The book "Sepukku: history of samurai suicide" explores a morbidly multi-colored spectrum of a suicide tradition within the Japanese martial way; through expanding into the whole of the Japanese way of life it shows us that perhaps it is not suicide that we are looking at, but rather a spiritual tool used by different people of high birth in order to transition from this ego-driven, pain-afflicted human realm - transition with glamour, style and often in good humor, contrary to what one may percieve about the stomach-ripping action that the act of sepukku involves.
The evolution of sepukku was from the mere "ending of life" - to be done with it, to a highly ritualized process, which we will probably never fully understand. Really i have no way of knowing all of what it may ve entailed from the perspective of an inhabitant of the Japanese Isles (who is also a hereditary warrior), but i think the book does a really good job of exploring this without taxing the reader and remembering that being a guest one does not make rules of the house. That is, being conditioned in Judeo-Christian tradition one may think of self-life-ending as something horrific, or sinful or whatever - it is not that in the Japanese tradition, and perhaps the answer lies in the religious traditions of Japan (Shinto, various Buddhist sects, even Christianity), but it is very possible that it is not, and one rather needs to take a trip into that warrior mentality that bases everything on a will to overcome, which may simultaneoulsy be a desire to be perfect and to have everything perfect around you - as history shows a gross misjudgment of reality which leads to rather odd, morose consequences. Is that the glory by which you choose to be remembered?
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From the Publisher
Seppuku vs. Hara-kiri
The word hara-kiri has seldom been used in Japan, where seppuku is preferred both in speech and in print. Hara-kiri could be translated as “belly-cut” and seppuku as “cutting the stomach,” though these are imperfect approximations. While hara-kiri is sometimes dismissed as a vulgarism, it would be more accurate to say that seppuku is a polite euphemism. Seppuku is the more recent term, making its first appearance early in the 15th century and has been standard terminology since around 1600. The prevalence of the term hara-kiri is a result of its appearance in early accounts of Japan written by foreigners, to whom this word was more easily comprehensible than seppuku. Today the word hara-kiri is so exotic that some Japanese even assume it to be an import, a misreading by foreigners of the seppuku characters.
Image: Copy of woodblock print held by Tokyo Historiographical Institute
Seppuku Rituals
For centuries there was no ritual: warriors slashed their bellies in battle to avoid capture. In the 17th century a set of protocols was devised covering all aspects of seppuku: a table for the dagger, a white kimono for the condemned man, seating positions, rules for the swordsman who acted as executioner, candles and incense for atmosphere, etc. Decapitation was also part of the ritual. Medieval warriors learned that a cut to the stomach is not immediately fatal. It became standard practice for a friend or colleague to administer a death blow, usually by decapitation. By the 18th century, seppuku rituals were often performed without a stomach cut. In the famous tale of the 47 ronin who committed seppuku after avenging their late lord, the ronin did not actually cut their stomachs; they were beheaded after a symbolic ceremony. The belly-cutting version preserves their reputations – and makes a better story!
Image: Courtesy of Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of History
Seppuku and Japanese Nationalism
Seppuku (and the samurai class) had been abolished by the end of the 19th century, but nostalgia for samurai values endured. In 1871, after passage of a law ending judicial suicide, there was a period of mass suicides by belly-ripping – the last furious paroxysm of the samurai class. Military officers liked to think of themselves as modern samurai, and this led to some seppuku-style suicides among them. After Japan’s defeat in 1945, the Minister for War and the Head of the Special Attack Squadron both killed themselves by cutting their stomachs. The suicidal acts of WWII kamikaze pilots, while not belly-cutting, were related to seppuku. Medieval warriors, fearing a loss in battle, hurled themselves into enemy ranks to kill as many as possible before they died. Kamikaze pilots employed the same tactics. According to this ancient warrior ethic, there is no dishonor or weakness in dying; what matters is how you die.
Image: Copy of woodblock print held by Tokyo Historiographical Institute
Seppuku and Gender
The first reference to stomach-cutting in ancient Japanese texts describes the death of a female: the goddess Aomi is said to have committed suicide by stabbing herself in the stomach and leaping into a river. Samurai wives often assisted their husbands in their suicides, or died alongside them. Stories of samurai wives cutting their stomachs appear in texts from the Tokugawa period, but these are believed to be largely fictional. Seppuku legends helped reinforce the status of the samurai class during the long peace of the Tokugawa period. Women had little to gain from spectacular suicide. An examination of the seppuku tradition can offer insights into the psychology of self-destructive warriors and help us to understand why, even today, cults of violent martyrdom continue to exert such a strong pull on the male ego.
Image: Copyright National Diet Library, Tokyo
Seppuku in Historical Documents
The primary sources used in researching the book include ancient historical records, medieval battle histories, records of military households, reports by samurai doctors and execution supervisors, and various kinds of samurai texts. The difficulty lay not in obtaining the sources, but in disentangling fact from fiction. Some of the early battle histories describe warriors who continue fighting for several minutes after disemboweling themselves. Clearly such episodes cannot be taken at face value. Andrew Rankin avoided overtly fictional texts and concentrated on texts that claim to be factual, while pointing out to the reader the sometimes dubious nature of the evidence being presented.
Image: Copyright Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum of Waseda University
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