On Sun, 27 Oct 1996, Jeanne Hedge wrote:

Why don't you enlighten us, Hitomi?

I guess I should.  I'll write up some information on Sepuku as well as 
the attendant information.  There's a lot I won't be able to write up 
however since I cannot describe some of it.  It has to do with culture.

Is it true that the Samurai (and perhaps others) would write poetry for the
occassion, as part of the... "ceremony"?

It was not required, and still is not required.  Actually that started as 
a custom in peace time when the Samurai men started to become literate.  
It was a way of sending a last bit of wisdom down through the ages, in 
case they had achieved the end of the cycle and were not to be 
reincarnated.

Hitomi

Ichinohei Hitomi
Hitomi@terminal.autobahn.mb.ca
http://204.112.189.3/~hitomi
"The beginings of wisdom is the ability to always ask questions."