To avoid the disgrace of being captured by an enemy in battle.
Seppuku was not about a love of death; it was about a desperate love of honor. In the world of the samurai, how you died was the ultimate statement of how you had lived. And in that final, terrible cut, a warrior could achieve something that transcended victory or defeat: an immortal, untouchable integrity. seppuku or harakiri
This is the "kun-reading" ( kun'yomi ) or native Japanese pronunciation. It translates literally to "belly-cutting." This term was more common in spoken, everyday language and is the one that most famously crossed over into Western vocabulary. The Purpose: Why the Belly? To avoid the disgrace of being captured by