How many ex-Samurai in early Meiji period comitted seppuku?

[Wave Tossed]

I saw a topic and link in the Japanese literature section. It involves a book called "Samurai Shortstop," a work of fiction written by a Western author. It sounds like an interesting book, but its plot raised a historical question in me. In the book, one character, an ex-samurai during the early Meiji period commits seppuku because he can't accept the new way of life that has abolished the samurai as a class. And another ex-samurai is preparing to do so.

Here is my historical question: How prevalent were acts of seppuku during the early Meiji period by former samurai? Is this fictional plot realistic, or is this some Western obsession with Japanese commiting "hara kiri"?
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"Walk the thousand mile road, step by step" -- Miyamoto Musashi

[shikisoku]

How about former samurai who commited seppuku before/during Seinan war or after the battle of Hakodate?
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[Wave Tossed]

[shikisoku]

First of all there is no statistic of Seppuku in Meiji period.
As far as I know,the last shinsengumi commander Soma Kazue commited seppuku in Meiji and following samurai.

Aizu han Karo Kayano Gonbe and his son, Kuwana han Mori Tsunekichi,

Saigo Takamori and some of his comrades.http://www.synapse.ne.jp/syunjyu/syunjyu/seinan.html

These are what I found by googling.
Tamura Ryokichi and Nanba Tojiro.
http://www.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp/publish_db/1999news/04/402/40209.html

Tokuno Sekishiro
http://www4.airnet.ne.jp/soutai/01_soutai/12-08_kenjutu/12-08-1-04_jikishinkageryu.htm

Ogura Tomisaburo
http://www.topics.or.jp/contents.html?m1=2&m2=57&kmf=2007-01&NB=CORENEWS&GI=Kennai&G=&ns=news_11695173427&v=&vm=1
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[Dash101]

It's so difficult to really say. What we would need is access to han documents of the time. Kochi City hall has a great deal of information (records of birth, records of death and such) for the time for instance.

I don't mean to open an entire can of worms here, but I think its quite difficult to include Saigo Takamori's name for people who killed themselves. The man was seriously (mortally) wounded with the shot to the lower torso / groin, probably stabbed himself in haste as his comrade decapitated him as was previously planned before the charge on the hill in order to hide his head. Like I said, didn't want to open a can of worms or anything...

[onnamusha]

[Obenjo Kusanosuke]

[heron]

This analysis of the causes for Nogi’s suicide is largely supported in a very interesting book Six Lives, Six Deaths: Portraits from Modern Japan Lifton, Katou and Reich, Yale 1979) (it’s out of print now but there are lots of old copies around). Nogi became a folk hero after his suicide, and the ensuing propoganda renewed the flagging impetus of the imperial system after the Meiji Emperor’s death, but Nogi himself was a disturbed and contradictory character, an introspective child who wanted to follow a career in literature and learning but who was forced by his strict father into the samurai mould and who became a champion of the way of the samurai in the military tradition.

Both he and his brother had close links with Tamaki Bunnoshin, uncle and mentor of Yoshida Shoin. In the Hagi Rebellion Nogi found himself on the opposite side to his brother and former teacher. Torn between family and han ties and his loyalty to and friendship with Yamagata Aritomo, in command of the Imperial Army, Nogi did what he often did, withdrew at the moment of crisis and failed to honour either obligation. His brother was killed in the fighting, and Tamaki committed seppuku (incidentally another example for the original question in this thread: also Maebara Issei, the leader of the rebellion planned on a mass suicide in the Emperor’s presence, but was captured and executed instead). These were the first deaths that Nogi was to be haunted by.

The following year the loss of the regimental flags in Kyushu and his father’s death added to his depression. He was drinking heavily. A lonely and isolating year in Germany led to the further rigidifying of his belief in the samurai tradtion of self-discipline and physical courage. But at Port Arthur the results of trying to apply this outmoded and rigid code to modern warfare was a disaster, resulting in thousands of unnecessary deaths, the abandonment of the wounded and the deaths of Nogi’s own two sons. When victory came it was truly a hollow one, achieved at huge cost and humiliation, especially personal humiliation and grief for Nogi. He seems to have assumed a burden of responsibility for the fallen as if trying to make some recompense for his own failure and his guilt as a survivor.

His failures continued with, among others, his inability to govern Taiwan and he resorted again to his pattern of failure, depression and withdrawal. Yet he was one of the most famous Japanese internationally, and his external status as a war hero, when he felt the exact opposite, must have added to his inner sense of inauthenticity.

