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Jigai, the Japanese female suicide ritual

At Lifestyle we already talked to you at the time of seppuku, the ritual suicide practiced by both samurai and daimyo or former Japanese feudal lords .At a time and in a culture where he was offered more value to the honor that to the own life, the suicide was an act of valia and honesty, in case one committed an improper act or fell defeated in the battlefield.

It is a subject that seen from the cultural and anthropological point of view always fascinates us.Now, something that is not so well known and that has always been a little behind the curtain of the male practice of harakiri, is that women were also forced to put an end to his life if his husbands fell. And not only the husband, the mothers also started their own ritual suicide if they had a samurai son who fell in dishonor and committed seppuku.

This guy of Japanese female suicide has a name: Jigai.We'll talk about it in our space.

Jigai, the Japanese female suicide ritual

If you are interested in the subject of Japanese culture, and specifically, the figure of the samurai and their wives, we recommend any of the books and interesting works by historian Stephen Turnbill. According to this expert, most of the women of the samurai end up committing Jigai.

A very tragic and documented fact was, for example, what happened on April 25, 1185 in the battle of Yahagigawa.After the defeat of Taira Tomomori, and of re-establishing Minamoto's power, 47 Ronin committed suicide , and after them, his wives.These episodes were repeated throughout the history and throughout the different ages that mark the times in Japan.

Jigai, the Japanese female suicide ritual

The Jigai was thus the female equivalent of seppuku. When the husbands died, the woman r should follow to confer dignity and honor to her husband, or her son.There was no option to refuse or escape.In fact, it was something very internalized in the mind of the wife or mother of a samurai.Now, the Jigai frames own strokes that differentiate it from seppuku.They would be the following:

Jigai, the Japanese female suicide ritual

  • The jigai must be carried out alone and at the front door of the home.Thus, the woman He will continue to receive every person who crosses the threshold of his home even after his death.
  • The samurai woman will take her own life with a small knife quickly cutting the artery carotid neck.
  • Death must be swift. Once the husband died, the woman had to hurry before being arrested or captured to be raped, in case the husband falls He would go on the battlefield.The most effective way was, then, a cut in the neck.
  • The woman sat down and tied her legs with a rope, so that when his position falters he will not lose his grace and balance.He should offer majesty and elegance with his posture.

Jigai, the Japanese female suicide ritual

We know that it is very tragic from our own vision: the woman He had to take his own life for something that she had not provoked , a ritual of great hardness and strength of will that surprises us greatly.However, we must tell you that it was common for a girl to turn to the Jigai, if she was not accepted by the man she loved, it was something that was carried out in privacy and that many families tried to hide.

Jigai, the Japanese female suicide ritual

Today the suicide rate in Japan has very high figures , but the Jigai is no longer a common practice.Nowadays, hanging is preferred, jumping into a vacuum or even suffocating with the car's own gases in an enclosed space.Sad facts that go hand in hand with modernity, such as the famous case of a girl from whom We talk to you in Lifestyle: Kyoko Matsumoto, the girl who He took his life for love.

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