Harakiri Page #6

and threaten to commit harakiri

unless given money.

This disgraceful practice has put

many houses at a loss as to what to do.

But now we have Motome Chijiiwa,

a samurai of true valor,

who carried out his resolve

to die honorably.

And we have

the members of the lyi Clan,

who responded appropriately

to facilitate his wishes.

In contrast to many disgraceful ronin,

and the spineless timidity

of other daimyo households,

both parities in this instance

acted in an exemplary manner

that will open eyes and clear the air.

It is truly an occasion

for mutual congratulations.

We bid you -

- Wait.

To avoid any misunderstanding,

we must show the blades.

Oh, yes.

For the record, we wish you to examine

the swords Chijiiwa was carrying.

You will note

that both blades are of bamboo.

Bamboo?

As you can see,

both are made of bamboo.

No one must accuse us later

of having switched blades.

So take a good look.

Is it clear?

In that case,

Motome must have borrowed

a blade from your household?

No, he did not.

He died magnificently

using his own blade.

Motome killed himself

with that bamboo blade?

Exactly.

The entire household

witnessed the spectacle

of harakiri performed

with a bamboo blade.

As you may imagine,

it was an unsightly affair.

It would have been more fitting

for a samurai

to end his life with a true blade,

which is a warrior's soul.

Now then.

We bid you good night.

Miho wept.

She wept...

and wept.

Motome!

Forgive me!

I...

I had no idea.

You had even sold your blades.

For Miho's sake

you even sold your blades.

But I... but I...

I would never let this go.

It never entered my mind.

The stupid thing

was too dear to me...

and I clung to it.

To this stupid -

With his fever still raging

and in a coma,

Kingo died two days later.

Three days after that,

as if chasing after him,

Miho died as well.

Thus did Hanshiro Tsugumo

find himself utterly alone in the world,

having lost every last person

he had ever cared about.

Master Tsugumo,

does that conclude your story?

Yes, I suppose so.

There's just one more thing.

May all those here listen carefully

to what I'm about to say.

No matter how grinding

his poverity and hunger,

for a samurai to present himself

in someone else's entryway

and declare that he wishes

to commit harakiri there

is an unspeakable act

that can in no way be excused.

However...

the manner in which

the House of lyi handled the matter...

surely left a great deal to be desired.

If a samurai risks shame and ridicule

to beg for a day or two's grace,

he must surely have good reason.

A simple inquiry

as to the reason for the request

would have told so much...

yet with this many

witnesses present...

not a single one among you

had the consideration to ask.

His wife lay gasping for breath,

on the very verge of death,

while his beloved son burned with fever,

in dire need of a doctor.

Motome no doubt wished

to explain the situation to me,

make whatever last efforit

he could for his son

before turning all furither care

over to me,

and then return here

to the House of lyi.

Hanshiro Tsugumo!

Enough of your self-serving excuses!

What?

As to Motome Chijiiwa -

the circumstances that drove him here

were no doubt complex.

But it was he who declared

his wish to commit harakiri.

What followed upon that request

may not have been what he intended,

but he reaped

what he himself sowed.

He was in no position to complain,

or to blame or condemn anyone.

At that point,

his was but to cast all else aside

and die a magnificent death.

To face death without wavering -

that is truly the way of the samurai.

But what did this man do?

He cravenly asked

for a day or two's grace.

One might well accuse him

of having gone mad!

True enough.

Motome had indeed gone mad.

But I say good for him!

I praise him for it.

He may have been a samurai,

but he was also

a man of flesh and blood.

He could not live on air alone.

When he has reached

the point of no return,

even a man as strong as Motome

will go mad trying to protect his family,

and I would praise him for it.

They'll call him "the bamboo ronin."

Not only samurai, but townspeople, too,

will scoff at his wavering.

But let them laugh all they want.

Who can fathom the depths

of another man's hearit?

Thanks to the shogunate's ruthless policy

of wiping out the provincial lords,

countless samurai lost their masters

and were cast out

to wander the depths of hell.

How can those who never wanted for food

or clothing understand their misery?

To those who find Motome

loathsome for his pleading, I ask:

What if you found yourself

in the same position?

Would you do any differently?

After all,

this thing we call samurai honor

is ultimately nothing but a facade.

Is that your grievance?

Grievance?

Is that what you're trying to tell us?

That samurai honor

is nothing but a facade?

Yes.

"Even if I say I want

to commit harakiri,

they surely won't actually

make me do it."

Such wishful thinking

is where these ronin go wrong.

If a man says he wants

to commit harakiri, we will let him.

In fact, since he has proposed it himself,

we'll make sure he does.

That is the policy of the House of lyi.

For us, samurai honor

is no mere facade!

And so Hanshiro Tsugumo too

has come here

with no intention of committing harakiri,

but rather out of deep bitterness

over the manner in which the lyi Clan

treated his son-in-law Motome Chijiiwa,

and the desire to vent

his many grudges.

Is that what you think?

That's not for me to say.

You can only look into your own hearit.

But all the same,

you have no intention

of letting me leave here alive?

That is my decision to make.

I need make no excuses to you.

Counselor,

there is a proverb, "The suspicious mind

conjures its own demons."

Do you know it?

When I say I will disembowel myself,

I truly mean it.

Yet, even after all I have said,

you still refuse to -

Suppose I were to go on living.

What could I possibly have

to look forward to?

The fact is, I can hardly wait

to join Motome and Miho and Kingo

in that world to which

they have gone ahead.

But I would never be able

to face them

were I to go empty-handed.

I think you can understand that.

I thought perhaps once I had explained,

then even members of the lyi Clan

would surely say,

"Oh, so that's how it was.

Perhaps we were overzealous that day

in rushing to that end.

Anyone can see that our handling

of the situation was less than ideal.

Perhaps there were ways

in which we carried things too far.

No doubt both parities could have

conducted themselves to better effect."

If I could take with me

even a single word in this vein,

it would be a comforit to Motome.

Was this not the most fitting gift

I could hope to take him?

Such were my thoughts,

but I see now it was nothing

but wishful thinking.

If you can see that,

then it makes the rest easy.

This world does not bend

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