Four texts that discuss how the samurai carried out Seppuku, a ritual death in which a fellow samurai would usually behead another, have been translated into English for the first time. While the popular imagination often has the samurai stabbing themselves in the stomach and taking their own lives, this rarely happened during the Edo period (1603 to 1868).
The earliest of the four translated texts, named "The Inner Secrets of Seppuku," dates to the 17th century. "This document contains secret teachings that are traditionally only taught verbally, however they have been recorded here so that these lessons will not be forgotten and Samurai can be prepared," wrote Mizushima Yukinari, a samurai who lived between 1607 and 1697, a time when a shogun effectively ruled Japan. While the emperor was technically the ruler of Japan, the shogun held actual political control of the country. During the Edo period, the shoguns were descended from Tokugawa Ieyasu, a warlord who rose to power in Japan and became shogun in 1603.
