Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/251

 the individual to the institution, so also he surrendered his own life when the institution fell, and found in "duty" (gi) a force that nerved him to a shocking and most painful mode of self-immolation. Civilisation has taught the Occident to believe that the suicide is insane; that moral equilibrium must have been lost before a man's hand can turn the pistol or knife against his own person. The act seems so terrible that its performance cannot be associated with sober reflection. Yet the severing of the jugular vein or the scattering of the brains brings instant release, and is therefore much easier than the samurai's method of comparatively slow self-torture, while in his case there can be no question of insanity. In the full possession of his senses, calmly and deliberately, he disembowelled himself, and his commonest motive was to avoid the dishonour of surviving defeat, to consummate his duty of loyalty, or to give weight to a remonstrance in the interests of virtue or the cause of the wronged. It would seem that the beginnings of this mood are to be sought in the old and barbarous institution called junshi, or "associated death." From whatever region of Asia the primæval Japanese came, they brought with them the custom that a sovereign or prince should be followed to the other world by those who had ministered to him on this side of the grave — his wife, his concubine, his principal servitors. The law which enforced this cruel obligation