Seppuku in popular culture

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The Japanese honor-suicide ritual of Seppuku has been widely used in fiction, both Western and Japanese. Here are some instances

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.



  • In the recently aired "lost episodes" of Chappelle's Show, Dave Chappelle investigates "racist pixies" that urge moderate individuals of all races to give in to their stereotypical behavior, such as blacks eating chicken, Mexicans modifying their cars with Jesus Christ memorabilia, Japanese being unable to speak the letter L, whites being uptight and hypocritical, and so forth. All pixies are played by Chappelle in their respective "uniforms" or appearances. When a Japanese man does not give into his stereotypical tendency, the pixie commits seppuku.
  • Seppuku features prominently in Western depictions of pre-Meiji Japan in books, movies, videogames, etc. such as The Last Samurai or the novel Shogun. Some video games give players the option of committing seppuku: Mortal Kombat: Deception adds a new "Fatality" feature to the series called "Hara-kiri," which allows a defeated player to kill himself in a graphic manner before his opponent can (although none of them are literally under the proper seppuku method, except Kenshi who comes close). It could reappear in the upcoming game Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.
  • In American media, particular television and film from the 1940s-1960s era, the term "hara-kiri" was often mispronounced and misromanized as "Harry Carry". (See, for example, the TV series McHale's Navy). In the 1980s, it was morphed to "Harry Caray", due to the popularity of the eponymous baseball announcer.
  • In the manga/anime Ranma ½, Genma promised his wife Nodoka that he would raise his son Ranma to be a man among men. If he failed, both he and Ranma would commit seppuku. Ranma falls into a cursed spring that causes him to turn into a girl when splashed with cold water, and Genma (who changes into a panda with cold water) hides Ranma and himself whenever Nodoka comes around. Ranma often called him/herself Ranko to spend time with his mother, although she doesn't find out until late in the manga. Eventually Nodoka finds out and declares Ranma to be a man despite the curse, so no one had to commit seppuku.
  • Raymond Feist's fictional realm of Tsuranuanni is based on the real-world Japan and also has the concept of seppuku, but not by that name.
  • For the most part, seppuku is depicted in popular culture as marking a true warrior's ethos and the (stereotypical) mystical Eastern understanding of death. The dutiful suicide of seppuku is often seen as a uniquely Japanese cultural trait, although the Western tradition has its share of historical figures who have killed themselves when facing dishonor, death or both at the hands of their enemies.
  • In Raymond Benson's James Bond book The Man with the Red Tattoo, the main villain, Yami Shogun Goro Yoshida commits seppuku just before Bond could capture him. Yasutake Tsukamoto, yakuza leader and Yoshida's secundant, tells Bond that Yoshida won, because he "robbed Bond of the ultimate victory". Bond tells Tsukamoto that he does not care about it, because "he's bloody dead and that's all that matters."
  • In Giacomo Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly, the heroine Cio-cio-san, commits seppuku at the end of the final act. It is also mentioned that her father committed seppuku as well. Cio-cio-san uses the same knife her father used to perform the act on himself, thus clearly following in her father's footsteps.
  • Unit leaders in computer strategy game Shogun: Total War may commit seppuku if the units they command are defeated in combat too many times.
  • Microprose's 1989 role-playing/strategy game Sword of the Samurai allowed a character to commit seppuku following any sudden loss of honor, usually after being captured or recognized whilst attempting murder or treachery against his lord or feudal rivals. At the initial samurai and hatamoto levels, this 'option' presents as a capital punishment handed down by the player's lord; anything short of immediate compliance would see the character and his family (including any heirs) hunted down and executed. In the later stages of the game, daimyo-ranked characters so dishonored were given the option to commit seppuku but were under no compulsion to do so beyond the strategic disadvantages arising from dishonor.
  • In the fighting game series Tekken and Soul Calibur, the character Yoshimitsu has a move (the "Turning Suicide") wherein he turns away from the enemy and stabs his sword through his stomach and out his back. If the sword connects with Yoshimitsu's opponent, it causes devastating damage to them, and minor damage to Yoshimitsu himself. However, if it misses, it drains half of Yoshimitsu's life.
  • In the action/stealth video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory the antagonist, Admiral Toshiro Otomo, wishes for Japan to once again assume the mantle of imperialism and tries to lure the USA and the Koreas into war. When Otomo's plan falls through, he commits seppuku in front of Sam Fisher rather than be brought to justice. In an ironic twist however, Otomo is saved by Fisher and he is brought to justice.
  • In the action/stealth videogame "Tenchu: Stealth Assassins", Lord Gohda orders his ninja to execute a corrupt minister named Kataoka. If the player confronts him as Ayame, he refuses to be insulted by a woman and they fight to the death. But as Rikimaru, Kataoka respects Gohda's request to be killed and commits seppuku, with Rikimaru acting as his second.
  • Ninja Burger's website ninjaburger.com, a parody of fast food delivery services, states on their webpage: Guaranteed delivery in 30 minutes or less, or we commit Seppuku!
