Database: Seppuku: an Honorable End

Seppuku, also known as hara-kiri in the West, was a form of ritual suicide practiced among the samurai since the 14th century, according to the Taiheiki Chronicle. The samurai sliced into their abdomen above the navel, then a fellow warrior would behead him with his sword. Nitobe Inazō, author of Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1900), puts forth the idea that the abdomen is the seat of will, courage, and emotions and is therefore of high symbolic value. However, this explanation is open to caution.

Personal glory, courage, honor, self-sacrifice, and self-denial were aspired values in the Middle Ages, though they were intrinsically tied to victory, which determined the survival of the warrior, his estate, and his lineage. A defeated warrior would rather die than live with dishonor, and death offered an opportunity to redeem one’s dignity and reputation posthumously. It was better to stage one's death than to die in the absence. of glory. Warriors from the period sought a glorious death to an obsessive degree, and seppuku on the night of the defeat was the last option for defeated samurai.

There were many ways in which to kill oneself. For example, purposefully falling from a horse with a sword in the mouth, jumping into the sea with full armor and weapons to ensure drowning, or fighting to the death with a person close to them were other methods. The practice of seppuku became more and more common by the end of the 16th century and was codified in the Edo period as the honorable way to die for a samurai sentenced to death by the shogunate or seignorial court.