Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Hey,

I was just thinkin', have we ever had Sepuku in Usagi? I can't recall it... if we have, I must have forgotten...

To my recollection, a few minor characters have been ordered to perform seppuku.

But my favorite story on the subject is Broken Ritual. Gives more of a detailed description of the ritual itself.

Usagi participated in one. I forget which issue, but it was a Fantagraphics book. In the thirties.

A comrade of his when Usagi was in service of Lord Mifune was interrupted in the midst of seppeku, which made his ghost rather testy.

Usagi finished the ritual and the ghost was able rest in peace.

Yep, and that officer who wrongly accused Noodles of theft - you remember the consequence - was condemned to seppuku, too.

Seepuku can either be a sanction from the powers above, either like a "classical" suicide : an act of one's free will.

estee wrote:Usagi participated in one. I forget which issue, but it was a Fantagraphics book. In the thirties.

A comrade of his when Usagi was in service of Lord Mifune was interrupted in the midst of seppeku, which made his ghost rather testy.

Usagi finished the ritual and the ghost was able rest in peace.

Yeah, I remember that one! Usagi acted as his second, the one to end the ritual by beheading his comrade. That was a great story. The line just before Usagi does his part "The head dips..." was quite memorable.

You can read more about it here: http://usagiyojimbo.com/casl/stories/broken-ritual.html

I've often been quite in awe of how Stan can use Usagi to tell rather mature stories about parts of historical Japan that are actually rather brutal in their honesty.

Let's face it, the Edo period of Japan was not a very nice place to live in. People died quite quickly and violently at the hands of their rulers, and were ruled by the brutal Tokugawa Shogunate.

The act of seppeku is one of those elements of the samurai and Edo period world Usagi lives in that is quite controversial even today, and the fact that Stan manages to portray it honestly and maturely is quite admirable.

Now, there are other parts of the Samurai world that I'm sure Stan might not be too comfortable portraying, like shudo (look it up). But in my opinion, Stan still gets brownie points for being able to portray such subjects in an honest manner.

Angelcake the Fox wrote:Now, there are other parts of the Samurai world that I'm sure Stan might not be too comfortable portraying, like shudo (look it up).

Well, we know that Usagi has already experimented cross-dressing. And from cross-dressing to shudô, there's only one step.

There was another instance of seppuku in Usagi:
Remember "The withered field", where Usagi and Nakamura Koji meet for the first time?
Instructor Ishii tried to make up for his cowardly attempt to slay Nakamura and slits his belly in the Dojo of Ueno's school. Ok, the ritual itself is not very detailed (and besides, it is more like harakiri, executed without a second), but the idea is to regain lost honor (for oneself, for the family name, or the clan), here as well as with the police inspector who blamed Noodles.

Quite controversial, I'd say....

Your second is the guy who lops your head off, right?

Todd Shogun wrote:

estee wrote:Usagi participated in one. I forget which issue, but it was a Fantagraphics book. In the thirties.

A comrade of his when Usagi was in service of Lord Mifune was interrupted in the midst of seppeku, which made his ghost rather testy.

Usagi finished the ritual and the ghost was able rest in peace.

Yeah, I remember that one! Usagi acted as his second, the one to end the ritual by beheading his comrade. That was a great story. The line just before Usagi does his part "The head dips..." was quite memorable.

You can read more about it here: http://usagiyojimbo.com/casl/stories/broken-ritual.html

That was one of my favorites in the early run. Absolutely amazing.

If one wanted to be a very good second, one would not completely "lop off" the head. To have the head go rolling off would be a bit unseemly.
Especially as the role of the second was often performed by one who as a friend or associate.

There are a number of formal moves used by the second, in a ceremonial seppuku, and we've learned one of those in our sword class as a kata. Not that we practice it very often.

General Tadaoka, I think. It was in the seventh trade, though I forgot the story name. He was a general who was killed by a foot soldier while trying to kill himself. He haunted the town he was killed in until Usagi came and helped him finish the ritual.