How are Harakiri and Seppuku Different?

so harakiri means stomach cutting and sepuku means cutting stomach the special way the samurais committed suicide although many people around the world know about this word why did they do it why was it the stomach they cut and what is the difference between harakiri and seppuku today as a japanese man training with katanas and studying about samurais i will answer these questions by watching this video you'll be able to deepen your understandings towards samurai culture stick around to the end to find out how the samurais committed seppuku with [Music] first i will talk about how harakiri and seppuku are different long story short they are the same thanks for watching but that wouldn't be fun or education at all so these are three small differences that i found number one written differently in japanese number two where it's used number three how it's performed number one written differently in japanese harakiri is written like this in japanese sepuku on the other hand is written like this kiru means to cut and hara means stomach so harakiri means stomach cutting and sepuku means cutting stomach by the way there's another way of saying it called which means split stomach yikes number two where it's used while it is broadly known as harakiri around the world in japan we usually say it seems that when foreign diplomats learned about this culture in japan they understood it as stomach cutting which is harakiri as they explained earlier number three how it's performed some say that harakiri was an informal style of suicide of cutting your stomach on the battlefield and seppuku was a ritual way of suicide so harakiri is a solo flight suicide but seppuku will have a second person that will cut your head off to relieve you from the pain however this is just a sensory story and is not clearly defined so it's just like how samurai and bushi ninja and shinobi luffy and stray hat are almost the same [Music] now that you understand how harakiri and seppuku are different let's next talk about what they are in the first place while there are some records of men cutting their stomach to commit suicide in the heian era it began to be thought as a noble way to die among the samurais in the civil war era about 500 years ago the samurai that first conquered whole japan in the civil war era toyotomi hideyoshi evolved the culture of harakiri he is one of the most famous people in japanese history kind of like george washington the first president of the united states of america when toyotomi hideyoshi invaded takamatsu castle in okayama prefecture hideyoshi said that if the lord of the castle killed himself he would have mercy on the lives of the other soldiers the lord madly cut his stomach in other words committed haraki hiroshi was impressed with his bravery and this shifted hanakiri to a way to take responsibility from mere suicide eventually the reasons and motives to commit harakiri diversified for example one oyibara committing harakiri after once lord has done so oi means to follow two smebada committing harakiri to take job responsibilities and in-laws three sashibara naming someone you grudge and committing suicide so that person will have to commit harakiri too in order to protect his honor sashi means to point at something these are just some of the few examples for samurais to commit harakiri but in any way you can understand that it wasn't a simple suicide but more of a last declaration of intention once the civil war era ended and the edo period began harakiri became a kind of death penalty it became somewhat like a ceremony with everything from how you spend your few days before harakiri what clothe you wear and how you cut your stomach the harakiri of samurai and the edo period now had the meaning of protecting the monarch it was loyalty towards the clan and family name in order not to put dirt on them even if something goes wrong inside the clan if someone commits harakiri it will end as if things were settled without accountability it can be said that the vassals were sacrificed to protect the lord however even samurais were not always ordered to perform harakiri if they were regarded as a disgraceful crime the penalty would be to get your head cut off which was thought as a very dishonorable way to die therefore in japanese we say people were given the honor to commit harakiri not ordered to commit harakiri even after japan westernized and there were no more samurais in the meiji era the tradition of harakiri continued a man who died of harakiri in 1872 was the last case of harakiri in the history of japan's legal system harakiri as a method of executing was abolished in 1873 and since then hanging has been used in the death penalty in japan however examples of using harakiri as a method of suicide have been seen among military personnel even after the meiji era the idea of making harakiri an honorable self-discrimination remained now you understand the history of harakiri you still might be thinking why was it the stomach you got though the most commonly believed theory is written in the famous book bushido according to the writer nitobe inazo ancient autonomy believed that the abdomen contains the human soul and affection therefore committing harakiri with bravery was considered an appropriate way to die by living up to one's bushido so harakiri was meant to show sincerity and innocence by cutting your stomach where your soul lays next i will talk about how the harakiri proceeded during the civil war era and the beginning of the edo period there was not one concrete way of committing harakiri however in the mid edo period once harakiri was established as a punishment for samurais it became a complex