn't likely to clarify his orders because he doesn't realize they've been misunderstood, and Shahai isn't so stupid as to send a letter asking, "Hey, should I actually obey the Emperor or not?"

47 minutes ago, Fumi said:

I'm late to this party, but to everyone wondering why Shahai wasn't given clear orders: my take is that in Daiyu's mind, his orders were clear: teach the Seppun. But Shahai thought she saw some subtext that said, "Don't teach the Seppun". Hence her internal conflict.

Shahai comes across as someone who doesn't intuitively understand other people very well. She tries to make up for this by analyzing everybody, but that leads her to second-guess everyone's motivations, causing strife and misunderstandings with her siblings. It seems entirely in character that she'd misread her father, as well.

Unfortunately, Daiyu isn't likely to clarify his orders because he doesn't realize they've been misunderstood, and Shahai isn't so stupid as to send a letter asking, "Hey, should I actually obey the Emperor or not?"

That's...a really good point. After rereading "A Most Suitable Teacher" it seems Ide Tadaji also came to the conclusion that Shahai would need to teach the Seppun, with the expectation that it would ostracize her from the clan for betraying their secrets.

Maybe we've collectively approached this the wrong way. The orders are clear: teach the Hidden Guard the secrets of meishodo. Shahai is intelligent (she's one of the most promising meishodo practitioners and considered a good candidate to teach, not just as a hostage). But she's young yet. Whereas Ide Tadaji - and possibly her own father - are resigned to the fate that has been thrust upon her, Shahai herself is too young to submit so readily. She's given up everything she knew to be brought to the Imperial Palace, and she's expected to essentially give up her clan for betraying their secrets. She knows what she is supposed to do, but she feels she needs to resist it, and in her own mind rationalizes it as the right thing to do...creating a conflict of choices when the sad fact is, she's the only one who sees any choice for her to make. And in that sense, her story is playing out in exactly the sort of classic samurai drama we should expect to see in this setting. Her duty is to teach the Hidden Guard the secrets of meishodo. Her desire is to not betray her clan's secrets and be cut off from her people, considered a traitor for the rest of her life.