On November 25, 1970, Yukio Mishima, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature for the second time and was hailed as Hemingway of Japan, instigated a failed coup d'état, and in order to keep other colleagues alive, Yukio Mishima committed suicide by cutting off his abdomen, which became a sensational "Mishima Yukio Incident".
Yukio Mishima, a true believer in the spirit of Bushido in Japan, believes that the beliting ceremony is full of sacredness and nobility, and he once said that "this method of suicide is unique to Japan and cannot be imitated by any foreigner."
In 1962, there was a film about this spirit of Bushido, and the title was "Cutting the Belly". This film has a pivotal position in the Japanese film industry.
Although it is a black-and-white film with a length of 134 minutes, it has had a profound impact on future generations, whether it is from the acting skills of the actors, the change of perspective or the spirit of Bushido.
The story takes place after the Tokugawa family unified Japan, in order to strengthen the centralization of power and greatly reduce local armies, many of the tycoons with territories were eliminated, and the samurai who served the lords also lived in the streets and lived in hardship, and the two protagonists in the film were samurai with martial arts.
The film tells the same story from the perspective of two people, Chichiiwa asked for a daughter is the son-in-law of Tsuyun Hanshiro, he came to the Izumi family to "ask for a cut belly" in the case of a dying child, at that time, this practice was often sent by the lord with money, but this time, the Ioi family made an exception, they laughed at Chichiiwa asking for a woman is a "pseudo-samurai", the saber symbolizing the samurai spirit is made of bamboo, in order to embarrass him, the Ioi family not only refused Senchiyan's request for a woman to beg for a day or two, Even more arbitrarily, he asked him to complete this sacred ritual with a bamboo knife. Shortly thereafter, Tsuyun Hanshiro came to the door to ask for death, thus telling the story behind Sensen-iwa's begging for a woman's abdomen.
On the surface, the film is a story of loyalty and glory, but in fact it is full of deception and hypocrisy, and it also tells the huge gap between truth and ideal Bushido.
The culture of cutting the abdomen has existed as early as the japanese mythological era, when there was a goddess of Omi who was abandoned by her husband, and in order to express her inner indignation, she chose to end her life by cutting her abdomen and throwing herself into the river. The female abdomen is not only a place to nurture life, but also a symbol of the "rich earth", so in ancient times, the abdomen was given a very high spiritual connotation.
After entering the 12th century, the samurai class chose to end their lives by cutting their stomachs, expressing their loyalty and bravery, which were basically divided into the following situations: 1. Avoid being captured and humiliated 2, symbolize the honor of the nobility 3, boost their own morale 4, and be loyal to the spirit of Bushido.
The spirit of Bushido is recorded in the famous book "The Book of Leaf Yinwen" as "the so-called Bushido, that is, the way for the samurai to seek death", in other words, the samurai achieves a state of spiritual unconsciousness by emphasizing that "life is death, and death is life", and thus does not fear death.
This is an idealized realm that is difficult for ordinary samurai to attain. The real situation is that many samurai are greedy for life and afraid of death, nostalgic for red dust.
As a young samurai, Sensen-iwa was given the title of "coward", and the saber represented the samurai spirit, even more important than her own life. But Qian Qianyan begged her daughter to give up all her dignity for the sake of her children, bought her own two sabers, and replaced them with bamboo knives. The grace date he requested was nothing more than another look at his children and family, and to fulfill the promise he promised his father-in-law that "I will come back before dark" when he left.
For the samurai spirit, "loyalty", "glory" and "death" are closely linked, and Sensen-iwa asks for a daughter who is not only loyal to her master but also loyal to her family, keeping every promise of herself, from the heart, he is not afraid of death, but he wants to die gloriously.
However, no one in the Jingyi family asked him why and the situation, and he suffered a mental insult before he died.
How painful is it to insert a bamboo knife into the abdomen? After watching this movie, I believe that every audience member has their own feelings.
In the abdominal cutting ceremony, in order to make the abdominal cutter less painful, there is often a wrong person who helps the abdominal cutter to behead when the pain comes, so as to alleviate the pain. Many people even put a fan in front of them before cutting their abdomen, and are beheaded without even touching the knife, in order to escape the torment of pain.
When Qian Qianyan asked for a woman to cut her abdomen, she was actually required to use a bamboo knife, the bamboo knife was not sharp, and the pain it suffered could be imagined, and in addition to insertion, it was necessary to cut the abdomen horizontally. In other words, Instead of receiving the glory he had dreamed of, Sensen-iwa left this world in "humiliation", which was actually the last thing a samurai wanted to see.
Corresponding to the strength of Qian Qianyan's request for a woman, it is the hypocritical side of the wrong person when Qian Qianyan asks for a woman to cut her belly.
When Tsuyun Hanshiro found the three wrong people of that year, they were all defeated and cut off the bun representing honor, and the bun was cut off, which was a great shame, and even if he died, he could not wash away this humiliation. Therefore, the three warriors who were full of benevolence and morality hid on the grounds of their lives, hoping to wait for their hair to grow in a bun to get a chance to survive.
Even more shameful than the three samurai is that the Ini family will not tolerate this situation, he requires the three to cut their abdomen, but the external reason is "illness and death", the three samurai even if they die can not get glory, the same as Chichiiwa's request for a daughter, Tsuyun Hanshiro revenge.
Is Tsuun Hanshiro a greedy person who is afraid of death? Of course not, he only wanted an apology from the Ii family before he died, but he didn't hear it, and he single-handedly killed four samurai, seriously injured eight samurai, and smashed the Ii family's samurai relics, and finally completed the abdomen.
Tsuyun Hanshiro defended the last spirit of the samurai with his blood, and in this seemingly noble family, hidden cowards and cowards abounded, using life and death to contrast the two.
The film has a tragic and desolate beauty, the decline of Japanese Bushido is precisely because of this group of greedy and afraid of death, but not only this, the spirit of "chrysanthemum and sword" pursued by Japanese Bushido forms an opposing beauty between "dare not cut the abdomen" and "passively cut the abdomen", and the violence and coldness reflect each other.
The founder of Japanese Zen Buddhism, Michimoto, once wrote in the "Dharma Eye Collection": "Life and death are in the sky, do not dwell on life and death, do not have any nostalgia for life when you are dying, and resolutely and resolutely die." When you are alive, you do your best to live every minute and every second. ”
Only those who can truly attain it enjoy the highest honor of a samurai.