Hara-Kiri: Japanese Ritual Suicide Read Free Page B

excruciating cutting into the spinal nerve center, may well serve to indicate that his act of seppuku, if not the very first, was at least one of the first such cases, since it was carried out in such a primitive fashion.
    Another example in the Tales of the Hogen Civil War is the narrative about Naiki-no-Heita who committed seppuku in the following manner: When Minamoto-no-Tame-yoshi was killed in the Hogenfighting,Otowaka, his child of thirteen, and three other children were beheaded the following day. The youngest of these children was called Tenno, and was seven years of age. Right after the decapitation of this child, his guard, Naiki-no-Heita, clasped the child's headless body to him in a fit of passionate grief and committed seppuku, saying how painful it would be to live on—remembering his young master's fate—and that he had better die to follow his master.
    In a painting of a scene from the Go-Sannen-Gassen (Three-Year War, 1086-89), there is an incident of seppuku depicted. Yamano Shotaro, in his book on the subject of suicide, comments that it is possible that the artist included the seppuku scene in view of the established custom in his own time rather than in the time of the War. The conclusion of the Go-Sannen-Gassen was 67 years prior to the Hogen Civil War. Therefore, the picture's scene would be considerably older than Tametomo's seppuku.
    Ten years after Tametomo's suicide, Minamoto-no-Yorimasa, wounded and defeated in battle, entered Byodoin Temple (in Uji, south of Kyoto) to execute the same deed. Sitting on his fan and leaving a poem of farewell, he pressed the point of a long sword to his abdomen, and, leaning forward, forced the blade into his body. This method of seppuku became the acceptable style soon thereafter.
    During the so-called Yoshino Era, furious battles were often fought between the cliques of the two reigning Emperors. This era lasted from 1336 to 1392. When the Hojo military regime (which succeeded the Genji) was overthrown by an army sent by Emperor Godaigo, it seemed that peace had come to the Kyoto Regime, centered, as it was, around the Emperor. But, with the rebellion of Ashikaga Takauji, the Emperor had to flee to Yoshino, south of Kyoto, where he established a government that administered the neighboring areas and vowed eventually to extend its sway over the entire country. On the other hand, Ashikaga enthroned a new Emperor, chosen from among the kinsmen of the Imperial Family. Thus two Emperors reigned simultaneously. The regime in Kyoto was called the Hoku-cho, or North Court, and the one in Yoshino was called the Nan-cho, or South Court.
    In a 40-scroll chronicle called Taiheiki, stirring stories are recounted about samurai who ended their lives bravely by seppuku during numerous encounters between the adherents of the two courts:
Toki-no-Juro. Cutting his abdomen, he turned toward the north * and then succumbed.
    Murakami Yoshiteru. Realizing that his master, Prince Morinaga, must either escape from their desperate last stand or commit suicide, Murakami determined to sacrifice himself for his master. He climbed to the top of a tower of the citadel and shouted down to their foes below, "Behold, I am Prince Morinaga.Watch with your eyes what I do!"
    Removing his outer garment, he made a deep straight cut across his abdomen from left to right. Then, pulling out a handful of his intestines, he flung them against the wooden side of the tower and putting his short knife point-first into his mouth, fell forward on his face.
    Kusunoki Masashige. When Kusunoki, a devoted adherent to the cause of Emperor Godaigo, lost a battle against the overwhelming forces of the Ashikaga at Minatogawa (Kobe) in 1336, he and his brother, Masasue, committed mutual suicide by piercing each other with their long swords.
    Kusunoki Masatsura. When Masatsura, son of Kusunoki Masashige, lost the battle at Shijo-Nawate against the powerful army of the Ashikaga and immolated himself for the cause, 32