The woman’s hara-kiri is fake. It never actually happened. Only men cut their belly. It was limited to samurai. Peasants, townspeople, women, and pre-adult men were not required to cut their belly. Therefore, these women’s disembowelment is an imaginary work of art.
The ritual of cutting the belly is the last step in taking responsibility for one’s own actions. Therefore, women and men other than samurai, who were of low status at the time, did not perform the ritual.
The person standing in the back holding the sword is the “Kaishaku-nin. His role is to witness the ritual of cutting the belly in front of him. At the end of the ceremony, his head is cut off. This is so that his suffering will not be prolonged.
Of course, nowadays no one would choose this way of death.