  • In the American film Harold and Maude, the character Harold, a young man obsessed with death, fakes his own suicide in a multitude of ways. At one point, he brings out a blade and educates a woman in the art of "hara-kiri" before going through with the (faked) ritual.
  • In the motion picture Airplane! a Japanese man is literally 'bored to death' by Ted Stryker (Robert Hays) describing his war record, and commits seppuku by disemboweling himself with a sword while sitting in his airplane seat.
  • Seppuku is depicted twice on the American film The Last Samurai, at the beginning of the movie after the general of the Japanese newly formed army faces defeat in the hands of Katsumoto's (played by Ken Watanabe) forces, and later, near the end of the film, with Katsumoto committing seppuku after his army is killed to the last man (all but Nathan Algren, played by Tom Cruise). In the first instance, we see Katsumoto in the role of kaishaku, beheading General Hasegawa to quickly end his suffering. This action comes as a shock to Algren, who sees it as a barbaric form of execution. Finally, defeated on the battlefield it is Algren who helps Katsumoto to end his life with honor by pushing the dagger all the way into his friend's stomach.
  • Seppuku and other forms of suicide are looked upon with disfavor in the popular anime/manga series Rurouni Kenshin. Particularly in the anime series, Kenshin often talks well meaning opponents or people in despair out of suicide, explaining that their deaths will not make up for the mistakes they have made, nor give them any honor. Instead, the best way to atone for ones past or to be truly honorable is to continue living and doing all the good one can in the world. This is Kenshin's own form of penance for his bloody past as an assassin and the death of his first wife, and several of the characters he speaks to about it comment that living with and struggling to overcome such guilt and doubt is a harder fate than death.
  • In Internet culture, there is a type of 'scavenger hunt' game known as Google Seppuku, where participants type in a (usually Japanese) word or phrase into Google's image search tool, and look for the most disturbing picture among them. The name derives from the fact that, like modern-day beliefs of committing seppuku, the participants are willfully submitting themselves to something inexplicably awful and painful for glory and honor (in this case, finding the most disturbing picture on the internet that no one can top).
  • In the Playstation videogame, Bushido Blade, the player can commit seppuku on their own character. It serves no actual function in the game other than adding authenticity.
  • Seppuku is a common theme in the manga Gin Tama.
  • In the popular anime/manga One Piece, the CP9 member Kumadori often attempts to commit seppuku for his partners lack of respect or failure, but his superhuman strength prevents it from working.
  • Towards the end of Hideo Kojima's MGS:2, a computer A.I. operating under the alias of Colonel Campbell gets infected by a virus and begins spewing nonsensical messages including, "I hear its amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hari Kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61!"
  • In the Futurama episode The 30% Iron Chef being dishonored (for framing Fry) Dr. Zoidberg grabs a host's ceremonial Wakazashi, but when he tries to plunge the sword into himself and commit seppuku the blade bends and folds instead of cutting him open.
  • In the second episode of the Singapore dub of One Piece, Zoro says to Luffy that, if Luffy gets in the way of his dream to be the world's greatest swordsman, Zoro will have to commit hari-kari, where as in the original Japanese it is Luffy who has to commit hara-kiri if he gets in the way.
  • In the anime Yakitate! Japan, the rather exaggerated samurai bread baker Suwabara Kai mentions seppuku a few times, once saying to his teammate Kawachi Kyosuke who has ruined a bread the team was going to enter in a contest that if he were a real Japanese man, he should take responsibility for his mistake by committing seppuku. Another time Suwabara says that if he loses his Yakitate 9 match against Azuma, he will commit seppuku. He is talked out of this in the end, of course.
  • In the anime Peacemaker Kurogane, Tatsunosuke often exclaims having to perform seppuku when he makes a mistake.
  • In the film Scary Movie 4, the Japanese ambassador to the United Nations committed seppuku upon seeing the US President nude during the demonstration of the reverse-engineered alien heat ray weapon. In this case, it was more out of disgust rather than dishonor.
  • In the computer game series Wing Commander, the Kilrathi is known to commit ritual suicides akin to seppuku.

-In Xenosaga Episode III, Margulis commits seppuku after losing his final battle against Jin.

  • In the 1998 film The Big Hit The bankrupted father of kidnapped victim Keiko Nishi tries repeatedly to commit seppuku but is interrupted by the phone ringing.
  • In a more adult sketch from the black comedy series Hale & Pace comedian Hale commits seppuku in front of his comedy partner Pace having moments before inadvertedly sliced Pace horizontally in half. With this action being delayed for comic affect and not occurring to Pace until after Hale has died.
  • In The Adventures of Tintin story The Blue Lotus, Tintin catches sight of a headline in the local newspaper about one of the villains having committed suicide by "hara-kiri" after being exposed as a drug dealing terrorist.
  • In the video/arcade series Darkstalkers, the character Bishamon can execute a move that, if it connects, forces the opponent to commit seppuku.
  • "No Place for Disgrace" is the title of an album by the metal band Flotsam and Jetsam, released in 1988. The lyrics of the title track describe the act of committing seppuku in order to avoid dishonour while the (painted) album cover depicts a samurai on the verge of plunging his wakizashi into his abdomen with his attendant at the ready behind him.
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