(FROM A RARE JAPANESE MS.)
Seppuku _(hara-kiri)_ is the mode of suicide adopted amongst Samurai
when they have no alternative but to die. Some there are who thus
commit suicide of their own free will; others there are who, having
committed some crime which does not put them outside the pale of the
privileges of the Samurai class, are ordered by their superiors to put
an end to their own lives. It is needless to say that it is absolutely
necessary that the principal, the witnesses, and the seconds who take
part in the affair should be acquainted with all the ceremonies to be
observed. A long time ago, a certain Daimio invited a number of
persons, versed in the various ceremonies, to call upon him to explain
the different forms to be observed by the official witnesses who
inspect and verify the head, &c., and then to instruct him in the
ceremonies to be observed in the act of suicide; then he showed all
these rites to his son and to all his retainers. Another person has
said that, as the ceremonies to be gone through by principal,
witnesses, and seconds are all very important matters, men should
familiarize themselves with a thing which is so terrible, in order
that, should the time come for them to take part in it, they may not
be taken by surprise.
The witnesses go to see and certify the suicide. For seconds, men are
wanted who have distinguished themselves in the military arts. In old
days, men used to bear these things in mind; but now-a-days the
fashion is to be ignorant of such ceremonies, and if upon rare
occasions a criminal is handed over to a Daimio's charge, that he may
perform _hara-kiri,_ it often happens, at the time of execution, that
there is no one among all the prince's retainers who is competent to
act as second, in which case a man has to be engaged in a hurry from
some other quarter to cut off the head of the criminal, and for that
day he changes his name and becomes a retainer of the prince, either
of the middle or lowest class, and the affair is entrusted to him, and
so the difficulty is got over: nor is this considered to be a
disgrace. It is a great breach of decorum if the second, who is a most
important officer, commits any mistake (such as not striking off the
head at a blow) in the presence of the witnesses sent by the
Government. On this account a skilful person must be employed; and, to
hide the unmanliness of his own people, a prince must perform the
ceremony in this imperfect manner. Every Samurai should be able to cut
off a man's head: therefore, to have to employ a stranger to act as
second is to incur the charge of ignorance of the arts of war, and is
a bitter mortification. However, young men, trusting to their youthful
ardour, are apt to be careless, and are certain to make a mistake.
Some people there are who, not lacking in skill on ordinary occasions,
lose their presence of mind in public, and cannot do themselves
justice. It is all the more important, therefore, as the act occurs
but rarely, that men who are liable to be called upon to be either
principals or seconds or witnesses in the _hara-kiri_ should
constantly be examined in their skill as swordsmen, and should be
familiar with all the rites, in order that when the time comes they
may not lose their presence of mind.
According to one authority, capital punishment may be divided into two
kinds--beheading and strangulation. The ceremony of _hara-kiri_ was
added afterwards in the case of persons belonging to the military
class being condemned to death. This was first instituted in the days
of the Ashikaga[102] dynasty. At that time the country was in a state
of utter confusion; and there were men who, although fighting, were
neither guilty of high treason nor of infidelity to their feudal
lords, but who by the chances of war were taken prisoners. To drag out
such men as these, bound as criminals, and cut their heads off, was
intolerably cruel; accordingly, men hit upon a ceremonious mode of
suicide by disembowelling, in order to comfort the departed spirit.
Even at present, where it becomes necessary to put to death a man who
has been guilty of some act not unworthy of a Samurai, at the time of
the execution witnesses are sent to the house; and the criminal,
having bathed and put on new clothes, in obedience to the commands of
his superiors, puts an end to himself, but does not on that account
forfeit his rank as a Samurai. This is a law for which, in all truth,
men should be grateful.
[Footnote 102: Ashikaga, third dynasty of Shoguns, flourished from
A.D. 1336 to 1568. The practice of suicide by disembowelling is of
great antiquity. This is the time when the ceremonies attending it
were invented.]