"Live briefly but gloriously, One's evanescent life is but a

preparation for death. The fall of the blossom is as moving as its

beauty on the limb and the final moment, as ceremonialized in the
ritual of seppuku, is indeed the moment of truth"
(From Jack Seward's "Hara-Kiri"- TUT 1968)
• Introduction
• Exposition
• Analysis
• Conclusion
 Seppuku also called “hara-kiri”,
(belly-cutting), the honourable method
of taking one’s own life practiced by men
of the samurai (military) class in feudal
Japan.
The word "seppuku" comes from
the words setsu, meaning "to cut," and
fuku meaning "abdomen."
Voluntary seppuku

 Obligatory seppuku
 Voluntary seppuku was
performed out of the samurai’s will to
avoid the dishonour of capture, to
protest against some policy of a
superior, to atone for failure or to
show loyalty to one's lord “daimyo”
by following him into death.
 Obligatory seppuku was a
method of capital punishment for a
samurai who broke rules, they are
obliged to perform seppuku.
A samurai about to perform seppuku.
(left to right) a samurai, a kaishakunin and
spectators
The art of seppuku
 The first thing to do is to recruit an assistant, a kaishakunin.
Contrary to what is thought, almost all forms of seppuku do not technically
involve suicide, but merely inflicting fatal injury upon oneself. The
kaishakunin does the actual killing. If one is ordered to commit seppuku by
the bafuku (shogunal government), it will generally appoint its own
kaishakunin. Otherwise, one should ask a great iaijutsuka (practitioner of
the technique of killing with a single sword stroke) or a close personal friend
to be one’s kaishakunin. If asked out of friendship, one may refuse on the
grounds that one’s waza (sword technique) is inadequate; if the request is
repeated, however, one should consent gracefully, as flaws in technique will
be forgiven (by the living).
 Seppuku is ideally committed by in a garden or a Buddhist temple
(Shinto temples should not be defiled by death). The participant dresses
in white, to express purity of intention and sits in the seiza position (legs
drawn up under the body so that one is actually sitting on one’s heels). A
servant places the sanbo (an unlacquered wooden table) before one. It
will contain a sake cup, a sheaf of washi (paper handmade from mulberry
bark) and writing accoutrements, and the kozuka (disemboweling blade).
This can be a tanto (dagger) blade without hilt, wrapped in several sheets
of paper to provide a better grip. Real samurai, however, use their own
wakizashi. If one is of tender years, or judged too dangerous to be trusted
with steel, a fan may be substituted for an actual blade.
 One then writes a death poem in the waka style (five lines of
five, seven, seven, five, and seven syllables). The poem should be
graceful, natural, and about transient emotions. Under no means should
it mention that the fact you are about to die.
At this point, the person slips out of his outer garment
(kamishimo) and tucks the sleeves under his knees to prevent him from
doing something undignified like slumping to one side. He picks up the
kozuka, and with his other hand picks up the sanbo and places it under
his buttocks, to cause him to lean forward slightly in the proper attitude.
 If the person committing is so young that a fan has been
substituted for a blade, the kaishakunin executes a kirioroshi strike (a
vertical cut) as soon as the person committing seppuku touches the fan
to his stomach. Otherwise, he will typically wait until the person
plunges the blade deep into the left side of his belly, and draws it
across to the right, with a sharp upward cut at the end. A samurai who
feels himself capable may then plunge the blade into his groin and cut
upwards to the sternum, followed by a horizontal cut at the base of the
rib cage. However, the kaishakunin is supposed to keep a sharp eye
out, and strike at the first sign of pain or hesitation in his principle.
 The kirioroshi, incidentally, was not intended to actually sever
the head, but to leave it attached by a strip of skin at the throat. It was
considered infra dig for one’s principal’s head to go spinning across the
room, spraying blood as it went; only low-class criminals were treated
thus. Especially one should not whack one’s principal in the jaw with
the katana, as Yukio Mishima’s kaishakunin did in 1970. As noted
above, minor imperfections in one’s waza would be forgiven if one was
acting as kaishakunin out of friendship, but acting in such a piss-poor
manner gets one talked about, and not in a good way.
After the person committing seppuku is finally decapitated, the
sanbo, the kozuka, and the katana are all discarded as being defiled by
death.
 Incidentally, some samurai did kill themselves, in the ritual
known as jumonji giri. This is just like seppuku, except that there is no
kaishakunin. After disemboweling yourself, you sat quietly and bled to
death over the next half-hour or so. The last person to do this
historically was General Nogi, who did it as junshi (following one’s lord in
death) on the death of the Meiji emperor in 1912. He not only
committed jumonji giri, he buttoned up his white naval blouse
afterwards.
How is seppuku performed?
 The proper method of performing seppuku
was to plunge a short sword into the left side of
the abdomen, draw the blade across to the right,
and then turn it upward. It was considered
exemplary form to stab again below the chest
and press downward across the first cut, and
then to pierce one’s throat. . The samurai will be
decapitated by a second or “Kaishakunin” once
he had made an initial stab wound himself. Being
an extremely painful and slow means of suicide,
it was favoured as an effective way to
demonstrate the courage, self-control, and
strong resolve of the samurai and to prove
sincerity of purpose
Why commit seppuku?
 Samurai committed seppuku for a number of
reasons, in accordance with bushido, the samurai code of
conduct. Motivations could include personal shame due to
cowardice in battle, shame over a dishonest act, or loss of
sponsorship from a daimyo. Oftentimes, samurai who
were defeated but not killed in battle would be allowed to
commit suicide in order to regain their honor.
In battles, there usually wasn’t time for the whole
ritual, so expedients as cutting one’s own throat, throwing
oneself from a running horse with a sword in one’s mouth,
or flinging oneself off high walls, towers, or cliffs were
winked at. In 1516, Muira Yoshimoto committed suicide by
cutting off his own head.
 Sometimes, particularly during the
Tokugawa shogunate, seppuku was used as a
judicial punishment. Daimyo could order their
samurai to commit suicide for real or perceived
infractions. Likewise, the shogun could demand
that a daimyo commit seppuku.
References:

•The Aikido FAQ The Ritual of Seppuku

by Wayne Muromoto, publisher: Furyu the Budo
Journal

•The fine art of seppuku

http://netcomments.co.uk/cgi-
bin/comments.cgi?id=com19

• Seppuku by Kallie Szczepanski

Asian History Expert © 2014 About.com

• Seppuku - A Practical Guide. By Nick May

• Seppuku
Alternate title: hara-kiri
Written by The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica
Sayonara!
Arigato gozaimasu minna! 
~Zai-chan
 Socio-Cultural Anthropology

JAPANESE CULTURE OF
RITUAL SUICIDE (SEPPUKU)

Prepared by:
Rizza Mae Palen Go BSEd 3.1
 SAMURAI
The word samurai originally meant
“one who serves,” and referred to men of
noble birth assigned to guard members of
the Imperial Court during feudal Japan. A
samurai’s life is devoted mostly to
developing and perfecting skills in
swordsmanship and archery. Their chief
symbols were his two swords – one long
and one short.