Seppuku (Japanese History Explained)

while we've seen suicide which shows in Imperial China ancient Mayan culture and some might say in organized religious extremists in today's world one that sticks out in my mind is the act of seppuku in feudal Japan which consisted of the disembowelment of oneself it would see a samurai slash open his own stomach usually with a small blade known as a tanto before his head was hacked off by an assistant in the Western world seppuku would become known as harakiri but for the purpose of this video I'll be referring to it as seppuku seppuku wasn't just the brutal carving of one's own flesh though it was a complicated process on both the spiritual and emotional level where it was believed that the spirit of a person decided in the pit of the stomach and so by slitting open the stomach it allowed for the spirit to leave the wrestle it was also considered to be one of the bravest ways a man could end his life and so it would not be looked upon with sadness or with derision the slashing of the stomach by one's own hand was such an honor in fact that it would be an almost holy death reserved only for the samurai but like I said seppuku was complicated because of their levels in which it was built upon as well as the implications they could leave for the surviving members of one's family for example if a samurai screamed or cried during his self disembowelment he would dishonor his family and caused him to suffer humiliation long after his death furthermore if he was not modest or brave during his seppuku he would be remembered from that day forth as a coward and an embarrassment regardless of his achievements in life Flitz who expectations also played a huge role in seppuku for if a samurai surrender to his adversary instead of committing suicide he could face the disdain of his peers who would label him as weak or coward if he was politically inclined he could face the loss of support and funding as well as potentially assumption depending on his rank in the book of Haggerty the spiritual Japanese book for warriors there exist some tales of samurai making a scene Jonas seppuku some of whom refused to do it after being ordered these samurai would bring about the utmost disgrace upon themselves and their families and would be forcibly decapitated anyway by the Edo period seppuku wasn't to something conducted on a loose battlefield it had become an almost grand ceremony that would feature strict customs and rules most forced into seppuku view made to wear a white kimono and in silence would kneel on a white cushion with the utmost formality this meant that they were to show no emotion no remorse or regret and not beg for an alternative fate the entire process was quite automatic in that everyone knew their roles the witnesses would notice tan discreetly to one side meanwhile an assistant known as a kai-shek union would stand to the left of the samurai the role of the kaishakunin was to prevent the samurai from experience in too much pain by fatally striking him you see contrary to what many believed seppuku in the ceremonial sense wasn't exactly a suicide but more so assisted suicide as the samurai didn't die from his own self-inflicted wound once the samurai had cut himself from one side to the other the kaishakunin would step in and strike the death blow by slicing his sword across the samurais neck the idea wasn't to sent his head rolling though for this would be considered to be of the highest disrespect and would bring about shame not only for the deceased but also for the kaishakunin the proper execution of this death blow would be to strike the samurais neck with enough force to sever the spine but with enough restraint to leave the head attached given the difficulty of this feat the role of the kaishakunin was only given to those who possessed a masterfulness of the sword in the book of how to puree the retainer yamamoto tsunetomo wrote from ages past it has been considered an ill omen by samurai to be requested as kaishakunin the reason for this is that one gains no fame even if the job is done well further if one should blunder it becomes a lifetime disgrace one of the main points of this was to restore or to protect the honor of the warrior who was committing suicide but if the head was removed from the neck then the samurai would certainly not look dignified in death with this in mind the kaishakunin would aim to leave a small part of the throat or the neck still attached this way the head ordered the C samurai could both metaphorically and literally rest in his own hands a wooden table would be brought to the samurai Ranger in the moments before his death that contains sake a piece of paper some writing utensils and a cazuca which was the blade in which samurai used to disembowel themselves in the ceremony it's understood that if he'd preferred a samurai could use his own sword with the writing utensils samurai were encouraged to write a GC or a death poem and these were considered to be a very essential element of the seppuku ceremony it was a personal on the brink of death was said to have been blessed with an insight into the nature of life and death that was otherwise closed off to them by getting them to write their thoughts down the survivors would hope to go on a better understanding of the meaning of life the poem though couldn't have samurais sprouting salty butthurt messages about how they'd been wronged in life for this was seen as undignified though it didn't stop a few of them from trying in fact to even speak about the impending death in a corporeal means was considered uncouth the poems were also often how a samurai would be remembered which is why some of the writings are so profound on the battlefield though there wasn't always time to go through this whole ceremonial process of seppuku so oftentimes samurais would just slash their bellies right there and then on the battlefield so as to avoid capture by the enemy