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Oda
27th August 2003, 19:54
Another rather special form of suicide was the practice of hito-bashira (human pillar) whereby a bushi would kill himself to protect the foundations of his lord's residence or castle. When the hole had been dug for one of the supporting pillars or the corner-stone of the new building, the person about to become a hito-bashira would climb down into the hole and commit seppuku. The foundation stones would then be laid upon his corpse, and it was thought that his spirit would become a guardian for the building. Other kinds of building sacrifices also existed in Japan, for example at the construction of bridges over particularly difficult rivers or streams, but in these cases the victim would be chosen among strangers who happened to pass through the village.

This is an excerpt from Catharina Blomberg's book The Heart Of The Warrior: Origins and religious background of the samurai system in feudal Japan. Pages 77-78.

I was reading this fairly entertaining book while I found this piece of information about hito-bashira. I got interested and tried to find more information on this issue, but couldn't find a thing in any reliable sources.

Does anyone have information about the concept of hito-bashira? I suppose that if this is a real story, there should have been found some archeological evidence, like bodies under old japanese buildings. Or are we just dealing with folklore and myth?

Earl Hartman
4th September 2003, 01:04
Remind me not to walk through isolated Japanese villages unaccompanied or unarmed.

Seriously, though, they would just sacrifice some poor slob who wandered into town?

"Hey, Hitokoroshi-suke, we need to build a bridge. Any strangers around that we can kill and dump under the foundation?"

"No, only our own people, Hitodenashi-suke."

"Damn. I guess we'll have to wait. How come there are no victims around when you need them?"

Ah, the refined Japanese culture! Oh, that's right, I can't understand it becasue I'm a gaijin.

Jock Armstrong
5th September 2003, 04:34
That stuff is going back a long way- early Nara period and before. Back at the same time Europeans were scrificing people in druidc ceremonies and dumping bodies in Danish marshes [Tollund man anyone?].
Chuhullain was having berserk rages and eating enemy hearts in Ireland.