is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai honor code, seppuku has been used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, as a form of capital punishment for samurai who have committed serious offenses, and for reasons that shamed them. Seppuku is performed by plunging a sword into the abdomen and moving the sword left to right in a slicing motion. The practice of committing seppuku at the death of one's master, known as oibara (追腹 or 追い腹, the kun'yomi or Japanese reading) or tsuifuku (追腹, the on'yomi or Chinese reading), follows a similar ritual. (more)
Genres: politics, entertainment, movies
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Kamikaze:
( ) is a word of Japanese origin, which in English usually refers to the suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan, against Allied shipping, in the closing stages of the Pacific campaigns of World War II, to destroy as much warshi
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Japanese funeral:
A Japanese funeral includes a wake, the cremation of the deceased, a burial in a family grave, and a periodic memorial service. 99.82% of all deceased Japanese are cremated, according to 2005 statistics. Most of these are then buried in a family grav
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Jigai:
The word jigai means "suicide" in Japanese. The usual modern word for suicide is jisatsu. Related words include jiketsu, jijin and jijin. Jigai refers to suicide by both females and males including samurai. Some females belonging to samurai family co
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Samurai:
Samurai is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. The word samurai is derived from the archaic Japanese verb samorau, changed to saburau, meaning "to serve"; thus, a samurai is a servant, i.e. the servant of a lord.
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Kaishakunin:
A kaishakunin (Japanese: 介錯人) is an appointed second whose duty is to behead one who has committed seppuku at the moment of agony. Aside from the purpose of being spared prolonged anguish until death, both the condemned and those on hand to observe a
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Masakatsu Morita:
Masakatsu Morita was the Tatenokai member who committed seppuku with Yukio Mishima at the Ichigaya Camp. He was the youngest child of a headmaster. Losing both parents at the age of two, he was cared for by his brother Osamu and educated at a Catholi
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Hiroyasu Koga:
Hiroyasu Koga (古賀浩靖 Koga Hiroyasu) is a former Tatenokai (楯の会) member responsible for the decapitation of Yukio Mishima during his seppuku on November 25, 1970. He studied law at Kanagawa University, and intended to become a lawyer. Koga, known by th
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Forty-seven Ronin:
The revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin, also known as the Forty-seven Samurai, the Akō vendetta, or the Genroku Akō incident took place in Japan at the start of the eighteenth century. The tale has been described by one noted Japanese scholar as the co
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Shibata Katsuie:
Shibata Katsuie or Gonroku was a Japanese military commander during the Sengoku Period who served Oda Nobunaga. Katsuie was born in the Shibata family, a cadet branch of the Shiba clan (who descended from the Ashikaga clan, and were the former suzera
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Azai Nagamasa:
Azai Nagamasa was a Daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japan. His clan, the Azai, were located in northern Ōmi Province, east of Lake Biwa. He was both the brother-in-law of Oda Nobunaga, starting in 1564, and one of Nobunaga's enemies from 1570-157
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Minamoto no Yorimasa:
Minamoto no Yorimasa :From which we gather no flowers :Fated no fruit to produce
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Hōjō Ujimasa:
(1538 - August 10, 1590) was the fourth head of the late Hōjō clan, and daimyo of Odawara. He commanded in many battles, consolidating his clan's position, and retired in 1590. His son Hōjō Ujinao became head of the clan and lord of Odawara, but late
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Hōjō Ujinao:
Hōjō Ujinao (北条氏直: 1562 - December 19, 1591) was a Japanese daimyo of the late Sengoku period, and the final head of the Late Hōjō clan. An important figure in the history of Azuchi-Momoyama politics, he lost his entire domain following the siege in
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Sakai incident:
The Sakai incident was the killing of 11 French sailors from the French corvette Dupleix in the port of Sakai near Osaka, Japan in 1868. On March 8, 1868, a skiff sent to Sakai was attacked by samurai of the Tosa clan; 11 sailors and Midshipman Guill
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