HARA-KIRI.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 August 1924, Page 4

HARA-KIRI.

Accor.liiijr iii riM-cMt m«>ssii|>cs liomi

•lapau there is n protest throughout the country against the American Immigration Act oxelmling .Japanese. An nnkimwtt mail has eoinmitted HaraKiri outside the American Legation in To kin as an appeal to the American people against the Act. Two others have follow;:! his example, says Dorothy Kosier in the “Daily .Mail.” They must have I icon soils of Old Japan who took their lives in the traditional h.dief that dishonour ran nitty he vindicated through self-inilioied death.

Ii is a mistake to assume that the secret of .Japanese eliivalrv and patriotism lies in tlie idea that life ireckoned of little worth. No people possessing so eoiieen ti n tod an int erest in things beautiful ami artistic could he held capable of under-estimating the joys ol life and living. Moralise the soldiers of Japan go forth to battle in a fever of enthusiasm, it should not lie thought that they dill'or from the soldiers of other nations in their outlook upon the issues of war, lie they victory or death. It is that they* are, inspire:! by the spirit of Undo and, hohling life dear, give it gladly because il is the greatest of all things they have tu give—the supreme sacrifice.

In olden times in Japan the custom ol SYppuku, or Hara-Kiri, was the form of execution used for crimes of a heinous nature, and it is of particular interest to note that the crimes for which the death penalty was inflicted were all of an anti-national character —treason, sedition, di-lovalty to Km-1

peror or Daimio. The act of Hara-Kiri was in early feudal times an elaborate and impre»-

sivo ceremony involving serious pn paration. The sifiit' ol execution ua set as tor a stage, tlin main hall ol some tempi? generally lii’inn selected, wiu*rt* mats kept for this especial purpose would he placed within tut enclosure ol screen's and curtains. Here witnesses would lie assembled, and the principal—:ts the one to ho executed was mimed—would appear arrayed in the Cull regalia of ceremonial Court costume, attended by two squires. Seatiin; himself upon the mats, he had to listen to the public reading of the account of his crime, and would then he asked if he desired any final messages to he conveyed to his family after his death. Thanking his judges t

for this courtesy and privilege, lie would address to them his words of la rowel I, generally an acknowledgment ol the justice of his fate, and the dirk or short sword used in the ceremony of Hara-Kiri would then lie presented to him unon a trav.

•Stripping to the waist, he would inflict upon himself two abdominal incisions, the one perpendicular, the other horizontal ; whereupon the principal squire would immediately sever his head with cue stroke of the long sword.

J hi* first protest agaiu-t the custom was made in lfvifi. ten years alter the opening of tin* ports, hy an oflieial who had on several occasion- rendered him self eon-picuou- hy introducing ideas hast'd upon an admiration of Western civilisation, and Hara-Kiri as a method of execution was gradually aholi-licd. But among the faithful adherents of Undo, that spirit of ancient Japan, it is still p:\retised privately by those feeling themselves culpable of crime or the victims of dishonour. It is an agonising form of suicide, as its name conveys—Harn. the stomach, and Kiri, present tense of the verb "to cat." The result is complete clisembow.dment, and. without the merciful severing of the head, death is by

lice means instantaneous. The act is always preceded bv a lengthy ceremony of prayer, the reiteration c:l the weirds Naina—Amida— 1 llat -n! "Hail. Amida llueielha !” . used by lbe .loci i sect of Buddhists, or Nama -.M.vci —Ho- Benge—Kvo I ("Hail, Jewel Lotus ol tlie- Law!"!, tt-ed lev the later-estuhlislted Xicliiren sect. The cli'ort of this ceaseless repetition produces a trance-like and sublime oblivion to all earthly things, and wlion the stale of exaltation lias been achieved sufliciciit to enable the perpetrator to feel he can ;go lortli to meet, bis ancestors with honour ttndefiled the fatal strokes are made. It is the extreme expiation for slmme and disgrace whose burden is too hitter to be borne—the final gesture of roiiUMeintion and supplication.