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Seppuku (ese Ritual Suicide by Disembowelment . Seppuku is also known in English as '''hara-kiri''' (腹切り) and is written with the same Kanji as ''seppuku'' but in reverse order with an Okurigana . In Japanese, ''hara-kiri'' is considered a colloquial and somewhat vulgar term. The practice of committing seppuku at the death of one's master is known as '''oibara''' (追腹 or 追い腹); the ritual is similar. OVERVIEW Seppuku was a key part of Bushido , the code of the Samurai warriors; it was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands, and to attenuate shame. Samurai could also be ordered by their Daimyo (feudal lords) to commit seppuku. Later disgraced warriors were sometimes allowed to commit seppuku rather than be executed in the normal manner. Since the main point of the act was to restore or protect one's honor as a warrior, those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to commit seppuku. Samurai women could only commit the act with permission. In his book ''The Samurai Way of Death, Samurai: The World of the Warrior'' (ch.4), Dr. Stephen Turnbull states:
Sometimes a Daimyo was called upon to perform seppuku as the basis of a peace agreement. This would weaken the defeated clan so that resistance would effectively cease. Toyotomi Hideyoshi used an enemy's suicide in this way on several occasions, the most dramatic of which effectively ended a dynasty of daimyo forever, when the Hojo were defeated at Odawara in 1590. Hideyoshi insisted on the suicide of the retired daimyo Hojo Ujimasa , and the exile of his son Ujinao . With one sweep of a sword the most powerful daimyo family in eastern Japan disappeared from history. RITUAL '' prepared for ''seppuku'']] ''. Here, the wife of Onodera Junai, one of the Forty-seven Ronin , prepares for her suicide; note the legs tied together, a female feature of seppuku to ensure a "decent" posture in death]] In time, committing seppuku came to involve a detailed ritual. Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special cloths, the warrior would prepare for death by writing a Death Poem . With his selected attendant ( Kaishakunin , his second) standing by, he would open his Kimono (clothing), take up his Wakizashi (short sword) or a Tanto (knife) and plunge it into his abdomen, making first a left-to-right cut and then a second slightly upward stroke to spill out the Intestine s. On the second stroke, the kaishakunin would perform ''daki-kubi'', a cut in which the warrior is all but Decapitate d (a slight band of flesh is left attaching the head to the body). Because of the precision necessary for such a maneuver, the second was often a skilled swordsman. The principal agrees in advance when the kaishaku makes his cut, usually as soon as the dagger is plunged into the abdomen. The second was usually, but not always, a friend. If a defeated warrior had fought honorably and well, an opponent who wanted to salute his bravery would volunteer to act as his second. In the '' Hagakure ,'' Yamamoto Tsunetomo wrote:
Some samurai chose to perform a considerably more taxing form of seppuku known as ''jūmonji-giri'' (十文字切り, lit. "cross-shaped cut"), in which there is no kaishakunin to put a quick end to the samurai's suffering. It involves a second and more painful vertical cut across the belly. A samurai performing ''jumonji-giri'' was expected to bear his suffering quietly until perishing from loss of blood. SEPPUKU AS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT While the voluntary seppuku described above is the best known form and has been widely admired and idealized, in practice the most common form of seppuku was obligatory seppuku, used as a form of Capital Punishment for disgraced samurai. If the sentenced was uncooperative, it was not unheard of for them to be restrained, or for the actual execution to be carried out by decapitation while retaining only the trappings of seppuku; even the short sword laid out in front of the victim could be replaced with a fan. Unlike voluntary seppuku, seppuku carried out as capital punishment did not necessarily absolve the victim's family of the crime. Depending on the severity of the crime, half or all of the deceased's property could be confiscated, and the family stripped of rank. THE WESTERN EXPERIENCE The first recorded time a Westerner saw formal seppuku was the "Sakai Incident" of 1868 . On February 15 , twenty French sailors of the '' Dupleix '' entered a Japanese town called Sakai without official permission. Their presence caused panic among the residents. Security forces were dispatched to turn the sailors back to their ship, but a fight broke out and 11 sailors were shot dead. Upon the protest of the French representative, compensation of 15,000 yen was paid and those responsible were sentenced to death. The French captain was present to observe the execution. As each samurai committed ritual disembowelment, the gruesome nature of the act shocked the captain, and he requested a pardon, due to which nine of the samurai were spared. This incident was dramatized in a famous short story, ''Sakai Jiken'', by Mori Ogai . In the 1860s, The British Ambassador to Japan, Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford (Lord Redesdale) lived within eyesight of Sengaku-ji where the Forty-seven Ronin are buried. In his book ''Tales of Old Japan'', he describes a man who had come to the graves to kill himself: I will add one anecdote to show the sanctity which is attached to the graves of the Forty-seven. In the month of September 1868, a certain man came to pray before the grave of Oishi Chikara. Having finished his prayers, he deliberately performed hara-kiri, {Link without Title} and, the belly wound not being mortal, dispatched himself by cutting his throat. Upon his person were found papers setting forth that, being a Ronin and without means of earning a living, he