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"In our minds this ode of death is assocated with instances of noblest deeds and of most touching pathos. ... So the vilest form of death assumes a sublimity and becmes a symbol of new life.""
-- Nitobe Inazp, The Soul of the Samurai
A samurai was a kind of Japanese knight. The Japanese Bushido code. sometimes called the soul of Japan, was comparable to European chivalry.
【Inazō】 There were many similarities such as extreme loyalty to their feudal lord, fighting skill, and honor unto death. One major difference was suicide. This was prohibited by the Christian church. But suicide was an important aspect of Budshido and Samurai honor. Seppuku or ritual suiside was an act of honor, bravery, and loyalty. Death was a way for a samurai to take responsibility for failure -- thus restoring lost honor. It was to remain loyalty to his master even unto death, part of the Bushido code. Seppuku was the formal ritual suicide by disembowelment practiced adopted by the feudal Japanese samurai. The act itself iwas vert precise. The disgraced samurai wouild use a sshort sharp sword to cut into and open his abdomen. This often inolved an L-shapes incission from left to right and finlly upward. We are not sure why this pattern was adopted. The samurai were noy the only individuals practicing
seppuku, but thy are mostly associated with it. Another term is harakiri. They re essentially he same, only seppuku is the more formal form done with ctrat ceremony and witnesses. It was seen as a honorable form of deasth for failure, but there were other reason, such as to prevent capture, atoning criminal actions, or to demonstrate grief, even accompny a deceased feudal lord. It could be done insolitude or with a aide or second -- a kaishakunin. His duties might imclude at the end to decapitate the peson with a sword to end suffering. There was also a female ritual version -- jigai, involved cutting the throat with a small knife called a tanto. military version of this was the banzi chrge, calculted to at least take some of theneny with you. This actually not uncommonly worked in China. Against the Americans who had massive fire power, it never worked. Of all people the one you might have thought would commit seppuku was Prime-minister Tojo. Rather he took the less grissly path of uing a pistol when the Amerian mlitary police arrived t his door step--but bungled the job. Anoher prime candidate would have been Emperor Hirohito, but he chose the safer path --he reinvnted himself.
Inazō. Nitobe. Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1899).
Yamamoto, Tsunetomo Hagakure. In addition Inazō Nitobeto' book, it s one of te classic works on te Samurai and Bushido. Notice the contrast with Clusevitz who is all about obtaining the objectives. nd nothing about how officrs lead their lives. Interstingly while Yamamoto writes at great length about death and dying, he livd at a relatively peacful time in Japanese history when he and few other Japanese Samurai faced life and death situations. But you can ee hw this thinking led to countl;ess pointless Banzai charges during the Pacific War.
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