Hara-Kiri: Japanese Ritual Suicide Read Free Page A

is hidden in a nebulous prehistoric time when primitive men believed that a form of human life extended beyond the grave. In their belief, the spirit of the deceased was very desirous of gathering the beloved ones left behind unto himself. Hence, the spirit was often exceedingly feared by ancient Japanese. The ancients, therefore, put huge stones on the burial spot so that the spirit would not come out to haunt the living in a dream or in the shape of a ghost. The custom of immolation originated at such a stage in civilization. Beloved wives, concubines, servants, and even horses were buried with the deceased, so that he might keep on "living" peacefully and comfortably in the nether world, which was called in Shintoism, yomi.
    The custom of immolation was later transformed into a type of self-immolation called hito-bashira, which means a "human pillar." When a bridge was washed away in a flood, when a new bridge was found most difficult to build, or when a large structure such as a castle was feared for its weak foundation, the ancient people speculated that it was due to the displeasure of deities of the water or earth. In that event, a human sacrifice or a "human pillar" was sometimes made. Later it became an established custom. Just whom to choose and by what method formed the basis of many tragic stories.
    More than 30 years ago breaks were discovered in the inner wall of the Imperial Palace, the former Tokugawa Edo Castle, near where a tower is located. A thorough excavation was made in connection with the repairs and workmen found ten human skulls and accompanying bones.
    There is an old legend in Japan about a certain village chief whose name was Iwafuji. The villagers had to select a man to become a "human pillar" in building a bridge which was washed away frequently and which caused the village much distress. Iwafuji hit upon a capital idea. It was this: the first man who happened, the next morning, to pass the spot where the bridge stood in ruin would be offered as a sacrifice to the deity of the river. The village elders agreed. As Iwafuji was very excited with his own idea, he came out early the next morning to see who would be the victim. The village elders came soon thereafter and contended unanimously in loud voices, "Ye, Iwafuji, shalt offer thyself, because ye hast come the first."And so it was.

    Early Documents on Seppuku
    In the sixth year of Meiwa (1769), a short composition concerning seppuku was indited by Taira Teijo, who also called himself Ise Anzai. According to him, there is no record of seppuku in Japan's oldest chronicles, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. In these chronicles and in other histories immediately following them there are, however, frequent references to suicides, which were usually accomplished by self-strangulation or burning one's self to death by setting fire to one's house.
    In the Hogen Monogatari (Tales of the Hogen Civil War in 1156), there is recorded an account of Minamoto-no-Tametomo who, at the age of 28, disemboweled himself after furious fighting on behalf of a lost cause, leaning against a pillar in his house. Since death was slow in coming, he hastened its advent, before the enemy could catch and abuse him, by cutting into the nerve centers of the spinal column. This is probably the first example of seppuku found in Japanese chronicles.
    Whereas the Hogen Monogatari was written between 1185 and 1190, when seppuku was already known among many samurai, some scholars say that there might be an anachronism in this narrative. However, considering that there was an interval of more than twenty years between the occurrence and the writing, it is not difficult to imagine that such a valiant warrior as Tametomo might have desired to show his valor by utilizing seppuku and that it was practiced with increasing frequency over the following twenty years. His ignorance of the easier method to finish seppuku by cutting the carotid artery, as was learned later, rather than the