had petitioned to be allowed to enter the clan of the Prince of Choshiu, which he looked upon as the noblest clan in the realm; his petition having been refused, nothing remained for him but to die, for to be a Ronin was hateful to him, and he would serve no other master than the Prince of Choshiu: what more fitting place could he find in which to put an end to his life than the graveyard of these Braves? This happened at about two hundred yards' distance from my house, and when I saw the spot an hour or two later, the ground was all bespattered with blood, and disturbed by the death-struggles of the man. Mitford also describes his friend's eyewitness account of a Seppuku: There are many stories on record of extraordinary heroism being displayed in the hara-kiri. The case of a young fellow, only twenty years old, of the Choshiu clan, which was told me the other day by an eye-witness, deserves mention as a marvellous instance of determination. Not content with giving himself the one necessary cut, he slashed himself thrice horizontally and twice vertically. Then he stabbed himself in the throat until the dirk protruded on the other side, with its sharp edge to the front; setting his teeth in one supreme effort, he drove the knife forward with both hands through his throat, and fell dead. During the Meiji Restoration , the Tokugawa Shogun's aide committed Seppuku: One more story and I have done. During the revolution, when the Tycoon , beaten on every side, fled ignominiously to Yedo , he is said to have determined to fight no more, but to yield everything. A member of his second council went to him and said, “Sir, the only way for you now to retrieve the honour of the family of Tokugawa is to disembowel yourself; and to prove to you that I am sincere and disinterested in what I say, I am here ready to disembowel myself with you.” The Tycoon flew into a great rage, saying that he would listen to no such nonsense, and left the room. His faithful retainer, to prove his honesty, retired to another part of the castle, and solemnly performed the hara-kiri. In his book ''Tales of Old Japan'', Mitford describes witnessing a hara-kiri {Link without Title} :
SEPPUKU IN MODERN JAPAN Seppuku as judicial punishment was officially abolished in 1873, shortly after the Meiji Restoration , but voluntary seppuku did not completely die out. Dozens of people are known to have committed seppuku since then, including a large group of military men who committed suicide in 1895 as a protest against the return of a conquered territory to China ; by General Nogi and his wife on the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912; and by numerous soldiers and civilians who chose to die rather than surrender at the end of World War II . In 1970, famed author Yukio Mishima and one of his followers committed public seppuku at the Japan Self-Defense Forces headquarters after an unsuccessful attempt to incite the armed forces to stage a Coup D'etat . Mishima committed seppuku in the office of General Kanetoshi Mashita . His second, a 25-year-old named Morita, tried three times to ritually behead Mishima but failed; his head was finally severed by Hiroyasu Koga . Morita then attempted to commit seppuku himself. Although his own cuts were too shallow to be fatal, he gave the signal and he too was beheaded by Koga. Some believe the 1990 suicide of the father of Japanese serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki should be considered seppuku. In 1999, Masaharu Nonaka, a 58 year old employee of Bridgestone in Japan, slashed his belly with a Sashimi Knife to protest his forced retirement. He died later in the hospital. This Suicide was dubbed ''risutora'' (downsizing/lay-off) ''seppuku'' by the mass media, and was said to represent the difficulties in Japan following the collapse of the Bubble Economy . WELL-KNOWN PEOPLE WHO COMMITTED SEPPUKU IN POP CULTURE Seppuku features prominently in Western depictions of pre-Meiji Japan in books, movies, videogames, etc. such as ''''. In American media, particular television and film from the 1940s-1960s era, the term "hara-kiri" was often mispronounced and misromanized as "Harry Carry". (See, for example, the TV series '' McHale's Navy ''). In the 1980s, it was morphed to "Harry Caray", due to the popularity of the eponymous Baseball Announcer . In the World War II era Propaganda Film '' Across The Pacific '', Japanese agent Dr. Lorenz, played by Sydney Greenstreet , attempts to commit seppuku when his plot to sabotage the Panama Canal is foiled by Humphrey Bogart 's Rick Leland. His nerve fails, and he is captured instead. In the manga/anime '' Ranma ½ '', Genma promised his wife Nodoka that he would raise his son Ranma to be a man among men. If he failed, both he and Ranma would commit seppuku. Ranma falls into a cursed spring that causes him to turn into a girl when splashed with cold water, and Genma (who changes into a panda with cold water) hides Ranma and himself whenever Nodoka comes around. Ranma often called him/herself Ranko to spend time with his mother, although she doesn't find out until late in the manga. Eventually Nodoka finds out and declares Ranma to be a man despite the curse, so no one had to commit seppuku. Raymond Feist 's fictional realm of Tsuranuanni is based on the real-world Japan and also has the concept of seppuku, but not by that name. For the most part, seppuku is depicted in popular culture as marking a true warrior's ethos and the (stereotypical) mystical Eastern understanding of death. The Dutiful Suicide of seppuku is often seen as a uniquely Japanese cultural trait, although the Western tradition has its share of historical figures who have killed themselves when facing dishonor, death or both at the hands of their enemies. In Raymond Benson 's James Bond book '' The Man With The Red Tattoo '', the main villain, ''Yami Shogun'' Goro Yoshida commits seppuku just before Bond