Seppuku and hara-kiri: difference in interpretation

It is said that only the real Japanese samurai can determine the true difference between the two terms, meaning suicide by special cold steel . But we'll try to describe seppuku and hara-kiri in this article. Yet the difference between these concepts must still exist!

Ancient custom

The ritual of samurai suicide was used in ancient times. There was it for various reasons. For example, if a warrior committed the death of his master (daimyo), he felt himself deprived of honor. While doing seppuku (seppuku), the samurai showed their courage and loyalty to the suzerain, thus neglecting death and a sense of fear. In medieval Japan seppuku could be committed not only voluntarily, but also by sentence, as a kind of punishment. And in the event that the person who performed the ritual was not trusted for some reason, a special dagger (kusungobu) could be replaced with a fan that the samurai was touching his belly, and at that time the assistant (kaisyakunin) was decapitating with a sword.

Seppuku and hara-kiri. Difference in reading

The search for truth for a Western man who is not accustomed to the traditions of the East is also complicated by the fact that in fact both words are denoted by the same hieroglyphs, only exchanged places. In Japan, there are two ways of reading the hieroglyphic alphabet: the upper and lower. Hence the seppuku and harakiri difference in reading. The upper interpretation is as follows: insides / rip (seb-puku). On the bottom: reads how to rip off / stomach (hara-kiri). There is also a semantic difference in the interpretations of seppuku and harakiri. The difference is that hara-kiri is a more general term that Japanese use in colloquial speech. It rather means any suicide by the use of cold weapons (but also in a figurative sense, for example, suicide for a terrorist suicide bomber).

Book style

Seppuku is rather a book term, and the so-called high calm. It implies a purely ritual samurai suicide, which is executed with observance of all possible conventions, characteristic for the action. Thus, the difference between hara-kiri and seppuk is observed in the fact that the first term generalizes, and the second - is more specific.

A little more history

The ritual of suicide has a centuries-old tradition. Another two thousand years ago, similar actions were used in the Kuriles and the Japanese islands, in Mongolia and Manchuria. At first the ritual was carried out solely by its own will. Then, after several centuries, it began to be used as punishment on orders from above. Among the military aristocracy in Japan of the Middle Ages, the custom has received the widest distribution. Some historians explain this fact by the fact that in the then Japan there were no prisons, and there were only two types of punishments: for minor violations - bodily harm, for large - death. Also, the ritual was almost the only option to wash off the shame and prove the honesty of their intentions. And the notion of honor was highly valued among the samurai.

Secret meaning

Harakiri and seppuku: the difference exists in the secret sense of the action. Of historical interest is the fact that the seppuku rite is performed by opening the abdomen. According to researchers, this gesture symbolizes the uncoveriness of the soul (and the stomach is traditionally perceived as a reservoir of vital energy that disappears during autopsy). Sometimes samurai could not agree with the charges and the verdict pronounced. Thus, ripping the stomach, a man showed the purity of his thoughts, the openness of the soul, and, consequently, his innocence.

Strength and Courage

The ritual itself demanded of the samurai an uncommon strength and courage, since the area of the intestine is traditionally a pain zone. The impact was to be precise and not too deep, so as not to harm the spine. A special manifestation of courage was considered to keep during the process a smile on his face. There are cases when the samurai wrote his death poems with his own blood. Later, the performer of the ritual was allowed to fall on the knife, and not make an X-shaped incision. Still later, so that a person does not lose control over himself during a suicide, a special assistant with a sword cut off the head of a samurai.

Harakiri

This word is used by the Japanese in everyday spoken language (by the way, it also took root in Russian). It means simple suicide, ripping the belly without ritual. So, nevertheless, what is the difference between seppuku and hara-kiri? It can be said in other words: hara-kiri were made commoners, and seppuku - samurai, although, in essence, these are very similar concepts.