In the recent Cecil article on suicide, he mentions hara-kiri.
Now, with my extensive knowledge of History channel programs, I could swear that I was mindlessly drooling at the tv one day when I heard that seppuku was the correct term and hara-kiri was a term made up by us stupid gaijin.
So, has the master made a mistake? Or was he simply catering to his audience who might not have heard of seppuku?
I couldn’t find any cites on the web where people were getting upset about the use of the term hara-kiri, so it is possible that this History channel program was making it up.
Both titles are definitely correct Japanese. Seppuku is an on-yomi word, or a word read with the pronunciation imitative of the original Chinese characters. It is written thus:
切腹
The first character means “cut”; the second means “belly.”
Harakiri is a kun-yomi word; that is, read with original Japanese pronunciations. It is written thus:
腹切
See? The characters are simply reversed. Now, as to what word the bushi preferred way back then, I have no idea. Both words are used in Japanese conversation now, although, as you may imagine, it’s not a topic that comes up all the time.
BTW, you’ll be able to see those characters if you go into Display, then Encode in MS Explorer. Choose one of the Japanese selections until you can see it.
I’m not completely sure on this, but I thought that seppuku referred more to the elaborate ritual that ended in hara kiri. It’s just a slightly different connotation.
You may be onto something in that only educated bushi might have known (or bothered to use) a Chinese word like seppuku, whereas the vulgar might have known (or used) harakiri. I could research it, but I’m too lazy…
OK, in my Japanese dictionary (all Japanese), it says (my translation):
Seppuku. To die by cutting one’s own belly. Harakiri. [The lightest death penality for a bushi in teh Edo period.]
Harakiri. To commit suicide by cutting the belly. Seppuku.
(from Shougakukan Kokugojiten).
Both entries list the other word, but the bushi angle does seem stronger in the seppuku entry, as it is not listed in the other. Wording is also a little different.
If we look at the kokugojiten tool of www.goo.ne.jp…
My understanding was that after Seppuku the supplicant was beheaded by an “official” in attendance as Seppuku was an honorable ritual suicide. Hari-kari is merely homestyle disembowelling for the plebs.
No, I see nothing to support this hypothesis. No distinction is made in either of the Japanese dictionaries I have consulted, nor have I ever heard such of such during my 7+ years in Japan.
However, the two words might have had a different nuance or connotation for people in the past. Keep in mind that only bushi (again, AFAIK) cut their own guts, Toshio Mishima being the nutcase exception to the rule.
On a side note, “hara” belly or stomach is often used idiomatically in Japanese as “heart” is in English. 彼は腹の中は正直な男だ. “Kare ha nara no naka ha chojikina okoku da” He is an honest man at heart. Literally, he is an honest man in his belly.
“Kara wo kiru” to cut one’s belly means to take responsibility, but it also is used when a businessman has to pay for entertaining clients himself when he is unable to get reimbursed by the company. Believe me, in Tokyo, this in not for the meek.
Historically, suppuku was not as common as what is often believed in the West. It is extremely painful, which is why the second person cuts off the head (kubi wo kiru, now also used to mean to fire someone). Some people would just make a small cut to satisfy ritual. After a person was ordered to commit seppuku, he could postpone it by claiming to be too sick, and was allowed very generous recovery time, essentially making the punishment into a house arrest.
Again this accords with my understanding that Seppuku was all about ritual and not actual “belly cutting”. The Kaishakunin, or “second” (generally a close friend of the supplicant) despatched them with a sharp sword at their signal. Even reaching for the knife was sufficient proof of intent. My belief that this is true stems from stuff I read years ago after seeing 47 Ronin where the 47 Samurai are compelled to commit Seppuku but in fact don’t do any “belly cutting”. I will check for a source a little more explanatory than a dictionary.
BTW, in the David Bowie movie, “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” one of the prison guards mentions “hara-kiri,” as it is translated into the subtitles. However, you can very clearly hear him saying “seppuku.”
This was my, admittedly limited, understanding as well, although I acquired it from a different source. The two terms could very well be considered synonymous buy thesaurus standards, but I still think sepukku connotes the rather elaborate ritual of belly-cutting while hara-kiri is a belly cutting that could occur right on the battlefield.
Sorry, kids, this is just crap on the net, those quotes. If there’s any difference between the two words, it’s the rate at which they were used by different groups in Japan. I have yet to see any decent evidence that bushi preferred one or the other, or that the common folk preferred one or another. All I can say is that “seppuku,” because it is a pseudo-Chinese reading, is likely to have seemed more literary or intellectual.
At least as far as I understand (and as far as any dictionnary is concerned) the two terms are equivalent. I think Aeschines did a good job of pointing that out. I’ll add that seppuku and hara-kiri aren’t the only words. There is also kappuku and tofuku.
As for hara-kiri being more “vulgar”, I think I identified the original source of this assesment. A. B. Mitford was an early English diplomat in Japan who wrote a very popular book titled “Tales of Old Japan”. This is a book that was very influencial in forming the image that Europeans had of Japan. On page 40 of the paperback (you can read it here) he adds the following footnote:
This requires some explanation. As has been touched on earlier in this thread, characters in Japanese can be read according to their Chinese roots (on-yomi) or their native Japanese meaning (kun-yomi). As a general matter of style, the more technical and formal the language, the more you will prefer on-yomi compounds over kun-yomi words. For instance, both abunai(kun-yomi) and kiken(on-yomi) mean the same thing - dangerous. You are, however, somewhat more likely to hear the former in everyday speech and the later in technical texts.
When Mitford writes that “hara-kiri” is vulgar, he means “vulgar” in the sense of “colloquial” or “casual”. This is not a specific statement on hara-kiri vs. seppuku but a general one on on-yomi vs. kun-yomi.
Mitford had the opportunity to witness an official seppuku and relates the episode in his book. The relevent passage can be found on this page. You might want to skip the rest of the page, but the lengthy quote is accurate. He also described in detail the rules and customs of this form of execution. You can browse the actual text here.
All of those cites were from different websites, some certainly seemed reasonably legitimate: some dedicated to history of samurai, and one was a paper on philosophies on suicide. I think there is ample evidence that while the two words have the same denotation, they have different connotations, however subtle.
But thanks!