Ebook: Hara-Kiri: Japanese Ritual Suicide

THE MAJOR purpose of this book is to clarify the historico-sociological background and significance of a unique Japanese method of self-destruction which, by stages during the feudal ages (1190-1867), became institutionalized under the name of seppuku and came to be an integral part of the discipline of the samurai, the warrior class. Although seppuku was a form of suicide, it was often awarded to an offender as a form of honorable but necessary punishment. In time, it came to characterize Bushido, the moral code of the warrior class.