How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from the Japanese to English translated subtitles of Seven Samurai.
Quote #7
KIKUCHIYO: What are you making?
HEIHACHI: A banner.
KIKUCHIYO: A banner?
HEIHACHI: Something to hold up, hoist high. You know: something to stir our fighting spirit.
Identity in banner form: a neat idea. Heihachi's idea entails giving them all a new, shared, sense of identity. The banner unites them, and whoever they may have been, it shows them what they are now… and what they need to do if they want to survive.
Quote #8
KIKUCHIYO: This baby. It's me! The same thing happened to me!
You can argue that Kikuchiyo can't really become a samurai until this moment: when he admits who he is and embraces it with sympathy for himself. He still has a few things to learn, but that's a big step towards becoming the samurai he wants to be.
Quote #9
KATSUSHIRO: He has the real samurai spirit. He is totally fearless. Yet, at the same time, he is gentle, and modest: look how he acted after we went and got that gun. And how he went too, just as though he were going up into the hills to look for mushrooms.
Like Kambei, Kyuzo knows exactly who he is, and finds peace in that. He's unaffected by the bad things going on in this world, and his actions are entirely based around that self-knowledge. The film sees a lot to admire in him, though it also acknowledges that such perfect self-awareness isn't necessarily going to save you.