Summary
What can voluntary death tell us about Japanese society today, when we understand it as a symptom, in the forest of statistics?
But nothing exists - unless it has become: sociological research follows the starting line of genealogy. From one century to another, it is a journey through the land Nietzsche speaks of: "a vast, distant and so mysterious land of morality - a morality that really existed and was truly lived", exploring through documents the diverse practice of voluntary death in Japan: as the apotheosis of a warrior's career, as the horizon of Buddhist separation, as the capstone of a feudal system, as a test of love, as sacrificial elevation, as the conclusion of despair and eradication.
Each time, the choice of voluntary death illuminates the human environment from which its meaning comes, and little by little, the entire Japanese past reveals itself in its contradictions, in its mistakes, and in its broken hearts.
Biblos Newsletter
New titles, special copies and quiet recommendations from the antiquarian bookshop.