By Macmillan Jones
Suicide tendencies? Chill. If whatever motivated you to read this is related to a dangling noose or a few doses of rat poison, then caveat: one thing this article does not do is tell you how to get into the (depending on your social status) cheapest or most expensive coffin there is; it merely seeks to enlighten or at the very least, make a gist partner of this board as you mutter to yourself.
The story of the Samurai is one which is looped in the vines of Japanese history, and as such would be virtually incomplete without referring to vital players with high sounding names and critical elements in the entire narrative. However, the purpose here is not a rambling lecture on the history of some faraway island in the Pacific but instead, an autopsy of a crucial component of that history. Yet, it is important to know one thing; the Samurai story started with politics and ended in blood.
The concept of seppuku or ritual suicide is an offshoot of the Bushido, a strict set of rules of moral conduct, which the Samurai were expected to follow in the course of their service to a feudal lord. These rules which were informal and unwritten for several centuries governed the activities of any Samurai. From a rigid sense of honour to the delivery of justice. Albeit in the warrior’s way, the Bushido can easily be described as the foremost code of discipline for the Japanese warrior. And since it is trite knowledge that the enforcement of any law is only done with punishment, regardless of its level, the seppuku is one way these ancient warriors knew well to enforce their laws. The seppuku often involved the use of a tanto (a Japanese short sword), with which the warrior was required to disembowel himself by slicing his belly from left to right in a clean vertical stroke. This ritual, often supervised by a kaishakunin (second) or an executioner is done when a Samurai faces risk of capture by a victorious enemy. It is also performed when the warrior has committed a grievous offence such as: rape or when the warrior, ashamed of having lost in battle and failing his daimyo (feudal lord), attempts to redeem his image through suicide. The code’s punishment for failure saw heightened prominence amongst Japanese officers in the 20th century, during world war two.
Most important amongst the lessons of the Samurai is perhaps the discipline which it made rife in the echelons of the society. The samurai conduct was not limited to the warrior class alone, it was also emulated in the civilian rungs of the Japanese system. The price for the defilement of a family’s honour was the sacrifice of oneself. In relation to Nigeria, one can almost say it would perhaps be interesting to see the Nigerians cum ‘Marlians’ of today struggling against momentary allurements for the preservation of face. The greatest intrigue to ‘’this moral finality is that the regulation of conduct is hardly a whip for the state alone, but reclines for the most part in the hands of the individual. In other words, it is the people’s punishment to people-owned crimes.
Ritual suicide was also a means of creating accountability in individuals. Regardless of how extreme the recompense for acting otherwise may be, it still ensured a sense of duty and a compulsion to deliver amongst those with specialized functions. The samurai cut into the red of his abdomen whenever he failed his master; the family member exsanguinated himself to pay for his transgressions to the god of society; at every instance was the need to accomplish with a strong sense of personal duty. Need one even compare? The imagery above immediately sends the mind to excurse into a homeland of glorious opportunities and a nation where one would not be so eager to derail unabashed from assigned roles and even step boldly into the public to weave abysmal tales.
In addition, the seppuku (or hara-kiri as it is sometimes called) can also be attributed to the warrior’s emplaced belief of indebtedness to the home of the Nipponese. High standards of honour and a very insane propulsion to battle against impossible odds for the sake of the motherland is one particular quality which any forward looking nation would covertly or openly desire to possess among its people. This is in the sense that such nationalism is not constrained to military ranks alone. During the Second World War for instance, Japanese citizens down to children in their early teens were mobilized into motivated home guards with auxiliary duties. One could say that this was achieved with deranged degrees of indoctrination into a warped realm of singular loyalty; one could even argue that such mobilizations can be found in any place where wartime contingencies have imposed a need for such; but, in how many instances in history asides from our self-exploding friends in incendiary jackets have a people been known to rally as one to die in ferocious manners for a central mission which to all intents and purposes is best described as twisted? Note, however, that this author does not advocate a series of convoluted waves of abdominal excisions but instead, ponders on the ideal of a home country where citizens are more inclined to attaining national interests as opposed to a pursuit of pocket-massaging goals.
Finally, in submission to a tempting desire to see a few people off the earth’s surface and under it, the author requests meekly: “if you are a brazen thief, rapist or some psycho with absolutely no hope of redemption, why wait for the police? Search your cabinet for a shiny piece of metal, blunted or not is the last given choice and in the final throes, I remain yours truly.”
