Harakiri Y Seppuku [top]

He said nothing else. He walked back into the house and closed the sliding door. In the garden, Taro began the work of arranging his friend’s body for the funeral.

The air in the room was still, thick with the scent of white incense and the faint, metallic tang of fear. harakiri y seppuku

He did not hesitate. He placed the tip of the blade against his left side. He took a breath, filling the belly one last time, expanding the canvas of his final statement. He said nothing else

The sword fell. The world went white.

Taro laid the sword on a white cloth before Kazuo’s kneeling form. Kazuo was dressed in a formal kimono, his top loosened to expose his abdomen. On the small table beside him rested a tanto—short-bladed, unadorned, sharp as a needle’s whisper. The air in the room was still, thick

This uses On-yomi (Sino-Japanese reading). It is considered the more formal, "high-brow" term. In written documents and official records of the Samurai class, Seppuku was the preferred term.