![]() The ritual was even crueler, as Motome, being totally destitute, had previously sold the razor-edged blades of his swords and replaced them with bamboo blades. Suspecting Motomes sincerity, the Clan entrapped him by calling his bluff, and forced him to go through his harakiri. Saito tells Tsugomo of a recent tragic incident involving another ronin, Motome Chijiiwa (Akira Ishihama), who had come to the clan under the false pretence of committing harakiri with the hope of obtaining some money and being turned away safe and sound. The Iyi Clan elder, Kageyu Saito (Rentaro Mikuni) receives Tsugumo, but warns him against making such a request unless he is sincere. Unfortunately, this practice led to abuses on the part of some destitute ronin who faked the desire to commit "harakiri" in the hope of employment or of a small financial relief while retaining their lives (one must not be too harsh in judging these poor fellows, remembering that in those days unemployment compensation did not yet exist). In the beginning of this recession, the surviving clans were impressed by the steadfast "samurai" and generously turned them away with small alms. Hanshiro is not the first ronin to come knocking at the door of one of the local remaining feudal clans with such a request, including one most recently at Lord Iyis residence itself. This mysterious and somber "ronin" (un-retained samurai), Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai), unemployed since the abolition of the Geishu Clan in 1619, requests the temporary hospitality of the Clan in order to end his life as a worthy samurai by committing harakiri. ![]() A scrawny former retainer of the Lord of Geishu arrives at the gates of the official residence of Lord Iyi. ![]() Following the centralization of power by the Tokugawa Shogunate in the early 17th Century, few feudal clans were allowed to remain, leading to a substantial downsizing (but not off-shoring) in the samurai profession. In some instances, the sword was replaced by a fan! We are May 13, 1630, in Edo. By that time, the ritual had become an idle formalism, and the performer was decapitated at the instant he took his sword out of the scabbard, thus avoiding a painful death. Later on, in 1663, a stronger edict from Lord Nobutsuna Matsudaira of Izu, put an end to the practice altogether. Lord Ieyasu Tokugawa, who founded Japan's last great "shogunate" dynasty in 1603, ordered the practice of harakiri to be discontinued by both secondary and primary retainers. Another swordsman acting as a second, called "kaishakunin," is standing by to decapitate the departing at a pre-arranged moment in the ceremony. But there is no need to be left for hours contemplating ones entrails. In this ritual, the performer opens his abdomen, starting from left to right and then finishing from top toward bottom. "Seppuku," or "Harakiri" has it is known in the West, is a particularly painful and rather messy way of ending ones days. Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Further, Tsugumo had arrives in the house expecting to die not committing suicide, but revenging Chijiiwa, his daughter and his grandson. Tsugumo discloses that the lad Chijiiwa was his son-in-law that was forced to the situation expecting to raise some money to treat his sick wife and baby son. The warrior Hikokuro Omodaka convinces the clan to force Chijiiwa to really commit suicide using his bamboo blade as an example to other samurais that would appear using the same pretext to receive coins from the master. Tsugumo is received by Umenosuke Kawabe, who tells the story of the young samurai Motome Chijiiwa that arrived at the house also asking for a place to commit hara-kiri but expecting to receive coins instead. The ronin Hanshiro Tsugumo and former samurai of Lord of Geishu arrives at the house of Lord Lyi requesting a spot to commit hara-kiri (an honorable form of suicide). In 1630, after a long period of peace in Japan following the end of the clans, thousand of samurais do not have masters and are living in absolute poverty.
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