To commit “seppuku,” Japanese ritual suicide, one used a short samurai sword or a dirk-like knife to first make a deep incision into the belly and then cut horizontally across the abdomen to disembowel oneself. This of course was excruciatingly painful, but the victim was soon put out of his misery by his second, or kaishakunin, who delivered the coup de grace by lopping off his head with one deft sweep of his katana sword.
Seppuku was practiced by Japanese samurai for 700 years: from 1180, when the famous Minamoto Yorimasa disemboweled himself in order to avoid being captured by his enemies, until the practice was banned in 1868, when Japan entered its modern era. Before killing himself, Minamoto calmly composed the following death poem:
“Like a fossil tree from which we gather no flowers
Sad has been my life, fated no fruit to produce”
Minamoto’s suicide set three precedents: cutting the belly, where the soul was believed to reside–thereby releasing it; decapitation by a trusted second (in this first case of seppuku, a faithful retainer of Minamoto’s removed his head and sunk it in a river to prevent his enemies from taking his head as a trophy to be displayed on a stake–a common practice all through Japan’s feudal period); and the writing of a death poem (this practice has survived until today. There are books available on the market that provide instruction on how to write a proper death poem).
Seppuku subsequently became highly ritualized (hence the English translation, “ritual suicide”) and elaborate rules of etiquette were developed. By the Edo period, during which Japan experienced 250 years of peace and relative order under the draconian rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate, seppuku was used as a punishment for errant samurai and the higher ranking daimyo, or feudal lords, albeit a more honorable punishment than simple execution.
During the early Edo period–the seventeenth century–seppuku was usually carried out in a Buddhist temple, but from the beginning of the eighteenth century, the custom was to have the condemned perform the ceremony at the palace of a daimyo, either inside the palace or in the garden, depending on the rank of the man who was to disembowel himself. Regardless of whether it was indoors or outside, the place of execution was prepared with tatami mats covered with white cloth of either cotton or silk, with the dirk to be used for the hara-kiri (both seppuku and hara-kiri literally mean “cut the belly”), and a bucket to receive the severed head, placed decorously out of sight behind a screen.
Both decorum and purity were important elements of the ritual. Before killing himself, the accused bathed and changed into new, formal attire. He then went to the place of execution, where the functionaries of the ceremony and the witnesses had already gathered. First, the charges and sentence were solemnly read out, and then the principal retired briefly to change clothes one more time. Once the principal had returned, the execution was carried out forthwith. Sitting on his heels, and exposing his upper body, the principal tucked the upper garments of his kimono tightly under his legs to prevent his body from falling ignominiously backward. He carefully picked up the dirk that rested on a small wooden stand placed in front of him, which he then used as a seat to prop himself up straight and slightly forward, leaving the neck exposed. He composed himself, and then plunged the blade into his abdomen. At that point, his second struck a blow that, if all went well, cleanly severed his head from his body. The skilled kaishakunin would leave the head attached to the body by just a flap of skin, to prevent it from rolling indecorously across the floor.