Harakiri and Seppuku both literally mean abdomen/stomach cutting. Those who know some Japanese may recognize hara from the common phrase hara hetta which means you are hungry (literally, your stomach is decreasing in size or diminishing). Kiri means cut.
腹: hara 切: kiri
Seppuku simply reverses those kanji: 切腹
Why are they pronounced differently? Harakiri is a native Japanese word, using more traditional Japanese pronunciation Seppuku is a borrowing of middle Chinese roots: setsu from Middle Chinese tset meaning to cut, and fuku from Middle Chinese pjuwk, related to modern Mandarin fūk, referring to your abdomen.
So, setsufuku was shortened to seppuku where the Ps represent a stop and skipping of part of the word.
Other way around. Seppuku is the whole ritual, which includes the helper. But if you just gut yourself out in the woods with no ceremony, it’s harikiri
Harikari = seppuku. They’re even written with the same kanji characters.
Oh, and harikari usually has a helper.
To really put this to rest:
Harakiri and Seppuku both literally mean abdomen/stomach cutting. Those who know some Japanese may recognize hara from the common phrase hara hetta which means you are hungry (literally, your stomach is decreasing in size or diminishing). Kiri means cut.
腹: hara 切: kiri
Seppuku simply reverses those kanji: 切腹
Why are they pronounced differently? Harakiri is a native Japanese word, using more traditional Japanese pronunciation Seppuku is a borrowing of middle Chinese roots: setsu from Middle Chinese tset meaning to cut, and fuku from Middle Chinese pjuwk, related to modern Mandarin fūk, referring to your abdomen.
So, setsufuku was shortened to seppuku where the Ps represent a stop and skipping of part of the word.
Other way around. Seppuku is the whole ritual, which includes the helper. But if you just gut yourself out in the woods with no ceremony, it’s harikiri
eh, only if it comes from the harikiri region of france tho.
otherwise it’s just sparkling disembowelment.