Seppuku (切腹<sup>
?</sup>, "stomach-cutting") is a form of Japanese
ritual suicide by
disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for
samurai. Part of the samurai honor code, seppuku was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, as a form of capital punishment for samurai who have committed serious offenses, and for reasons that shamed them. Seppuku is performed by plunging a sword into the abdomen and moving the sword left to right in a slicing motion. The practice of committing seppuku at the death of one's master, known as
oibara (追腹 or 追い腹, the
kun'yomi or Japanese reading) or
tsuifuku (追腹, the
on'yomi or Chinese reading), follows a similar ritual.
