"Hari kiri" in Nagamine's book

[UsagiYojimbo]

I've got a quick question for anyone who's familiar with Japanese translations. I've just started reading "The Essence of Okinawan Karate-Do" by Shoshin Nagamine. On page 33 of my edition of the book, he talks about his commander committing hari kiri. I was under the impression that hari kiri was a somewhat insulting term, roughly translated as "gut spilling", and the honorable term was seppuku. So why would Nagamine have used the term hari kiri? Or was it a translator error? Can anyone clarify this?

[Shorin Ryuu]

Humorously enough, the characters for "Hara Kiri" and "Seppuku" are exactly the same. In "Hara Kiri", the character for "stomach" is in front of the character for "cut", while in "seppuku", the character for "cut" is in front of "stomach".

I'd really have to see the original to tell whether or not it was a translator error or not...I do have the same version of the book you have, by the way...

When they say "vulgar" and "honorable", it could be referring to "informal" and "formal" with regards to levels of polite speech. These rules aren't necessarily written in stone, or maybe he just inadvertently wrote "harakiri" instead (He was originally Okinawan, not Japanese). I don't think it's too big of a deal, really.

This does bring up a point about Nagamine. His Shorin Ryu was much more heavily influenced by the Japanese, both in techniques and other things, such as more formalities and rigid discipline, zen emphasis, etc.

[UsagiYojimbo]

Thanks.