japanese symbol translation for death before dishonor?

Answer 1

I assume this question has to do with the "harakiri" response of your prior question.

The thing is "harakiri" and "seppuku" don't really mean "Death before dishonour". But they are probably a pretty good translation, kind of.

Harakiri or 腹切 and Seppuku or 切腹 are the exact same thing. If you look at the characters they are the exact same just in reverse. The "hara" in "harakiri" means "stomach". And "kiri" means "to cut".

When samurai were about to lose a battle instead of trying to run away and in turn being captured and killed dishonourably they will kill themselves in a ceremony called, "Seppuku" or "Harakiri".

So these words are the actual act of cutting the stomach open when they commit suicide. To make it less painful there was almost always a 2nd who would be ready to cut you head off as soon as the knife goes in. But then who helps the last 2nd when it is his turn, ouch!

So these words do not mean death before dishonour but they describe the way Samurai chose death before they were dishonoured and so these words have great power and that type of feeling in them.

The woman who found the translation:

fumeiyo no mae ni shi (不名誉の前に死) is correct that this literally means "Death before Dishonour" but be sure you don't think that this is a common phrase amoung the Japanese. It is just a literal translation of what you asked for and a Japanese may not link this to "Bushido" or the samurai way or "Seppuku" even. I now surrounded by Japanese people hand have asked them if they have a set phrase like "Death before dishonour" or something that would include the samurai feeling of this but they are coming up completely short.

Just in case you were wondering. This whole, "losing face" and "Honor" stuff that we associate with Japanese isn't as obvious as many think. It is very real. Very ingrained in their culture. But they don't talk like that. You don't hear about dishonour or disgrace or he honoured our family kind talk here. It is there, but it is not vocalized. I guess everyone just knows it and it doesn't need to be vocalized.

Also the Japanese are the world champions of "beat around the bush" so they will never just come out and say you have disgrace the company or our family or anything.

Maybe in Samurai times this Honor thing was more vocalized but in modern Japan it is not and in most of the samurai movies where they supposedly talk like they did way back when it is not.

I have found it funny sometimes to watch Kurosawa's "7 samurais" or the "Hidden Fortress" and the English subtitles are all about "Honor" and "disgrace" and stuff. But what they are actually saying is nothing like that. It is like "get out of here you pig!" kind of stuff. Of course I am not saying those translations are bad. We westerners don't have that Honor stuff ingrained in us the same way the Japanese do and so it may be necessary to explain what is really going on under the surface of the conversation.

Does that make sense?

Answer 2

Japanese Symbol For Samurai

Answer 3

Japanese Symbol For Honor

Answer 4

不名誉の前の死
I used the following website to get this translation. Hope it helps!

Answer 5

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seppuku (切腹)