Or Harakiri: Seppuku

It was a death meant to demonstrate courage, wipe away shame, and prove ultimate loyalty. To understand seppuku is to understand the soul of the bushi—the Japanese warrior class.

Yet, the ghost of the ritual lingered. In the 20th century, it experienced two tragic revivals. In 1912, General Nogi Maresuke and his wife committed junshi upon the death of Emperor Meiji. And most famously, in 1970, the celebrated author Yukio Mishima committed a dramatic, public seppuku after a failed coup attempt aimed at restoring the emperor’s political power. seppuku or harakiri

With the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the samurai class was abolished, and the feudal system ended. The new imperial government, eager to modernize and shed "barbaric" traditions, formally banned seppuku as a legal punishment in 1873. It was a death meant to demonstrate courage,

The first point of confusion is usually the terminology. Both words use the same two Chinese characters: setsu (cut) and fuku (abdomen). So why two names? In the 20th century, it experienced two tragic revivals

This is the more formal and scholarly term. It uses the On-yomi (Sino-Japanese) reading of the kanji characters. It was typically used in official documents and among the warrior class to describe the ritual as a solemn legal or social requirement.