HISTORY OF SEPPUKU

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 History of seppuku

Seppuku, also known as Hara-kiri, originated with Japan’s prehistoric samurai fighters’

class. Its ritual practice, which the samurai class's military men practiced in feudal Japan, is

considered a proper technique of taking own life by oneself. The name seppuku is widely known

as abdomen cutting, but in Japan, they refer to it as cutting the belly, the reverse of the first one.

Seppuku also has been practiced legally since the 15 th century. Whereas the practice is rare in

modern days, some researchers propose that in Japan, traditional cultural beliefs still consider

suicide as an honorable act, particularly when committed in traditional methods, like the seppuku

way. The major cause of death in Japan in the year 2014 was suicide, especially to men of the

age bracket of 20-44 years. The ritual was extensively evidenced in the year 1985 when japan

lost a war at reign of Taira no Tomomori, at this time there was a massive voluntary suicide.

Seppuku has gradually changed over centuries from the 12 th century till the modern

world. The seppuku was mainly introduced for warriors in the samurai class, but it has evolved

to be performed even by civilians. This happened during the ending of world war II within the

Showa period; civilians joined officers in japan to commit the ritual. This practice is modernly

viewed as an enemy of human rights, but the idea it’s still promoted even in media such as

movies; for example, the movie known as Revival promoted seppuku's idea through the character

samurai jack, where he has blamed for people who died due to his failures. Samurai haunted him

and instructed him to perform seppuku on their behalf. It is barely practiced in modern, perhaps

by people experiencing psychiatric disorders.

Seppuku had two forms that are obligatory and voluntary. Voluntary seppuku advanced

during wars that happened 1100s century as a means of self-annihilation used mostly by fighters

who lost during the war; this was to avoid being dishonored by deteriorating into the enemy's
fingers. Besides, samurai committed seppuku as a demonstration of loyalty to his lord by going

after him to death (Ventegodt, 2005). Voluntary seppuku was also performed as a sign of

demonstration against polices or the government for failing to perform its duties. Obligatory

seppuku is a way of capital punishment for samurai to avoid being slaughtered by the

executioner. Obligatory seppuku was frequently performed from the 15th century until its

abolishment in 1873. It was emphasized greatly on the well-organized performance of the

ceremony. There was supposed to be a witness known as Kenshi, who issued a death sentence

from the ritual's authority to be committed. Behind the prisoner, there was second either a friend

or relative holding a sword. Immediately after the prisoner plunge himself, the second cut off his

head. The second cut off his head after the act to show that it was the death by seppuku.

There have been many cases of seppuku in ancient and modern Japan. One of the cases is

shown as an example in question: Yukio Mashima, which happened in 1970; he committed

voluntary seppuku as a protest against the country's loss of traditional values as he believed.

Another widely known instance happened in 1945. Japanese military officers and civilians

performed ritual suicide after World War II (kimiecik,2019). Another case happened in 1912

when Nogi Maresuke committed seppuku to demonstrate loyalty to the deceased Meiji Emperor.

Seppuku was firstly practiced at around the beginning of the 12 th century and has notably

evolved. At the start of the 1400s gradually evolved to capital punishment that was established to

enable samurai to achieve noble death. Capital punishment was performed on the samurai who

had gone against the law. In every instance, the act was assumed as courageous and selflessness

that included Bushido (warrior code). Seppuku went down with the samurai's fall at the end of

the 19th century, though the practice never disappeared entirely.

 References

Kimiecik, M. K. (2019). Chanoyu: History and Practice. The Histories, 9(1), 4.

Smith, A. R. (1990). Mishima’s Seppuku Speech: A Critical-Cultural Analysis. Text &

Performance Quarterly, 10(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1080/10462939009365951

Ventegodt, S., & Merrick, J. (2005). Suicide from a holistic point of view.

TheScientificWorldJournal, 5, 759–766. https://doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2005.93