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What is Seppuku?
Seppuku is a ritual form of committing suicide in the Japanese
society. It is an act of slitting one's own belly is such an
unbelievable way in which to commit suicide. Seppuku is possibly
the most famous element of the samurai mythos, that is also known
in the West as hara-kiri (in fact a 'vulgar' expression probably
never commonly used by the samurai themselves). Behind this
gruesome and barbaric act lies the concept in Japanese thinking
that an honorable death is more desirable than a life in shame.
Samurai Warrior and his belief:
Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every
day when one's body and mind are at peace, one should meditate
upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears and swords,
being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst
of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death
by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of
disease or committing seppuku (ritual suicide) at the death of
one's master. And every day without fail one should consider
himself as dead.
There is a saying of the elders that goes, "Step from under the
eaves and you're a dead man. Leave the gate and the enemy is
waiting." This is not a matter of being careful. It is to consider
oneself as dead beforehand.
Seppuku and Samurai
A scroll used as a flag bears the inscription ‘He who advances is
sure of heaven, but he who retreats will suffer eternal
damnation.’ - Flag of Ikko-ikki (1500’s). Clearly, the implication
being that death was not something to be feared. To the Samurai
victory was the primary goal. To fail was unacceptable. With the
Samurai, the war would be fought till all (Samurai) were dead. On
the surface, this appears to be a casual disregard of life. Not
so. The state, the law, was seen as worth dying for. Dying in
battle was the most honorable way in which the Samrai could die,
fighting for his country, his lord and Bushido.
Seppuku as a ritualistic suicide was something that the samurai
had perfected. It was preferred above being captured, or being
defeated. The Hagakure was a work written on bushido and its
virtues. A famous quote of this is “The Way of the Samurai is
found in death.” Those who died in battle were mourned, put up as
examples of honor, and so forth.
Loyalty was very important to a Samurai. They devoted their lives
to protecting their master. Often this included going with him
into death-many Samurai would commit suicide if their master had
been killed. While this seems very dramatic, almost tragically
romantic, it was frowned upon in later years. The basis of this
action, however, lay in the Samurai mindset. Just as if they
failed to achieve a goal on the battlefield, they took a master’s
death in the same say.
1. General Akashi Gidayu committing
seppuku; 2. Koju Maru ready to commit seppuku
The Seppuku Ritual
Seppuku was considered a privilege for samurai and the nobility.
Feudal Japanese history is full of cases of defeated enemies, who
were 'forced' by their conquerors to commit suicide. This was
considered as a grace. The looser received a chance to keep his
honor.
If the circumstances allowed it, the ritual suicide was executed
in a formal, procedural manner. Even spectators were not uncommon.
The suicide candidate was clad in a white kimono. Before the final
act, he was expected to write his death poem, formerly a practice
common for the higher social classes. Samurai believed that the
seat of the spirit rested in the abdomen, and by stabbing himself
there, the soul was released.
First, tatami edged with white would be set out, upon which a
large white cushion was placed. Witnesses would arrange themselves
discreetly to one side, depending on how important the coming
suicide was considered.
The samurai, often garbed in a white kimono, would kneel on the
pillow in formal style on his heels, hopefully in a composed
manner. Just over a meter behind and to the left of the samurai
knelt his kaishakunin, or 'second'. The second was often a close
friend of the deceased, although his duty was not a popular one.
His job was to prevent the samurai committing suicide from
experiencing undo suffering by cutting the doomed man's head off
once he had slit his belly. Botching this duty could be a shameful
disgrace, and a steady hand was required.
In front of the samurai lay a knife on a lacquered tray. When he
felt ready, the samurai would loosen the folds of his kimono and
expose his belly. He would then lift the knife with one hand and
unsheathe it with the other, setting the sheathe to one side. When
he had prepared himself, he would drive the knife into the left
side of the stomach, then draw it across to the right. The blade
would then be turned in the wound and brought upward. This must
have been extremely painful. Many samurai did not have to endure
this last, unbelievable agony, as the second would lop their heads
off at the first sign of pain.
The samurai was supposed to lower his neck after he finished
slicing his abdomen. This was the sign for the assistant, the
kaishakunin, who stood behind him, to proceed to the last step -
to blow off the seppuku samurai's head - possibly with one blow of
his sword. The kaishakunin had it in his hands to shorten the
suffering of the suicider by executing a strong and swift blow.
The cut carried out to its finish was known as the jumonji, or
'crosswise cut', and to perform it in its entirety was considered
a particularly impressive seppuku.
