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I just finished my book The Samurai The Philosopy of Victory. It was a really good book. There was a part called 'The tragic love of two enemies'. That was a quite sad story about true love between the murderer of a kid's father and that boy ending up falling in love with his father's murderer and found out after they spent two years together and the boy having to avenge his father death by killing his lover, but he ended up taking both of their lives during the last night they spent together. He couldn't live without his lover. His mom tried to wake both of them up and found them both dead in the morning and she took her life from grief, of losing her son.
An eye-witness account of an act of seppuku was quite interesting. And also very sad when someone recalled the fact that a father who had commited seppuku had his three sons with him during this ritual and they each commited seppuku after one another until the youngest had took his own life. Now with seppuku it isn't just disembowling yourself, you are then beheaded by a trusted person of your family or a trusted servant or friend of the person commiting seppuku. There is also a woman version of seppuku which she is to do if she doesn't die during a fight and she had lost in order to gain honor back to the family. Yes women had to do this as well, especially if the man of the house was a samurai and he had left, the women back then had to fight while no man was in the house. And no man was allowed in the house when a woman lived alone, no one except for family. Friends weren't allowed to visit a woman living alone. If a woman was raped as well back then, she was to take her life. It is called Jigai. It was done by slitting their throats instead of disembowling themselves. (That was the man's way). If a woman thought she couldn't win in a fight was expected to commit Jigai. If she was beaten or defeated in a fight (without dying) she was usually raped or to become someone's servant so in order to gain her family's honor back she had to commit Jigai. To bring it back. A woman's honor was just as important as a man's back then, so it was important that both sexes honored their families by taking their own lives.
If a man lived and didn't win a fight, he was to commit seppuku, otherwise his family would be shamed and shunned and so would the man.
There was alot to do back then. It seems like alot for one person to go through or deal with, but honestly I would of loved to live during the times of the samurai. Alot easier of a life than the horrible life alot of people live now a days. With all the hate, and war and also the whole money thing is tearing alot of people apart and making them go 'nutty' in a sense.
A live back then seems perfect in a way. I would of to lived during a time I could bring honor to my family, than being the black sheep that is shunned for being different. ; ;