Seppuku the head could, both metaphorically and literally, rest in its owner's hands. Those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to carry out seppuku. Samurai generally could carry out the act only with permission. Sometimes a "daimyō" was called upon to perform seppuku as the basis of a peace agreement. This weakened the defeated clan so that resistance effectively ceased. Toyotomi Hideyoshi used an enemy's suicide in this way on several occasions, the most dramatic of which effectively ended a dynasty of "daimyōs". When the Hōjō were defeated at Odawara in 1590, Hideyoshi insisted
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a 1999 American-German-French-Japanese crime action film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. Forest Whitaker stars as the title character, the mysterious "Ghost Dog", a hitman in the employ of the Mafia, who follows the ancient code of the samurai as outlined in the book of Yamamoto Tsunetomo's recorded sayings, "Hagakure". Critics have noted similarities between the movie and Jean-Pierre Melville's 1967 film "Le Samouraï". Ghost Dog sees himself as a retainer of Louie, a local mobster, who saved Ghost Dog's life years earlier. While living