Seppuku approaching her, they would find that she had ended her life long before they reached her. Stephen R. Turnbull provides extensive evidence for the practice of female ritual suicide, notably of samurai wives, in pre-modern Japan. One of the largest mass suicides was the 25 April 1185 final defeat of Taira no Tomomori establishing Minamoto power. The wife of Onodera Junai, one of the Forty-seven Ronin, is a notable example of a wife following seppuku of a samurai husband. A large number of honor suicides marked the defeat of the Aizu clan in the Boshin War of 1869, leading into
Legend of the Eight Samurai vows to collect the reward for capturing her. The film preserves little of the plot or characterization, and none of the feel of the Bakin original. Instead it builds on the basic template – collecting a band of warriors together to accomplish a task, better known from films such as Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. While some of the back story and key elements like the beads remain, even the eight dog brothers are substantially changed, to the extent of Keno's feminine disguise becoming actual womanhood. Fantastical elements in the film are brought to life with a combination of props, wire work,