The Last Act

Perhaps the only capability in human nature that is darker than murder is the ability to take one’s own life. Suicide is an inevitability of the human condition; it seems to exist in nearly every culture and is generally reviled. Most of the world’s major religions treat suicide as an affront to Divinity and the secular world tends to treat suicidal individuals as mentally unstable and in need of help, sometimes against the will of the individual in question.

But seemingly few cultures took suicide to the extreme of Feudal Japan. For many members of the ruling class, suicide was a gruesome and inevitable end.

The tradition of ritual suicide first appears to have started in 1192 A.D. during the Kamakura Bakufu (“Tent-Government,” or military rule.) This turbulent time period is known as much for the growth and spread of multiple schools of Japanese Buddhism as it is for the invasion of Japan by the Mongols under the leadership of Kublai Khan. In this state of immense violence, Samurai warriors would stop at nothing to guarantee that they would be captured. Suicide on the battlefield is not new, but in the highly militarized culture of 12th Century Japan and it’s warlords would leave a lasting imprint, seemingly strong enough to nearly enter the 20th century.

The act of ritual suicide is known in Japan as Seppuku, literally meaning “cutting the belly.” From a modern Western standpoint, it is difficult to conceive why anyone would want to take part in this so it helps to understand the world of Feudal Japan. Until the Meiji restoration of 1868, the Japanese world was divided by a rigid caste system. At the top of the social order was the Shogun or Daimyo. They take were the actual leaders of the country, with the Emperor of Japan existing primarily as the head of the indigenous religion of Shinto but few actual temporal authorities. Enforcing this system were the Samurai, who functioned not only as soldiers for the regional leaders, but as bureaucrats, educated-elite, and police. Beneath them existed the majority of people; primarily craftsmen and farmers.

For those individuals born into the Samurai caste, the notion of absolute loyalty to the State and it’s leaders was expected. While much has been written in the modern era regarding the philosophy and ethics of this warrior class (called Bushido) it is debatable as to how much it was actually adhered to, versus how much of it is more a concept dictated by World War II-era Imperial Japanese propaganda. What is not debatable, however, is that the expectations put upon the warrior class. The word Samurai roughly translates to “To Serve” or “Servant,” even if it means following the order of their superior to the death.

For the common-folk of Feudal Japan, a death sentence meant facing beheading or strangulation. For the Samurai class (or anyone else above them in caste system) the “method of dispatch” was formal, designed to give the Samurai a death was both certain and dignified.

Upon the declaration that a Samurai must commit Seppuku, the condemned would be required to prepare, quite literally for his death. The Samurai would don an entirely white outfit, traditionally worn for funerals. They would compose a short poem to metaphorically describe their death, drink a final cup of rice wine, and be led to the spot of their execution. (It should be noted that there was a similar tradition of Seppuku for the wives and female members of the Samurai class, but that it was not as common.) The traditions of Seppuku indicate that for the Samurai it was a honorable death. In his classic 1871 text, Tales of Old Japan, Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford wrote of a Samurai named Zenzaburo who had attacked visiting dignitaries from Europe. “After another profound obeisance, Taki Zenzaburo, in a voice which betrayed just so much emotion and hesitation as might be expected from a man who is making a painful confession, but with no sign of either in his face or manner, spoke as follows: ‘I, and I alone, unwarrantably gave the order to fire on the foreigners at Kobe.  and again as they tried to escape. For this crime I disembowel myself, and I beg you who are present to do me the honor of witnessing the act.’    Bowing once more, the speaker allowed his upper garments to slip down to his girdle, and remained naked to the waist….he tucked his sleeves under his knees to prevent himself from falling backwards; for a noble Japanese gentleman should die falling forwards. Deliberately, with a steady hand, he took the dirk that lay before him; he looked at it wistfully, almost affectionately; for a moment he seemed to collect his thoughts for the last time, and then stabbing himself deeply below the waist on the left-hand side, he drew the dirk slowly across to the right side, and, turning it in the wound, gave a slight cut upwards. During this sickeningly painful operation he never moved a muscle of his face….At that moment the kaishaku(the condemned Samurai's "second"), who, still crouching by his side, had been keenly watching his every movement, sprang to his feet, poised his sword for a second in the air; there was a flash, a heavy, ugly thud, a crashing fall; with one blow the head had been severed from the body. A dead silence followed, broken only by the hideous noise of the blood throbbing out of the inert heap before us, which but a moment before had been a brave and chivalrous man. It was horrible”

It should be mentioned that this form of ceremonial disembowelment was not reserved exclusively for capital punishment; disgrace or loss of “face” could be and often was sufficient cause. The culture of Japan, both ancient and modern, has always been deeply steeped in the notion of honor. To have one’s name or reputation severely besmirched not only damaged the person, but the person’s family and ancestors as well. It would be better, the logic of this “honorable suicide” dictates, for a person to willing cease to live than to continue to insult family and ancestry by being alive. As well, a very special form of Seppuku, called Junshi, became especially problematic. Upon the death of noble lord, the throng of Samurai that served as his retainers would commit this gruesome form of suicide en masse as a sign of loyalty to their leader. This practice became so common that the Tokugawa Shogunate issued a statement in the 1660’s banning the practice. According to the Buke Sho Hatto, published in 1663, "That the custom of following a master in death is wrong and unprofitable is a caution which has been at times given of old; but, owing to the fact that it has not actually been prohibited, the number of those who cut their belly to follow their lord on his decease has become very great. For the future, to those retainers who may be animated by such an idea, their respective lords should intimate, constantly and in very strong terms, their disapproval of the custom. If, notwithstanding this warning, any instance of the practice should occur, it will be deemed that the deceased lord was to blame for unreadiness. Henceforward, moreover, his son and successor will be held to be blameworthy for incompetence, as not having prevented the suicides."



Suicide in modern Japan is still a common occurrence. Legally speaking, there is no prohibition against the act though government organizations have made official statements attempting to dissuade suicidal individuals from the act. While ritual disembowelment is all but a thing of the past, it was estimated by the World Health Organization in 2009 that 32,845 people committed suicide, generally by means of hanging, poisoning, or jumping from buildings and other elevated surfaces. Though it is impossible to directly link the self-destructiveness of Japan’s Feudal past to modern behavior and psychology, it is certainly noteworthy to consider that the Japanese are historically rooted in this sort of activity. Time will be the judge of whether the modern world can erase this most ancient habit.