Japanese people are very distinctive, for example, they have a strong sense of collective honor and an almost perverted "Bushido". However, when I was studying Japanese culture, there was a joint that I couldn't figure out. If the defeat requires some form of life-renunciation to defend dignity, why choose a tragic cut over some other means?
For most people, this question has little practical significance.
To give a life is to die, and who cares what its specific form is? However, there are indeed people in the historical community who have studied this issue in depth, and she is the Japanese-American Keiko Taisa. Her book Rice as Self: Japanese Identity Through Time dissects the relationship between the "abdominal cavity and the soul" and makes the author suddenly enlightened.
Judging only from the title of the book, it is not difficult to find that its title has little to do with the bloody act of cutting the abdomen, but is about food culture. Throughout Asia, there are only a handful of civilizations that do not eat rice. As for wheat, it was imported from the West and was not strictly an Asian native food. As for which country first planted rice, the archaeological community is still inconclusive. In terms of archaeological evidence, China is temporarily leading.
So, in any case, it is accurate that rice is the primary crop in Asia. Therefore, whether it is Chinese or Japanese, it is common to love rice. As for the origins between rice and cutting the abdomen, it goes back to a royal ritual in Japanese history called the "Tasting Of the New Festival", which was performed by the emperor to celebrate the harvest of grain. The so-called "taste of new" means to taste the new rice that has just been beaten. The reason why the emperor was allowed to eat new rice was because the emperor needed to replenish the "soul".
In Japanese legend, the emperor's soul, like the earth, swells in winter and withers in spring. If they can't get replenished in time, they will leave the emperor's body. There are two ways to nourish the emperor's soul, the first is to make up for it directly from people. This method is somewhat appalling, and whenever the old emperor dies, the young emperor will eat the old emperor's body and take the old emperor's soul for himself. Whether this custom was followed by the emperor or not, and how many times it was followed, we do not know.
I have heard that in the twentieth century, a similar custom appeared in Papua. Whenever a loved one dies, relatives and friends will divide and eat the body of the deceased. Although it sounds cruel and inhumane, the intention of this act is to pass on the soul of the deceased. Perhaps, this custom in Japanese legend is similar to that of Papua.
Another way to nourish the soul is gentler and more acceptable, that is, to replenish the soul energy by eating the rice that has just been beaten. The Japanese believe that rice has a soul, and the "rice soul" in every grain of rice is the best tonic for the soul. Therefore, the meaning of "tasting the new sacrifice" is twofold:
One is to celebrate the harvest of the people who have been busy for a year;
The second is to ensure the well-being of His Majesty the Emperor.
In the old society, which was dominated by totalitarian rule and agrarian economy, such rituals were necessarily quite important.
The soul is a mysterious and mysterious thing, and no one can say where it really exists in the body. However, the ancient Japanese generally believed that the place where the soul was located was not the head and heart, but the abdominal cavity.
The Nihon Shoki mentions a story about the origin of food, saying that there was once a god called the god of food, and when he died, a large amount of food gushed out of his body, and rice gushed out of the belly of the god of food. Therefore, rice is regarded as the grain that holds the soul, and the abdominal cavity becomes the organ that carries the soul.
Reading this, we can understand why the Japanese committed suicide by using the unbearable method of cutting their abdomen. In Japan's ancient culture, the stomach and intestines of the digestive organs were also the soul of the human being. In the eyes of the ancient Japanese, if they committed suicide in other ways, their souls would be bound in their bodies, with the meaning of "never being able to live forever.".
Therefore, when the Japanese samurai who believe in Bushido end their lives, they solemnly perform a belly cutting ceremony.
Unlike what is shown in film and television works, ancient Japanese samurai did not use a half-human-tall samurai sword when cutting their abdomen, but chose a short sword. During the ceremony, there are also "intermediaries" who are responsible for giving relief to the person who cuts the abdomen when he is most painful—that is, cutting off his head so that he will no longer suffer. Psychologically, of course, this may serve the purpose of the soul drifting away from the body. Physiologically, however, this stupid behavior can only lead to excessive blood loss in the human body and trigger external infections.
But in any case, the act of giving up life in any form is irresponsible to society and to oneself. After the enlightenment of thought, this ugly custom faded out of the stage of history.
Resources:
"Rice as Self: Japanese Identity Through Time", "Bushido Spirit"]