could capture him. Yasutake Tsukamoto, Yakuza leader and Yoshida's secundant, tells Bond that Yoshida won, because he "robbed Bond of the ultimate victory". Bond tells Tsukamoto that he does not care about it, because "he's bloody dead and that's all that matters." In Giacomo Puccini 's opera, Madame Butterfly , the heroine Cio-cio-san, commits Seppuku at the end of the final act. Unit leaders in computer strategy game '''' may commit seppuku if the units they command are defeated in combat too many times. In the computer game '''' ('' Firebird Software '', 1988), game character '' Usagi Yojimbo '' automatically commits seppuku when dishonorable actions performed by the player make ''karma counter'' reach zero. In the computer game '' Warcraft III '' the Night Elf demon hunter, Illidan , commits ritual suicide as part of his death animation. Microprose's 1989 role-playing/strategy game '' Sword Of The Samurai '' allowed a character to commit seppuku following any sudden loss of honor, usually after being captured or recognized whilst attempting murder or treachery against his lord or feudal rivals. At the initial Samurai and Hatamoto levels, this 'option' presents as a capital punishment handed down by the player's lord; anything short of immediate compliance would see the character and his family (including any heirs) hunted down and executed. In the later stages of the game, Daimyo -ranked characters so dishonored were given the option to commit seppuku but were under no compulsion to do so beyond the strategic disadvantages arising from dishonor. In the fighting game series '' Tekken '' and '' Soul Calibur '', the character Yoshimitsu has a move (the "Turning Suicide") wherin he turns away from the enemy and stabs his sword through his stomach and out his back. If the sword connects with Yoshimitsu's opponent, it causes devastating damage to them, and minor damage to Yoshimitsu himself. However, if it misses, it drains half of Yoshimitsu's life. In the action/stealth video game '''' the antagonist, Admiral Toshiro Otomo, wishes for Japan to once again assume the mantle of imperialism and tries to lure the USA and the Koreas into war. When Otomo's plan falls through, he commits seppuku in front of Sam Fisher rather than be brought to justice. In a ironic twist however, Otomo is saved by Fisher and he is brought to justice. In the action/stealth videogame "", Lord Ghoda orders his ninja to execute a corrupt minister named Kataoka. If the player confronts him as Ayame, he refuses to be insulted by a woman and they fight to the death. But as Rikimaru, Kataoka respects Ghoda's request to be killed and commits seppuku, with Rikimaru acting as his second. The cult website realultimatepower.net describes a darkly hilarious method of committing seppuku by swallowing a Frisbee . Ninja Burger 's website ninjaburger.com , a parody of fast food delivery services, states on their webpage: ''Guaranteed delivery in 30 minutes or less, or we commit Seppuku!'' In the American film '' Harold And Maude '', the character Harold, a young man obsessed with death, fakes his own suicide in a multitude of ways. At one point, he brings out a blade and educates a woman in the art of "hara-kiri" before going through with the (faked) ritual. Seppuku is depicted twice on the American film '' The Last Samurai '', at the beginning of the movie after the general of the Japanese newly formed army faces defeat in the hands of Katsumoto's (played by Ken Watanabe ) forces, and later, near the end of the film, with Katsumoto committing seppuku after his army is killed to the last man (all but Nathan Algren, played by Tom Cruise ). In the first instance, we see Katsumoto in the role of kaishaku, beheading General Hasegawa to quickly end his suffering. This action comes as a shock to Algren, who sees it as a barbaric form of execution. Finally, defeated on the battlefield it is Algren who helps Katsumoto to end his life with honor by pushing the dagger all the way into his friend's stomach. In Internet culture, there is a type of 'scavenger hunt' game known as Google Seppuku , where participants type in a (usually Japanese) word or phrase into Google's image search tool, and look for the most disturbing picture among them. The name derives from the fact that, like modern-day beliefs of committing seppuku, the participants are willfully submitting themselves to something inexplicably awful and painful for glory and honor (in this case, finding the most disturbing picture on the internet that no one can top). The animated television show '' Drawn Together '' aired an episode " Captain Girl " on February 1, 2006 in which the character Ling-Ling committed seppuku after losing a game of "Not-It!" to decide who would impregnate Toot Braunstein. In the Playstation videogame, '' Bushido Blade '', the player can commit seppuku on their own character. It serves no actual function in the game other than adding authenticity. In The Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny the character winner commits seppuku. Seppuku is a common theme in the manga Gin Tama SEE ALSO FURTHER READING
:"That the custom of following a master in death is wrong and unprofitable is a caution which has been at times given of old; but, owing to the fact that it has not actually been prohibited, the number of those who cut their belly to follow their lord on his decease has become very great. For the future, to those retainers who may be animated by such an idea, their respective lords should intimate, constantly and in very strong terms, their disapproval of the custom. If, notwithstanding this warning, any instance of the practice should occur, it will be deemed that the deceased lord was to blame for unreadiness. Henceforward, moreover, his son and successor will be held to be blameworthy for incompetence, as not having prevented the suicides."
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