What's the difference between 腹切り and 切腹?


I need to add a body to submit my question, so I'll just say the Mortal Kombat
seemed to believe that the term `腹切り` (`はらきり` harakiri) was more appropriate
for self slaughter (i.e., throwing a boomerang hat that cuts one's own head
off); however, I found `切腹` (`せっぷく` seppuku) used in many novels about
Japanese samurai considering suicide due to some circumstance involving their
master falling from grace. Is the difference between the two whether it is
over personal loss of face or clan-wide loss of face?




They have essentially the same literal meaning: suicide by gut-cutting (even
if the actual killing blow was decapitation by someone else). 切腹 /seppuku/ has
Sino-Japanese pronunciation and word order (not sure if it was actually used
in Chinese at the time, or if it was invented in Japanese), 腹切り /hara.kiri/
has native Japanese pronunciation and word order (and okurigana).

Because _seppuku_ is Sino-Japanese, that is the word that was used in context
where Sino-Japanese was preferred, notably written documents, and particularly
"official" writing. So when you arrive at Edo times and this act is codified
as part of the justice system (the least worst death sentence), it was
officially called _seppuku_ , not _harakiri_. This doesn't mean that no-one
ever used the word "harakiri" to refer to it in this context, but official
documents, court records etc. would use "seppuku". There is also the fact
that, all other things being equal, Sino-Japanese vocabulary tends to connote
a higher "register" than native Japanese vocabulary, like Latinate vocabulary
vs native English vocabulary ("acquire"/"obtain" vs "get", "utilize" vs "use",
etc.)

Imagine if we had the death sentence "decapitation" (Latinate vocabulary) in
the modern English-speaking world: people might still say "he got his head cut
off" (native English vocabulary), but judges would not say "I sentence you to
have your head cut off", and newspapers would not report that "X was sentenced
to having his head cut off." (Some tabloids might say "Off with his head!",
but you get the idea.)

So it makes sense for a samurai in a novel, considering grave samurai matters,
to use the word "seppuku" to refer to the act. And, I suppose if you extend
the logic and look at it the other way, it makes less sense to apply this
highly serious word to a chaotic, hat-related death.

Something else might also be going on, though: _harakiri_ might be more easily
extensible, via metaphor, to general "death by self-inflicted violence,"
"disregard for self-preservation leading to death" (certainly the English
word-family derived from _harakiri_ , e.g. _hari-kari_ etc., has this
metaphorical extension) -- while _seppuku_ might be more closely tied to its
specific formal meaning, in which case razor hats would be right out. I have a
feeling that this might be the case, but I have no good evidence to offer,
sorry.

