SEPPUKU “hara-kiri”

Japan’s ritual suicide

"Live briefly but gloriously, One's evanescent life is but a preparation for death. The fall of the blossom is as moving as its beauty on the limb and the final moment, as ceremonialized in the ritual of seppuku, is indeed the moment of truth"

(From Jack Seward's "Hara-Kiri"- TUT 1968)

• Introduction• Exposition• Analysis• Conclusion

What is “seppuku”?

Seppuku also called “hara-kiri”, (belly-cutting), the honourable method of taking one’s own life practiced by men of the samurai (military) class in feudal Japan.

The word "seppuku" comes from the words setsu, meaning "to cut," and fuku meaning "abdomen."

TWO KINDS OF SEPPUKU

Voluntary seppuku

Obligatory seppuku

Voluntary seppuku was

performed out of the samurai’s will to

avoid the dishonour of capture, to

protest against some policy of a

superior, to atone for failure or to

show loyalty to one's lord “daimyo”

by following him into death.

Obligatory seppuku was a

method of capital punishment for a

samurai who broke rules, they are

obliged to perform seppuku.

A samurai about to perform seppuku.(left to right) a samurai, a kaishakunin and spectators

The art of seppuku

The first thing to do is to recruit an assistant, a kaishakunin.

Contrary to what is thought, almost all forms of seppuku do not technically

involve suicide, but merely inflicting fatal injury upon oneself. The

kaishakunin does the actual killing. If one is ordered to commit seppuku by

the bafuku (shogunal government), it will generally appoint its own

kaishakunin. Otherwise, one should ask a great iaijutsuka (practitioner of

the technique of killing with a single sword stroke) or a close personal

friend to be one’s kaishakunin. If asked out of friendship, one may refuse on

the grounds that one’s waza (sword technique) is inadequate; if the request

is repeated, however, one should consent gracefully, as flaws in technique

will be forgiven (by the living).

Seppuku is ideally committed by in a garden or a Buddhist temple

(Shinto temples should not be defiled by death). The participant dresses

in white, to express purity of intention and sits in the seiza position (legs

drawn up under the body so that one is actually sitting on one’s heels). A

servant places the sanbo (an unlacquered wooden table) before one. It

will contain a sake cup, a sheaf of washi (paper handmade from mulberry

bark) and writing accoutrements, and the kozuka (disemboweling blade).

This can be a tanto (dagger) blade without hilt, wrapped in several sheets

of paper to provide a better grip. Real samurai, however, use their own

wakizashi. If one is of tender years, or judged too dangerous to be trusted

with steel, a fan may be substituted for an actual blade.

One then writes a death poem in the waka style (five lines of

five, seven, seven, five, and seven syllables). The poem should be

graceful, natural, and about transient emotions. Under no means should

it mention that the fact you are about to die.

At this point, the person slips out of his outer garment

(kamishimo) and tucks the sleeves under his knees to prevent him from

doing something undignified like slumping to one side. He picks up the

kozuka, and with his other hand picks up the sanbo and places it under

his buttocks, to cause him to lean forward slightly in the proper attitude.

If the person committing is so young that a fan has been

substituted for a blade, the kaishakunin executes a kirioroshi strike (a

vertical cut) as soon as the person committing seppuku touches the fan

to his stomach. Otherwise, he will typically wait until the person

plunges the blade deep into the left side of his belly, and draws it

across to the right, with a sharp upward cut at the end. A samurai who

feels himself capable may then plunge the blade into his groin and cut

upwards to the sternum, followed by a horizontal cut at the base of

the rib cage. However, the kaishakunin is supposed to keep a sharp eye

out, and strike at the first sign of pain or hesitation in his principle.

The kirioroshi, incidentally, was not intended to actually sever

the head, but to leave it attached by a strip of skin at the throat. It was

considered infra dig for one’s principal’s head to go spinning across the

room, spraying blood as it went; only low-class criminals were treated

thus. Especially one should not whack one’s principal in the jaw with

the katana, as Yukio Mishima’s kaishakunin did in 1970. As noted

above, minor imperfections in one’s waza would be forgiven if one was

acting as kaishakunin out of friendship, but acting in such a piss-poor

manner gets one talked about, and not in a good way.

After the person committing seppuku is finally decapitated, the

sanbo, the kozuka, and the katana are all discarded as being defiled by

death.

Incidentally, some samurai did kill themselves, in the ritual

known as jumonji giri. This is just like seppuku, except that there is no

kaishakunin. After disemboweling yourself, you sat quietly and bled to

death over the next half-hour or so. The last person to do this

historically was General Nogi, who did it as junshi (following one’s lord

in death) on the death of the Meiji emperor in 1912. He not only

committed jumonji giri, he buttoned up his white naval blouse

afterwards.

How is seppuku performed?

The proper method of performing seppuku was to plunge a short sword into the left side of the abdomen, draw the blade across to the right, and then turn it upward. It was considered exemplary form to stab again below the chest and press downward across the first cut, and then to pierce one’s throat. . The samurai will be decapitated by a second or “Kaishakunin” once he had made an initial stab wound himself. Being an extremely painful and slow means of suicide, it was favoured as an effective way to demonstrate the courage, self-control, and strong resolve of the samurai and to prove sincerity of purpose

Why commit seppuku?

Samurai committed seppuku for a number of reasons, in accordance with bushido, the samurai code of conduct. Motivations could include personal shame due to cowardice in battle, shame over a dishonest act, or loss of sponsorship from a daimyo. Oftentimes, samurai who were defeated but not killed in battle would be allowed to commit suicide in order to regain their honor.

In battles, there usually wasn’t time for the whole ritual, so expedients as cutting one’s own throat, throwing oneself from a running horse with a sword in one’s mouth, or flinging oneself off high walls, towers, or cliffs were winked at. In 1516, Muira Yoshimoto committed suicide by cutting off his own head.

Reasons for committing Seppuku

Sometimes, particularly during the Tokugawa shogunate, seppuku was used as a judicial punishment. Daimyo could order their samurai to commit suicide for real or perceived infractions. Likewise, the shogun could demand that a daimyo commit seppuku.

Reasons for committing Seppuku

References:

•The Aikido FAQ The Ritual of Seppukuby Wayne Muromoto, publisher: Furyu the Budo Journal

•The fine art of seppukuhttp://netcomments.co.uk/cgi-bin/comments.cgi?id=com19

• Seppuku by Kallie Szczepanski Asian History Expert © 2014 About.com

• Seppuku - A Practical Guide. By Nick May

• SeppukuAlternate title: hara-kiriWritten by The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica

Sayonara! Arigato gozaimasu minna!

~Zai-chan

Socio-Cultural Anthropology

JAPANESE CULTURE OF RITUAL SUICIDE (SEPPUKU)

Prepared by:Rizza Mae Palen Go BSEd 3.1

SAMURAIThe word samurai originally meant

“one who serves,” and referred to men of noble birth assigned to guard members of the Imperial Court during feudal Japan. A samurai’s life is devoted mostly to developing and perfecting skills in swordsmanship and archery. Their chief symbols were his two swords – one long and one short.