Nogi typifies the struggles of Meiji period samurai trying to come to terms with rapid social change that undercut their own sense of who they were and what they had been brought up to be. He longed to die as a samurai in a way that would be both self-punishing and self-validating; he had to die for the Emperor because he did not die when he felt he should have done for and with his family and friends. He gives three reasons for his death: to follow the Emperor, to atone for losing the flags, and his own age and poor health.

His will seems to indicate that he did not expect his wife to die at the same time. She must have stabbed herself after his death. Nogi was glorified after his death, but novelists and screenwriters have been disappointed when they come to depict him as a central character for in reality he was not a heroic character. When he was director of the Peers School he seems to have been despised for his old-fashioned and dull exhortations to students to behave in the samurai tradition. But at the moment of his death he must have felt he had finally integrated his fractured personality.

[Obenjo Kusanosuke]

As always, great response, Heron! Your post really filled out my quick, dirty and largely off-the-top of my head response to Onnamusha. Good stuff!!

BTW- Six Lives and Six Deaths sounds very interesting. I have some books that cover Nogi and his death in passing. But, I was too lazy to go and look anything in particular up apart from what is in Jansen's book--which was laying next to me at the time. I was looking up something on Ieyasu.(big hint regarding the next study group that I'll run sometime in the near future--maybe after Josh or somebody else runs one. I need a break!)
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[Dash101]

Hmm.. Study group you say? I have some ideas on this topic and would be pleased to lead one. I'll start thinking about this...

(Old rusted clogs are begining to turn...)

[heron]

[onnamusha]

Wow! I go away for a few days, and this thread gets really interesting! Thanks, Obenjo and Heron for that information, and that book Six Lives, Six Deaths sounds rather interesting. From your information, Heron, it almost sounds like seppuku was the only way out for Nogi, at least in his own view. I read Mishima's Confessions of a Mask some time back, and his seppuku seems to be pre-programmed as a lifelong fetish. It seems that the roads that lead to seppuku are manyfold, perhaps a result of inability to accept changes on many levels, personal and societal. In Nogi's case, it sounds like the act redefined him in the eyes of a generation, so, in a way, the act does have power, and his seppuku expiated his failings not just in his personal realm but in the larger societal realm. An interesting topic...thanks!

[heron]

Yes, Nogi's death was an answer for him and was consistent with his character and beliefs. But even though it was praised publicly in a manipulative way by the government it was also widely seen as anachronistic, and most intellectuals were dismayed and highly critical. One interesting thing is that the theatrical character of bushido was deplored. I think this theatrical nature is what we see glorified and dramatized in kabuki and popular fiction in the Edo and Meiji periods - it makes for pretty compelling melodrama, after all. Then along comes Mishima (who had some similarities to Nogi in that he also wanted to become a writer early on but was violently opposed by his father), the supreme exhibitionist, in love with the trappings of romantic fascism and the supposedly Japanese way of death. His death was even more openly condemned as anachronistic in a ludicrous way.

Suicide is always a statement, always more than just opting out of life, and as you say has many causes. I think personally that there are cases where it is honorable, similar to politicians or heads of companies accepting responsibility and resigning - like the old Roman custom of falling on one's sword. In a society that has had a tradition of this sort of suicide, to recreate it is bound to resonate through the nation. I suppose Nogi's death could be called honorable at a stretch, but as Obenjo says why didn't he kill himself much earlier? He did seem to seek death throughout his life, but only actually killed himself after Emperor Meiji's death. And Mishima's death has ensured he will be talked about probably long after his books are forgotten. So I agree with you, the act does have power.

[Dash101]

Its interesting that Yukio Mishima should be mentioned here. While I only have a general knowledge of General Nogi, I'm well read on Yukio Mishima and own a couple of his books and a copy of his short film 'Patriotism'.

The film, based on his own work, is a short film that depicts the honour of seppuku as he saw it. In the film, a male character comes home, makes love to his wife, and proceeds to cut his belly in a horrible and gruesome sort of way. In his words, his intention of this film was to bridge love and death in the same light. He 'sincerely' made love as he 'sincerely' took his own life.

While its easy to see the romantisisim of, as Heron said, falling on ones sword for a cause or belief, I dare say that while Mishima's work is unique and terrifingly brilliant he is a modern day pop culture icon because of how he died. I have never once come across a Japanese person who thought seppuku was a romantic or heroic notion. I can't imagine the sentiment being too different on the North American side of the river.

[onnamusha]

[Wave Tossed]

[onnamusha]