[Japanophiles] Suicidal Honor

[Trading Department]

Suicidal Honor
General Nogi and the Writings of
Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki


On September 13, 1912, the day of Emperor Meiji's funeral, General  
Nogi Maresuke committed ritual suicide by seppuku (disembowelment).  
It was an act of delayed atonement that paid a debt of honor incurred  
thirty-five years earlier. The revered military hero's wife joined in  
his act of junshi ("following one's lord into death"). The violence  
of their double suicide shocked the nation. What had impelled the  
general and his wife, on the threshold of a new era, to resort so  
drastically, so dramatically, to this forbidden, anachronistic  
practice? The nation was divided. There were those who saw the  
suicides as a heroic affirmation of the samurai code; others found  
them a cause for embarrassment, a sign that Japan had not yet crossed  
the cultural line separating tradition from modernity.

Sneak a free peak at Chapter 1:

http://www.rolomail.com/cgi-bin/sanadd.pl?171
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