![]() ![]() The senior French officer who observed this punishment presumably found it a ridiculous custom and called for it to be halted when 11 samurai had completed the act. In 1868, a group of samurai from Tosa province (now Kōchi Prefecture) were ordered to perform seppuku after being found guilty of killing 11 French sailors. As suicide was taboo in Christianity, this reaction must have been hard to understand for Europeans of the day. ![]() A Change in CharacterĪrnoldus Montanus, a Dutch Christian, reported his observation of the act of seppuku in a 1669 text, describing it as a dreadful method, but commenting on the courage of those killing themselves, and the favorable reaction it won from others. This was lauded as a model for taking responsibility through the act. After being promised that nobody else in the castle would die, Muneharu went into the waters outside on a small boat and committed seppuku. In June 1582, Hideyoshi flooded the castle by diverting a river. (Courtesy of the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library Special Collection Room) A famous example came in the suicide of Shimizu Muneharu, when his Takamatsu Castle in the province of Bitchū (now Okayama Prefecture) was surrounded by the forces of Hashiba Hideyoshi (later Toyotomi Hideyoshi).Īn ukiyo-e picture in the Taiheiki eiyūden (Heroic Stories of the Taiheiki) series by Utagawa Yoshiiku shows Shimizu Muneharu. In the Warring States period (1467–1568), a new idea emerged that a military leader who lost in battle could save his retainers’ lives through his own death. This way of thinking became prevalent among medieval samurai. In reality, the man acting may have been driven down and ordered to kill himself by a powerful adversary, but in form at least, he was making a decision that allowed for the preservation of honor. For this reason, seppuku was seen as a fitting way for a samurai to die. Those who were defeated in battle or suspected of treason were said to have wished to wipe away their dishonor in a wholehearted show of their inner devotion. If that was not possible, to leave a reputation of courage, they chose a method of death in which they mustered all their willpower to stand up to pain. This was in 1189, and Yamamoto suggests that Yoshitsune’s death led to the practice taking root in the Kamakura period (1185–1333).įor samurai, it was glorious to die in combat. He wrote that when Minamoto no Yoshitsune was pressed in northern Japan by the forces of his brother Yoritomo and had nowhere to retreat to, he first asked how samurai should die, and then killed himself by seppuku. While it is unclear when exactly seppuku became established, University of Tokyo Professor Yamamoto Hirofumi hypothesizes that an occurrence in the aftermath of the Genpei War (1180–85) became influential on samurai society. It is not certain either whether Hakamadare actually cut into his stomach. However, the account is legendary and the incident did not involve the samurai, with whom seppuku later became firmly associated. ![]() The oldest recorded occurrence of seppuku is sometimes said to have taken place in 988, when a bandit called Hakamadare slashed open his belly after being captured. ![]()
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