AstroBoy Online Forums

I became interested in this film after seeing the commentary to 7 Samurai. Michael Jeck was the commentator, & he touched upon many things, but what drew me to Harakiri was his comments about the 7's leader Kambei (Takashi Shimura) severing his topknot & shaving his skull.

So that takes me to the film under discussion: Harakiri. One guy fought & defeated 3 others, but rather than killing them, he merely took their topknots. When their lord learned of this, he ordered them to commit Harakiri, or Sepuku as it is also known. However, I had still not satisfied my curiosity about the topknot.

However, several things are now obvious:

1. Hair indicates status,
2. Buddhist priests are bald, thus indicating their renouncement of the world
3. Women prefer uncut hair: thus Shino's alarm when her father wanted her to cut her hair & pose as a boy (in 7S)
4. The Samurai wear topknots, lest their hair fall about their shoulders as women's hair does (as so stated in Harakiri).

But I am still wondering why losing one's topknot is as bad as death.

By my understanding, losing your topknot meant losing your honour. So their lord would have ordered them to commit harakiri because they had been dishonoured. And I think harakiri was a way for them to restore their honour; perhaps seen as an honourable death.