| Seppuku (Sape-puu-kuu), the Japanese formal | | | | any of his followers to commit harakiri or seppuku. |
| language term for ritual suicide (Hara-kiri | | | | Still the practice continued throughout the long |
| (Har-rah-kee-ree) is the common language term), was | | | | Tokugawa reign, but it declined considerably as time |
| an intregal aspect of feudal Japan (1192-1868). It | | | | went by.Honor for the samurai was dearer than life |
| developed as an intregal part of the code of bushido | | | | and in many cases, self destruction was regarded not |
| and the discipline of the samurai warrior class.Hara-kiri, | | | | simply as right, but as the only right course. Disgrace |
| which literally means "stomach cutting" is a particularly | | | | and defeat were atoned by committing hara-kiri or |
| painful method of self-destruction, and prior to the | | | | seppuku. Upon the death of a daimyo loyal followers |
| emergence of the samurai as a professional warrior | | | | might show their grief and affection for their master |
| class, was totally foreign to the Japanese.The early | | | | by it. Other reasons a samurai committed seppuku |
| history of Japan reveals quite clearly that the | | | | were: to show contempt for an enemy; to protest |
| Japanese were far more interested in living the good | | | | against injustice, as a means to get their lord to |
| life than in dying a painful death. It was not until well | | | | reconsider an unwise or unworthy action and as a |
| after the introduction of Buddhism, with its theme of | | | | means to save others.The ritual for disenbowlment |
| the transitory nature of life and the glory of death, | | | | was to be performed calmly and without flinching. If |
| that such a development became possible.To the | | | | condemned to death, it was held to be a privilege to |
| samurai, seppuku--whether ordered as punishment or | | | | execute the sentence on one's own body rather |
| chosen in preference to a dishonorable death at the | | | | than to be a disgrace and die at the hands of the |
| hands of an enemy--was unquestionable | | | | public headsman.The location of an officially ordered |
| demonstration of their honor, courage, loyalty, and | | | | seppuku ceremony was very important. Often the |
| moral character.When samurai were on the | | | | ritual was performed at temple |
| battlefield, they often carried out acts of hara-kiri | | | | (but not Shinto shrines), in the garden or villas, and |
| rapidly and with very little formal preparation. But on | | | | inside homes. The size of the area available was also |
| the other occasions, particularly when it was ordered | | | | important, as it was prescribed precisely for samurai |
| by a feudal lord, or the shogun (as was directed of | | | | of high rank.All the matters relating to the act was |
| Lord Asano in the Tale of the 47 Ronin), seppuku or | | | | carefully prescribed and carried out in the most |
| hara-kiri was a very formal ceremony, requiring | | | | meticulous manner. The most conspicuous participant, |
| certain etiquette, witnesses and considerable | | | | other than the victim, was the kaishaku |
| preparation.Not all Japanese samurai or lords believed | | | | (kie-shah-kuu), or assistant, who was responsible for |
| in, even though many of them followed the custom. | | | | cutting off the victim's head after he had sliced his |
| The great Ieyasu Tokugawa, who founded Japan's | | | | abdomen open. The was generally a close friend or |
| last great Shogunate dynasty in 1603, eventually | | | | associate of the condemned.Although suicide is |
| issued an edict forbidding hara-kiri to both secondary | | | | deplored in Japan today, it does not have the sinful |
| and primary retainers.The custom was so deeply | | | | overtones that are common in the west. People still |
| entrenched, however, that it continued, and in 1663, | | | | kill themselves for failed businesses, involvement in |
| at the urging of Lord Nobutsuna Matsudaira of Izu, | | | | love triangles, or even failing school examinations, |
| the shogunate government issued another, stronger | | | | death is still consider by many as better than |
| edict, prohibiting ritual suicide. This was followed up | | | | dishonor.Fahmi Samir is a student in japan and taking |
| by very stern punishment for any lord who allowed | | | | mechanical engineering. |