Needless to say, one's frame of mind was of particular importance
when approaching this act. Samurai were, after all, only human,
and perhaps only through a lifetime of preparation could seppuku
be faced with the prerequisite coolness.
Seppuko suicide was often committed by samurai warriors and
noblemen on the battlefield. Then there was no time for the above
ritual and seppuku was done hastily.
Japanese tanto, a dagger used when
commiting seppuku
Seppuku in Japanese History
The origin of disembowelment as suicide is impossible to pinpoint
but the first notable acts were provided by Minamoto Tametomo and
Minamoto Yorimasa in the latter part of the 12th Century. The
original motivations for this method of death may well have been
purely practical. Cutting off one's own head is a bit difficult,
and as the spirit was felt to reside in the stomach as believed by
most Japanese, slitting the belly open was felt to be the most
straightforward (if not quickest) way to die. Over the centuries,
the philosophy behind seppuku was refined. One samurai wrote many
centuries after the deaths of Minamoto Tametomo and Yorimasa that
the spirit of a man was like that of an apple's core, unseen and
locked within the skin.
The apple certainly exists, but to the core (soul) this existence
as yet seems inadequate; if words cannot endorse it, then the only
way to endorse it is with the eyes. Indeed, for the core the only
sure mode of existence is to exist and to see at the same time.
There is only one method of solving this contradiction. It is for
a knife to be plunged deep into the apple so that it is split open
and the core is exposed to the light-to the same light, that is,
as the surface skin. Yet then the existence of the cut apple falls
into fragments; the core of the apple sacrifices existence for the
sake of seeing.
The above was clearly an esoteric point of view. Others have
written that the act of belly slitting required an exceptional
bravery, and over the years it became a 'privilege' reserved for
the samurai. Commoners might hang or drown themselves, whilst
samurai women might slit their own throats; only samurai could
commit Seppuku. To be simply executed was a mark of particular
shame, and generally reserved for notorious traitors.
By the Edo Period, the act of seppuku had become a fully developed
ritual with Shinto undertones.
While his sons held off the enemy,
Yorimasa retired to the seclusion of the beautiful Byodo-In
temple. He then wrote a poem on the back of his war -fan,which
read:
Like a fossil tree
From which we gather no flowers
Sad has been my life
Fated no fruit to produce
He then thrust his dagger into his abdomen and cut himself open,
thereby releasing his spirit in the most heroic and painful way
that can be imagined…Yorimosa’s act set the standard of excellent
conduct which subsequent generations were expected to emulate.
Why would a samurai be expected or decide to slit open his own
belly?
The reasons are many, and much is made of them elsewhere. We'll content
ourselves here with the briefest of lists of those reasons not
involving a direct punishment?
Junshi: this act of suicide involved following one's lord
in death. Not entirely uncommon in the days of open samurai
warfare, junshi was banned in the Edo Period as wasteful. A famous
example was that of the General Nogi Maresue in 1912 following the
death of the Emperor Meiji.
Kanshi: Suicide through remonstration. Not common, this
involved killing one's self to make a point to a lord when all
other forms of persuasion had failed. Perhaps the best known
example of this is provided by Hirate Nakatsukasa Kiyohide
(1493-1553), who committed suicide to make a youthful and
irreverent Oda Nobunaga change his ways.
Sokotsu-shi: Here, a samurai would kill himself as a way of
making amends for some transgression. This is possibly the
best-known reason for seppuku, and has perhaps been popularized
far out of proportion to its frequency. One well-known instance
involves the Takeda general Yamamoto Kansuke Haruyuki (1501-1561),
who flung himself into the enemy after his plans had put his lord
in grave danger. Badly wounded, he withdrew from the fray and
committed suicide.
Finally, it should be remembered that as ever-present as death may
have been to many samurai (of Oda Nobuhide's many sons, for
example, eight died untimely deaths-including the famous Nobunaga)
most died the old-fashioned way: of old age. There are numerous
examples of famous long-lived samurai, including Môri Motonari
(74), Môri Terumoto (72), Nabeshima Naoshige (82), Ryűzôji Iekane
(92), Sanada Nobuyuki (92), Shimazu Yoshihiro (84), and Ukita
Hideie (90).
The noted swordsman Tsukahara Bokuden probably best summed up the
philosophy of death as it related to the samurai with the words...
For the samurai to learn
There's only one thing,
One last thing -
To face death unflinchingly.
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