Word: seppuku
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...General Mashita looked on in helpless horror, Mishima stripped to the waist and knelt on the floor, only inches away. "Don't be a fool, stop it!" the general cried. Mishima paid no heed. He followed to the letter the seppuku, the traditional samurai form of suicide sometimes called harakiri. Probing the left side of his abdomen, he put the ceremonial dagger in place, then thrust it deep into his flesh. Standing behind him, Masakatsu Morita, 25, one of his most devoted followers, raised his sword and with one stroke sent Mishima's severed head rolling...
...After sitting with him for more than three hours and reviewing the boy's studies, the old general went home to his wife. First, the couple purified themselves in Shinto rites. Then the general took a dagger, dispatched his wife, and eviscerated himself in an act of sacrificial seppuku (ritual suicide) asa last service to the Emperor he had adored...