and sophisticated ritual ceremony first the person who is sentenced to harakiri will take a bath to cleanse themselves with the procedure of how a dead body will be bathed before a funeral next they will wear a white kimono with the right side of the clothes in front just like how a dead body will wear its shroud before the person is given his katana to cut his stomach his last meal will be served this is a very simple meal with rice miso vegetable pickles etc and also drink some sake these are all meant to purify the body after the meal the katana used to commit harakiri will be placed in front of that person after stating his name and with one bow he will take the katana with a proper procedure and first stab his left stomach and drag the sword to the right at this point the kaishaku which means the helper will cut his head off to relieve him from his pain lastly the inspector will confirm his death and the harakiri ceremony will come to an end if i explain everything the information will be enormous so i will admit it but in fact the size and the direction of the room where the harakiri is performed and the behavior of the kaishaku helper side are all decided in detail however by the end of the edo period harakiri was formalized so some samurais who were too scared or didn't know how to commit harakiri would place a fan instead of a katana in front of the samurai and when the samurai places his hand on the fan the helper will cut his head some samurais weren't all as brave as you may imagine [Music] then lastly today's conclusion harakiri and sebuku are almost the same with just three small differences how is written in japanese where it's used and how and where the stomach cutting is done hanakiri first became a honorable way to die in this civil war era by toyotomi hideyosh he was impressed by the enemy's leader that manfully took his own life to save the others in the edo period that followed harakiri became a complex and sophisticated ritual ceremony for the samurais to use their lives to take responsibilities and to protect their clan's name harakiri was abolished in 1873 but traditions continued even after the westernization of japan in the beiji era in the formal way of committing harakiri in the edo period the person will commit suicide will wash their bodies and wear white kimonos just as how they do to dead bodies at a funeral the samurai will eat their last meal and drink sake to purify his body and with the short katana will cut his stomach from left to right the taishaku helper will cut his head off to relieve him from the pain however by the end of the edo period harakiri was formalized and samurais were too scared to cut their stomach or given a fan instead of a katana to simply get their head cut off so that's it for today thank you very much for watching if this video helped you to deepen your understandings for sailrite culture please hit the like button and share this video to your friends and family and my goal is to achieve 10 000 subscribers by july 2021 so your help would mean a lot thanks again and i'll see you in the next video everyone once again thank you very much for watching my video after taking this video and editing it i uh i've thought that maybe some of you may wonder you know at the end i introduced that some samurais committed harakiri with a fan right but i thought maybe some of you might think why was it a fan though i mean it could have been something else um there are some historical records where they said they would put wooden swords there too but what's up with the fan right um so from what i've studied so far the fans the japanese fans have um came from china as well along with all the other cultures too and in china the fan was originally an item for to give orders to your army so the the leaders of for example like warriors and soldiers would use those fans to give orders so that came into japan and that kind of culture of the fan being an item for the warriors and soldiers still existed in japan too so for the samurais the fan actually represented the katana the sword so it's funny how uh in a lot of japanese traditional culture like tea ceremonies or no theater those two are cheering in um japanese dancing kabuki they all use fans too actually because they are a really important item for the samurais and in these traditional culture like tea ceremonies no theater you never actually open it up to like wave yourself because it's not an item for cooling you down it's something that represents the sword and i wanted to introduce the real fans that i actually use this is the fan that i use in the no theater really actually pretty big as you can see the size is actually pretty big compared to my hand there and this one over here is the one that i use for tea ceremonies so the size is very different a lot smaller in tea ceremonies these fans are used for uh greeting people for use for proper greetings and the fan in the know theater if you're a singer you would sing holding on to this fan as if you're a samurai holding on to katana and if you're the main actor like if you dance in no theater you can you will use it you can open it up and use it and represent wind and snow and all water and all those things too as part of the dance okay so once again thank you very much for watching and if you had any other questions while watching this video please ask me in the comments below

Channel: Let's ask Shogo | Your Japanese friend in Kyoto

Views: 1,176,490

Keywords: letsaskshogodeeperintojapan, n7DCb9ttrcw9h3vh9dfnVw, UCn7DCb9ttrcw9h3vh9dfnVw, japan, kyoto, samurai, harakiri, seppuku, difference, katana

Id: t6s7Hupnnvw

Length: 14min 56sec (896 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 22 2020