The Fine Art of Seppuku Essay Example

sake cup, a sheaf of washi with writing utensils and a disemboweling blade. If the attendant was considered to evil he was given a fan instead.

Though the primary weapon of the samurai was the katana (Swords). The sake cup is filled from the left, by an attendant using his left hand. The person committing seppuku then empties it in two drinks of two sips each, one sip showed greed, while three or more showed hesitation (John Braue). The contestant then wrote a poem of death, the poem should be graceful, natural, and about emotions. Under no circumstances was the candidate supposed to mention the fact that he was about to die. At this point, the person slips out of his outer white garment and tucks the sleeves under his knees to prevent him from doing something undignified like lumping to one side (John Braue). The candidate then picks up small wooden table and places it under his buttocks, causing him to lean forward in the proper altitude. “Now the seppuku candidate was supposed to take a short dagger and cut his abdomen by slicing it from the left lower part of his upper body in a right direction” (Dieter Wanczura). If the person was ordered to use a fan in substitution for a blade, he would receive a vertical cut from his kaishakunin. This when the kaishakunins job was very vital, the kaishakunin was to keep a close eye out on the attendant and strike his head off if he noticed a sign of pain or hesitation.

Seppuku is a very complicated ritual, but all the terms must be followed. The reasons as to why the

samurai participated in such a gruesome ritual vary. From maintaining honor on the battlefield to displaying acts of wrong character. The most common reason was so that the loser on the battlefield received a chance to keep his honor. The rarest of all seppuku performances was when a samurai would show the ultimate loyalty towards ones deceased lord or husband (Dieter Wanczura). The seppuku ritual came up during the period of the civil wars in the 15th and 16th century (Dieter Wanczura).

It was viewed as a badge of courage as well as an honor reserved only for the samurai (Toyomasa Fuse). The samurai were mercenaries that were hired to serve in battle for a lord. The samurai were paid in rice and grain; the samurai are very big on maintaining honor and doing everything within their power to please their lords. For the samurai, the ultimate expression of personal honor was to die voluntarily, by one’s own hand (Traditional Japan). That kind of personal honor was gained through the ritual of seppuku.

Another common reason for committing seppuku was to show ones disagreement with the lord. Seppuku is viewed as an honorable punishment; any other “commoner” would have been executed. It truly is amazing how seppuku lasted so long, it is considered one of the most gruesome rituals ever to be seen. The French captured some Japanese soldiers and opposed to surrendering, the Japanese soldiers requested that the French allow them to commit seppuku, “The French found the spectacle so horrible to watch they made their prisoners stop” (Jeffrey Hays).

Japanese history is full of cases of seppuku, seppuku was considered as a grace. “With the final

unification and pacifying of Japan under Tokugawa Ieyaso, 1543-1616, and the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, seppuku was no longer officially supported” (Dieter Wanczura), but, the practice still continued to exist nevertheless. “The latest known case is from 1970, when Yukio Mishima, committed suicide in a seppuku manner. This act caused worldwide attention in western media” (Dieter Wanczura). Fortunately, there have been no recent reports of seppuku in the Asian countries.

Seppuku was around for centuries, yet it is still unknown to most people. This ritualized performance showed the amount of dedication the samurai had to their lord and the limitless strive they had to retrieve their honor and gain a respectful death. Seppuku is a complex practice and very precise. The Japanese deserve an abundance of respect for keeping with this performance for so many centuries. This ritual continues to be a popular demand in Japanese theatre and culture and will remain that way for centuries to come.