Often called “hara-kiri” in the West, “seppuku” is a form of ritual suicide that originated with Japan’s ancient samurai warrior class. It is the honorable method of taking one’s own life.
The grisly act typically involved stabbing oneself in the belly with a short sword, slicing open the stomach, and then turning the blade upwards to ensure a fatal wound.
Some practitioners of seppuku allowed themselves to die slowly, but they usually enlisted the help of a “kaishakunin,” or second, who would lop off their head with a katana as soon as they made their initial cut.
The entire process was accompanied by a great ceremony. Among other rituals, the doomed individual often drank sake and composed a short “death poem” before taking up the blade.
The proper method for committing the act—developed over several centuries—was to plunge a short sword into the left side of the abdomen, draw the blade laterally across to the right, and then turn it upward.
It was considered an exemplary form to stab again below the sternum and press downward across the first cut and then to pierce one’s throat.
Being an extremely painful and slow means of suicide, it was favored under Bushidō (warrior code) as an effective way to demonstrate the courage, self-control, and strong resolve of the samurai and to prove the sincerity of purpose.
Women of the samurai class also committed ritual suicide, called jigai, but, instead of slicing the abdomen, they slashed their throats with a short sword or dagger.
There were two forms of seppuku: voluntary and obligatory. Voluntary seppuku evolved during the wars of the 12th century as a method of suicide used frequently by warriors who, defeated in battle, chose to avoid the dishonor of falling into the hands of the enemy.
Occasionally, a samurai performed seppuku to demonstrate loyalty to his lord by following him in death, to protest against some policy of a superior or of the government, or to atone for failure in his duties.
Seppuku first developed in the 12th century as a means for samurai to achieve an honorable death. Swordsmen performed the ritual to avoid capture following battlefield defeats, but it also functioned as a means of protest and a way of expressing grief over the death of a revered leader.
Beginning in the 1400s, seppuku evolved into a common form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed crimes. In each case, it was considered an act of extreme bravery and self-sacrifice that embodied Bushido, the ancient warrior code of the samurai.
There was even a female version of seppuku called “jigai,” which involved cutting the throat using a special knife known as a “tanto.” There have been numerous instances of voluntary seppuku in modern Japan.
One of the most widely known involved a number of military officers and civilians who committed the act in 1945 as Japan faced defeat at the end of World War II.
Another well-known occurrence was in 1970 when the novelist Mishima Yukio disemboweled himself as a means of protest against what he believed was the loss of traditional values in the country.
Obligatory seppuku refers to the method of capital punishment for samurai to spare them the disgrace of being beheaded by a common executioner.
That practice was prevalent from the 15th century until 1873 when it was abolished. Great emphasis was placed on the proper performance of the ceremony.
The ritual was usually carried out in the presence of a witness (kenshi) sent by the authority issuing the death sentence. The prisoner was usually seated on two tatami mats, and behind him stood a second (kaishakunin), usually a relative or friend, with sword drawn. A small table bearing a short sword was placed in front of the prisoner.
A moment after he stabbed himself, the second struck off his head. It was also common practice for the second to decapitate him at the moment that he reached out to grasp the short sword, his gesture symbolizing that the death was by seppuku. Perhaps the best-known instance of obligatory seppuku is tied to the story of the 47 rōnin, which dates to the early 18th century.
The incident, famous in Japanese history, relates how the samurai, made masterless (rōnin) by the treacherous murder of their lord (daimyo), Asano Naganori, avenged his death by assassinating the daimyo Kira Yoshinaka (a retainer of the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi), whom they held responsible for Asano’s murder.
Afterward, the shogun ordered all the participating samurai to commit seppuku. The story soon became the basis of the popular and enduring Kabuki drama Chūshingura, and it later was depicted in numerous other plays, motion pictures, and novels.
Seppuku fell out of favor with the decline of the samurai in the late-19th century, but the practice didn’t disappear entirely. Japanese General Nogi Maresuke disemboweled himself in 1912 out of loyalty to the deceased Meiji Emperor, and many troops later chose the sword over surrender during World War II.
Perhaps the most famous case in recent history concerns Yukio Mishima, a renowned novelist and Nobel Prize nominee who committed ritual seppuku in 1970 after leading a failed coup against the Japanese government.
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