<p>As a corollary to the above elaborate statement of the
ceremonies proper to be observed at the <i>hara-kiri</i>, I may
here describe an instance of such an execution which I was sent
officially to witness. The condemned man was Taki
Zenzaburô, an officer of the Prince of Bizen, who gave
the order to fire upon the foreign settlement at Hiogo in the
month of February 1868,—an attack to which I have alluded
in the preamble to the story of the Eta Maiden and the
Hatamoto. Up to that time no foreigner had witnessed such an
execution, which was rather looked upon as a traveller's
fable.</p>
<p>The ceremony, which was ordered by the Mikado himself, took
place at 10.30 at night in the temple of Seifukuji, the
headquarters of the Satsuma troops at Hiogo. A witness was sent
from each of the foreign legations. We were seven foreigners in
all.</p>
<p>We were conducted to the temple by officers of the Princes
of Satsuma and Choshiu. Although the ceremony was to be
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