Seppuku severed by Hiroyasu Koga, a former kendo champion. Morita then attempted to perform seppuku himself, and when his own cuts were too shallow to be fatal, he gave the signal and he too was beheaded by Koga. This list of notable seppuku cases is in chronological order. The expected honor-suicide of the samurai wife is frequently referenced in Japanese literature and film, such as in "Taiko" by Eiji Yoshikawa, "Humanity and Paper Balloons", and "Rashomon". Seppuku is also referenced and described multiple times in the 1975 James Clavell novel, "Shōgun"; its subsequent the 1980 miniseries "Shōgun" brought the term and
Samurai cinema For instance the Sengoku period (1478–1603) saw Japan torn by civil war as daimyō warlords fought for control of land. In the Tokugawa period (1603–1868), peace from civil war meant there were no wars for the samurai to fight and some samurai became ronin, masterless warriors left to struggle to survive. In the Meiji period (1868–1912), we see a decline of the hereditary existence of the samurai and the rise of westernization. In this period the ideal of the samurai and the code of bushido are popularized into the military warrior’s belief. The time frame meant changes in the sorts