Kaishakunin

'assist mistake person') is a man appointed to behead an individual who has performed seppuku, Japanese ritual suicide, at the moment of agony.

The most recent kaishakunin of the 20th century was Hiroyasu Koga, who beheaded both the novelist Yukio Mishima and the political activist Masakatsu Morita during their seppuku.

Still preserved in modern-day movements (kata) of the martial art Iaidō, the ritual of performing kaishaku varies very little between Japanese fencing schools, but all of them are bound to the following steps to be performed by the kaishakunin: After the dead samurai falls, the kaishakunin, with the same slow, silent style used when unsheathing the katana, shakes the blood off the blade (a movement called chiburi) and returns the katana to the scabbard (a movement called noto), while kneeling towards the fellow samurai's dead body.

When this is completed, the kaishakunin remains kneeling for a while, as a sign of deep respect to the fallen samurai who performed the ritual suicide, always in a state of "total awareness" (zanshin) before standing up and bowing (rei) to his body.

The reaching gave honor to the condemned, as he was exhibiting intent by doing so, and the "early" stroke of the sword could be dismissed as a small mistake in timing by an overzealous kaishakunin.