Double suicide

Japanese: 心中 - しんじゅう

Initially, it meant "love suicide," but it was later applied to other types of suicide by multiple people, such as parent-child love suicide or family love suicide. Originally, love suicide meant sincerity in one's heart, and "shinjutate" is a word with this meaning. However, among homosexuals and pleasure-seekers, there was a need to concretely express sincerity in one's heart, and so customs arose of cutting off one's fingernails, cutting one's hair, cutting off one's finger, stabbing one's thigh with a blade, cutting off a part of one's body, giving it to the other, or tattooing each other's names, and these methods came to be called "love suicide." Among these, love suicide, in which both partners risk their lives, was considered the apex of love suicide, and eventually "love suicide" came to mean love suicide. This change is thought to have occurred around the Genroku period (1688-1704), when there were many cases of love suicide, mainly in Kyoto and Osaka. Whenever a case of love suicide occurred, it was immediately written into a Yomuri matsuri (a Japanese folk song) or a Chikamatsu joruri (a Japanese puppet theatre), which then became the impetus for the next love suicide. The fact that those who committed love suicide devised novel ways to commit suicide was clearly an indication of the effects of their own deaths.

In response to this trend, the Edo Shogunate established regulations to crack down on double suicides in 1722 (Kyoho 7), officially calling them aitaijini (mutual suicides). Penalties included the disposal of the body of the person who committed the love suicide, treating those who attempted it as non-human, and the death penalty for the other person if one person died. Furthermore, differences were recognized based on the relationship of master and servant (the master was given a lighter punishment) and on gender (the woman was given a lighter punishment).

However, double suicides continued to occur after that, and the term expanded to include both same-sex double suicides and family double suicides. This led to the misconception that Japan was a country with a higher incidence of love suicides than the West. This was because the factors thought to be the causes of love suicides, such as the feudal family system, Confucian moral values, and the idea of martyrdom, were considered to be unique to Japan. However, love suicides have been seen all over the world since ancient times, and are by no means a phenomenon unique to Japan. It should also be noted that many of the cases of love suicides after the Genroku period have their background in the special society of pleasure quarters. However, it cannot be overlooked that there are many forced double suicides among Japanese love suicides, and that this tendency is also strong in parent-child love suicides. This is because forced double suicides are a combination of murder and suicide. Parent-child love suicides also exist in foreign countries, and in Japan, with its strong family system and weak social security system, there is some sympathy for the feelings of parents who drag their children down with them, but social criticism of parental murder is growing. However, without various measures such as guarantees for orphans and relief for parents, a fundamental solution will be difficult to come by.

[Yoichi Harashima]

Criminal responsibility in the heart

Since the crime of murder under Article 199 of the Penal Code requires the killing of another person against the will of the victim, double suicide, i.e. joint suicide, is not a crime, but can only be considered as accessory to suicide and murder by consent under Article 202 of the Penal Code. So-called forced double suicide is murder. For example, in the case of someone who has no intention of committing double suicide but falsely proposes a double suicide and makes the other person commit suicide, the prevailing view is that this constitutes murder since there is no legally valid intention, but there is also a strong view that it is only accessory to suicide and murder by consent.

[Tetsuro Nawa]

[References] | Murder | Affiliation with suicide | Suicide

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

初めは情死をいい、これを他の複数自殺にも適用して親子心中、一家心中などという。もともと心中とは心の誠ということで、「心中立て」はこの意味の語である。それが、男色者や遊里の間で、心の中の誠を具体的に表現する必要から、放爪(ほうそう)、断髪、切指（指を切り落とすこと）、貫肉（股(もも)などを刃物で突くこと）など身体の一部を傷つけたり、切り取って相手に渡したり、または互いの名をいれずみしたりする風習がおこり、これらの手段を心中というようになった。このなかで互いの生命を賭(か)ける心中死は、心中の極致と考えられ、やがて心中は心中死（情死）を意味するに至った。この変化は、およそ元禄(げんろく)（1688～1704）前後のことと考えられるが、ちょうどそのころ京坂を中心に情死が多発している。情死事件が起こるとすぐに読売り祭文や近松の浄瑠璃(じょうるり)につくられ、それがまた次の情死の誘因ともなった。情死者が斬新(ざんしん)な死の手段を考えたことは、明らかに自分たちの死の効果を予想したものであった。

　この風潮に対して、江戸幕府は1722年（享保7）に心中死の取締り規則を定め、公式には相対死(あいたいじに)と称するようにした。その罰則は、情死者の死骸(しがい)取捨て、未遂者の非人扱い、また1人が死亡のときは相手は死刑、さらに、主従関係（主人側は軽い）や男女（女は軽罪）の差異が認められた。

　しかし、その後も心中は絶えず、語の概念も拡大して、同性心中から一家心中までが含まれるようになった。このため、日本は欧米に比して情死の多発国という誤解を生じた。それには、封建的家族制度や儒教的道徳観や殉死思想など情死の原因と考えられるものが、日本特有のものとみなされたからであった。しかし、情死は古くから世界中にその類例があり、けっして日本特有の現象ではない。元禄以後の情死事件の多くが、遊里という特殊社会を背景としていることなども注意せねばならない。ただ、日本の情死には無理心中が多いことと、親子心中にもその傾向が強いことは見逃せない。無理心中は殺人と自殺との複合だからである。親子心中は外国にも存在するし、強い家族制度と弱い社会保障制度の日本では、子を道連れにする親の心情に同情すべき点もあるが、親の殺人行為に対する社会的批判が強くなっている。しかし、遺児への保障や親への救済など各種の対策を伴わなければ、根本的解決は望めないであろう。

［原島陽一］

心中の刑事責任

刑法第199条の殺人罪は被害者の意思に反して他人を殺害することを要するから、心中、すなわち共同自殺は本罪ではなく、刑法第202条の自殺関与及び同意殺人罪に該当しうるにすぎない。いわゆる無理心中は殺人罪にあたる。たとえば心中の意思がないのにこれを偽り相手に心中をもちかけ自殺させる場合については、法律上有効な意思がないとして殺人罪にあたると解する見解が支配的であるが、自殺関与及び同意殺人罪にすぎないとする見解も有力である。

［名和鐵郎］

[参照項目] | 殺人罪 | 自殺関与罪 | 心中物

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

<<: Divine beauty - Jinshu

>>: Jinju - Shinju