and to avoid the disgrace of having to admit defeat their enemy dying by their own hand in this sense was far more favorable than dying by the enemy hand in the case of Minamoto yoshinaka he was said to have put his sword in his mouth and jumped from his horse others have been noted to throwing themselves from cliffs or simply slit their own throats on other accounts on the battlefield there wasn't always a cache the Coonan available and so samurai who were committing seppuku would have to act as their own executioner sometimes with the absence of a small blade they were plunged their entire katanas into their guts and slice horizontally the samurai would then remove the blade from his stomach and stab himself in 1/3 all fall from a standing position of the blade positioned against his heart seppuku was committed for a variety of different reasons for one many samurai committed suicide following the death of their lord a legend exists that at the end of the gameplay war between the Tyra and Minamoto clans the Taira general tomorry decided to end his life when he realized the battle was lost he summoned his brother to help him into a heavy suit of armor and in hand in hand they jumped into the sea having seen this many other samurai donned heavy armors and jumped in after their general some of them carrying heavy objects to ensure they sank with him other accounts of seppuku included killing oneself because of their indignation and a certain circumstance or in protest to something that had taken place in which the samurai absolutely detested others would commit suicide simply to make a point when all other forms of making this point had been exhausted one famous account of this was where Hirata kyo he day the man who was tasked with looking after the young unruly oda nobunaga realized he could not control Nobunaga's outrageous behavior so he wrote a letter explaining Nobunaga's folly before killing himself in hopes that the young lord would change his ways his death would have such an impact on Nobunaga that he did indeed change his ways and went on to become the unifier japan another more dastardly form of seppuku existed for some really hardcore samurai who would go as far as to add a second vertical cut to the original horizontal cut it was known as Jumanji giddy and it would contain no kaishakunin to put an end to the suffering instead the samurai committing this horribly painful suicide was expected to bear his suffering quietly until he bled to death [Music] women were also known to commit a ritualistic suicide usually the wives of the samurai who had committed seppuku all the wives of samurai who had brought about dishonor some women who belonged to the families of samurai on the losing side of the battle would commit suicide to avoid capture they would cut the arteries of their neck with a single stroke but before doing this they would tie their knees together so that they would be found in a dignified position invading armies who had killed their enemies and wrench it into the towns would not be surprised to find the lady of the enemy's house seated alone facing away from the door in a pool of her own blood they exist a particularly compelling tale of a Europeans witnesses seppuku for the first time in 1868 eleven French sailors entered a Japanese town in Sakai without permission and their presence is called distress and panic amongst the locals samurai were dispatched to investigate but were heavy-handed with the French sailors which would result in an altercation the sailors were subsequently killed by the samurai a French ambassador would protest against the wrongful killing of his fellow countrymen and he was paid compensation by the Japanese authorities for the misfeasance of the samurai the samurai in question was scolded for their cold-blooded murder and forstman's committed seppuku to atone for the loss of life each samurai committed the ritualistic disembowelment before the French ambassador but upon seeing it the Frenchman was so shocked and sickened that he begged for the samurai to be pardoned as a result of his wish the remaining samurai was spared seppuku as an execution was abolished in 1873 when imperial rule returned to Japan however they have since been many accounts of voluntary seppuku as late as the 1970s where offer Yukio Mishima and one of his followers Masakazu Morita performed a suicide ritual their goal was to spur the Japanese self-defense forces into staging a coup d'etat and Yukio Mishima went as far as to impale himself and slice across his own stomach his second though the 25-yard Masakazu Moria failed to decapitate him even after swinging the blade three times his head was finally severed by hiroyasu Koga a former kendo champion but even he wasn't able to slice yukio mishima said in the traditional sense by leaving just enough flesh to keep the head intact having failed to kill Yukio masa katsu attempted to perform seppuku himself but could not cut deep enough into his own flesh for the wound to be fatal he signaled for the kendo champion hiroyasu Koga to behead him as well which he complied with as always guys if you've enjoyed today's video then please do give it a thumbs up and don't forget to comment down below if you haven't already then hit the subscribe button for more content just like this before I sign off you'll remember that I said that samurai would often write poems before they committed suicide poems that were to draw an insight into life and death well consider yourself a super enlightened by feasting your eyes on some of these of your life samurai poems written moments before their death I told the next time guys [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Legends of History

Views: 690,278

Keywords: Seppeku, Legends of History, Japanese History, Samurai, Who were the samurai?, What happened to Samurai?, Suicide ritual, Japan

Id: -oM8I7niF0Y

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 24 2019