Actors performing a scene of harakiri (ritual suicide)

Actors performing a scene of harakiri (ritual suicide)

Pitts Theology Library

1875 - 1895

A group of kabuki actors perform a scene of seppuku (ritual suicide) . The man in white is in the role of the samurai about to slit open his abdomen, and the man behind him is his second, about to deliver a coup de grace. The other men are witnesses. Turner has added the inscription, "This man in white is committing 'Hara-kiri'-lit. 'abdomen cutting' It was the old method of suicide as well as legal execution. It is now forbidden by law."

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Japan; kabuki

color prints (photographs)