Ritual suicide is a tradition started by the Japanese Samurai around 1180AD. It consists of an individual cutting themselves horizontally across and down their abdomen, then finishing the act by slicing into their heads (Hilton). The Opera, Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, is a tragic romance that ends with the Japanese lover committing ritual suicide. Another story that portrays ritual suicide is “Patriotism” by Yukio Mishima. Both of these works shine light onto a Western culture that views such a sacrifice as an honor, and is also a deeply rooted in tradition. Ritual Suicide is an honorable and meaningful end to life that individuals have the choice of making when faced with deep shame, regret, or dishonor.
Ritual suicide is believed to have been conducted by Japanese Samurai for some 700 years, and was a highly ritualized process (Hilton). There were many steps taken to carry out ritual suicide. First the individual had to write a proper death poem or letter to give further meaning to the death. Next, the individual would bathe and change into formal clothes and go to the area he designated for the suicide. More often than not there would be witnesses at this place. This location would be spotless and decorated with a white cloth. Lastly a dagger would be drawn and the individual would slice open their abdomen with the dagger. After slicing into the abdomen the person would take the dagger to their throat and slice all the way through, but not enough to completely decapitate their heads (Hilton). Ritual suicide did not have to involve these steps exactly and could be done hastily, however the cut with a dagger to the abdomen was almost always completed. Ritual suicide was conducted for numerous reasons, but most commonl...
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Yukio Mishima was a brilliant Japanese novelist whose work began to thrive in the late nineteen forty's. His novels focused mainly on Eastern religion, homosexual eroticism and fantasies of death. These controversial themes seem to repel some readers (Magill); however, Mishima remained a dedicated literary artist. In his lifetime he wrote multiple volumes of literature, but only about six or seven earned him a great deal of attention from critics and readers in Japan (Yourcenar 24-25). However, he has earned himself the reputation of Japan’s greatest contemporary novelist (Gale, Magill). Every night Mishima dedicated the late hours to writing his novels. Mishima had been nominated for the Nobel Prize twice in his lifetime, but lost first to his friend Kawabata, and later to Miguel Asturias (Stokes 192). Yukio Mishima should be remembered for his great novels, Confessions of a Mask, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and The Sea of Fertility tetralogy.
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Almost one million people die in Japan every year. In other words, people die every 31 seconds. Some people die because of illness. Some people die because of car accident. Some people commit suicide. There are many kinds of death in this world. I believe most of those deaths are disconsolate and absurd. However, the honorable but unbelievable death existed in Japan in the middle ages. We call that hara-kiri. Hara-kiri is basically an act of killing your self by cutting open your stomach with a sword, performed especially by the warrior, to avoid shame or losing honor. Before I start talking about hara-kiri, I need to explain about the history of Japan.
And in Romeo and Juliet, the two lovers could not find happiness if life, so death was perceived as a way that they could be united with each other. Shakespeare was dealing with a very controversial subject: Was it right to end life in order to escape the cruel and unjust world? In the time of the Renaissance, many things had an impact on suicide such as religion, morals, and aesthetic views. In ancient history suicide was condemned to be a morally wrong sin.
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