💥Jazzy💥

my first piece of evidence for this, and the most obvious, imo, is both jin and shimura's reactions when shimura hits jin after jin defies him for the first time at castle shimura:

from shimura's reaction, he knows IMMEDIATELY that he fucked up. it's truly an "oh shit, we're never coming back from this" moment. and jin's look of betrayal is so potent. my feeling is that shimura knew about kazumasa's abuse and tried to shield jin from it as much as possible, which is one of the reasons why they became so close later. so shimura hitting jin in that moment defies the very basis of their loving uncle-nephew dynamic, AND it gives extra strength to jin's later pronouncement: "i am not your son. i am the ghost."

potential translation: "i won't let you treat me the way my father did. i'm breaking out of this inherently abusive system. fuck you."

more evidence is jin's dialogue with masako in the tale "the family man": they're looking for kajiwara, a man who purportedly abused his wife and daughter

masako laments that the wife and daughter returned to kajiwara even after she provided them with refuge from him. jin, in contrast to masako's disbelief, responds with understanding:

"it's not always easy [to leave your abuser]. especially when you think they'll change."

he could have said: "it must not be easy," or "it must be hard"; but no, he seems to be speaking with authority here; he has lived it, he understands it from personal experience. he knows how it is to love and respect someone while fearing them, to want to get away from them but to be unable to--especially as a child who was repeatedly told that he should honor his father, that he was his father's heir, that one day jin would be the next lord of clan sakai and that he should look to his father for guidance

then, when masako and jin finally confront kajiwara, he admits to killing his wife and daughter; jin, usually very stoic, is furious to the point that even masako (the impulsive one) has to hold him back

i used to think this emotional reaction was just a product of jin's commitment to shimura's "code" breaking apart by this point in the story, but now i wonder if it isn't also something more...