Why was suicide by disembowelment popular in ancient Japan? Is death a performance art in the land of craftsmen?

01 Life and death in Japanese culture

There's a story about the Japanese concept of life and death:

In ancient times, there was a Kamaishi God, also known as Joong-Joong Pestle and Pestle, who was the grandson of Amaterasu Omikami, the great-grandfather of Japan's founding emperor, Emperor Jimmu.

One day, the god met a beautiful girl named ? Kibana no Sakuya Biyori? which translates roughly to ? Cherry blossoms in full bloom. The two fell in love at first sight. They fell in love at first sight, and Kikyo asked the girl's father, Oyama Tsugumi, to marry him.

Sakura in full bloom

Oyamazumi was so happy to see a taker that he betrothed both his daughters to Kamaishi. It turned out that the cherry blossom maiden also had an older sister, named Ishinaga Biyori, who was extremely ugly. Seeing this, the god of arts was so afraid that he hurriedly invited his sister back to his mother's house, leaving only his sister behind, and made a good deed that night.

The father, Oyamazu, saw that the god suffered a bad review and was also returned, and said angrily: ? There is a reason why I packed my two daughters and offered them to you. Marry my eldest daughter, and in the future, no matter the wind and rain, your life span will be as solid and immovable as a rock; marry my youngest daughter, and you will be like the cherry blossoms that fill the trees and bloom brilliantly. Now you put? Rock? sent back, then the lifespan of Tenjin Mikoto will only be like the cherry blossoms, glorious but fleeting!

That's right, this is the Japanese culture's concept of life and death, to be born like a cherry blossom in full bloom, burning to its fullest value, and then to be destroyed even if it is quickly. As Master Dogen, the originator of Japanese Zen, said:

When you are about to die, don't have any attachment to life, but go to your death with determination.

And when you are alive, live every minute and every second with all your strength.

The upcoming expedition of the ? Kamikaze?

Toward the end of World War II, the Japanese Army's infamous ? Kamikaze?

The team song sung during the takeoff of a suicide sortie also focuses on the sentiment:

Sakura Shoreman, not a grass, not a tree.

The beautiful butterfly is the wife.

The cherry blossoms are in full bloom, and the falling flowers are colorful.

The wind is gone, and it will always be the soul.

This morning's fluttering, tomorrow's waning.

Sakura, Sakura, I will serve you.

Influenced by this, Japan is a traditionally large country of suicide, since 1998, 10 consecutive years, the annual number of suicides are more than 30,000 people, and even frequent use of the Internet to convene the mass suicide.

And Japanese literati, too, are obsessed with rendering and glorifying the phenomenon of suicide, such as the famous painter Harue Koga, who said: ? There is no higher art than death? , in literature, also preached the so-called ? The beauty of sorrow and the beauty of destruction. The beauty of destruction.

But when it comes to the art of death, there is no higher art than? The art of death, however, has no greater splendor and splendor than that of suicide by disembowelment. There's nothing more colorful, more Japanese.

02 Why do you have to mess with your stomach?

In our Chinese mythology, the Yellow Emperor cut off the head of Interceptor, but still indomitable fighting the sky and the earth. Since then, China's tragic heroes, such as Bai Qi, Xiang Yu, Wu Zixu, You Sanjie? Many of them cut their own throats. And the Japanese habit of cutting their stomachs began in mythological times.

The king of the Chu hegemony cut his own throat in the Wujiang River

According to the "Records of the Customs and Earth of the Land of Harima," a long time ago there was a godly couple, a woman named Awaumi, and a man named Hananami. This Flower Wave? Wave? s a bit too much, as a negative man, Temagami resentment, hara-kiri and then threw himself into the water and died. That area of water is known as the "Paikou Numa". Paikoumu?

This shows the strength of Japanese women underneath their soft exterior, as there were more than 200 cases of female suicide by hara-kiri in the 100 years after the Meiji Restoration.

The earliest recorded case of a disembowelment in real history was that of a bandit, Tengara Yoshi, in 989 A.D., who, when surrounded by government troops and in a desperate situation, opened his belly with a knife and threw his entrails at them to show his disdain for the other side and to make a mockery of them.

And in 1156? Bao yuan of the rebellion? in 1156 was the first Japanese samurai in history to commit suicide by disemboweling himself. Since then, disembowelment has gradually become a privilege and honor for the samurai class, and is strictly forbidden for commoners. The general public was strictly forbidden to enjoy it.

The first person to explicitly use disembowelment as a punishment was the famous Toyotomi Hideyoshi. At the time, disembowelment was a form of punishment similar to that of the Chinese Empire's "three feet of white silk". three feet of white silk? It was a kind of favor. and only the monarch's trusted subordinates deserved to have it. only those who were close to the monarch deserved it. For example, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's adopted son and heir, Toyotomi Hideji, received this kind of? A high level of treatment. and died with great generosity.

Artistic modeling of the Japanese samurai

The question arises, head up and wipe the neck, convenient and easy, but the disembowelment of the abdomen to be undressed, busy and can not be killed, the Japanese why have to rush to the stomach to make efforts?

Because the ancient Japanese believe that the human soul is hidden in the abdomen, cut the stomach before death, the soul has a way out. In Japanese culture, the human abdomen has thoughts and feelings, it is simply the second brain, even courage, will, love and so on, are also hidden in the abdomen.

In Japanese, ? is? Ideas?

In Japanese, "belly" means "mind" and "heart". mind? There's also a word for it. "Ventriloquism". We are all familiar with this word, which is also imported from Japanese, and it means? It's also a Japanese word that means "to be sinister". It means "to be sinister", and "to be dirty". "dirty". or? "Abdominal filth". which means that the person is? "bad quality"? Japanese? "Tachibana means "to be angry". to be angry. and in Japanese, it's? "Together. means to work together or to conspire.

So you see, this is not what we Chinese understand by the word ? The stomach? It is the soul of the soul. The belly of the soul.

This is a very good example of how the Chinese understand the word "stomach", but it's also the "belly" of the soul!

Particularly for the high-minded, proud, people down frame not down, the samurai, they believe in ? The only thing a samurai learns is not to fear death. People even if the defeat death, but also to cut open their own abdomen, will be open to show the soul to others, in order to show the splendor of death and sublime, but also with a little bit of I was defeated, but in the spirit of your arrogance.

The sanctity and glory of disembowelment comes from this.

But the question is, it seems simple to go down with a knife, the technical content here, can really quite a lot?