It is commonly pointed out that hara-kiri is a vulgarism, but this is a misunderstanding. In Japanese, the more formal seppuku, a Chinese on'yomi reading, is typically used in writing, while harakiri, a native kun'yomi reading, is used in speech. Harakiri is written with the same kanji as seppuku but in reverse order with an okurigana. It is also known as harakiri ( 腹切り, 'cutting the stomach' often misspelled/mispronounced 'hiri-kiri' or 'hari-kari' by American English speakers). The term seppuku is derived from the two Sino-Japanese roots setsu 切 ('to cut', from Middle Chinese tset compare Mandarin qiē and Cantonese chit) and fuku 腹 ('belly', from MC pjuwk compare Mandarin fù and Cantonese fūk). When the Hōjō Clan were defeated at Odawara in 1590, Hideyoshi insisted on the suicide of the retired daimyō Hōjō Ujimasa and the exile of his son Ujinao with this act of suicide, the most powerful daimyō family in eastern Japan was completely defeated.Įtymology Samurai about to perform seppuku Toyotomi Hideyoshi used an enemy's suicide in this way on several occasions, the most dramatic of which effectively ended a dynasty of daimyōs. This weakened the defeated clan so that resistance effectively ceased. Sometimes a daimyō was called upon to perform seppuku as the basis of a peace agreement.

Samurai generally could carry out the act only with permission. Those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to carry out seppuku. It was the assistant's job to decapitate the samurai in one swing, otherwise it would bring great shame to the assistant and his family. The most common form of seppuku for men was composed of the cutting of the abdomen, and when the samurai was finished, he stretched out his neck for an assistant to sever his spinal cord. Later, disgraced warriors were sometimes allowed to carry out seppuku rather than be executed in the normal manner. Samurai could also be ordered by their daimyō ( feudal lords) to carry out seppuku. Seppuku was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands and to attenuate shame and avoid possible torture. The first recorded act of seppuku was performed by Minamoto no Yorimasa during the Battle of Uji in 1180. If the cut is deep enough, it can sever the abdominal aorta, causing a rapid death by blood loss. The ceremonial disembowelment, which is usually part of a more elaborate ritual and performed in front of spectators, consists of plunging a short blade, traditionally a tantō, into the belly and drawing the blade from left to right, slicing the belly open. As a samurai practice, seppuku was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honour rather than fall into the hands of their enemies (and likely be tortured), as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offences, or performed because they had brought shame to themselves. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour, but was also practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa era (particularly officers near the end of World War II) to restore honour for themselves or for their families. Harakiri refers solely to the act of disembowelment and would only be assigned as a punishment towards acts deemed too heinous for seppuku. While harakiri refers to the act of disemboweling oneself, seppuku refers to the ritual and usually would involve decapitation after the act as a sign of mercy. 'abdomen/belly cutting', a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment.

Seppuku ( 切腹, 'cutting belly'), also called hara-kiri ( 腹切り, lit.

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