A JAPANESE EXECUTION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1160, 21 February 1874, Page 10

A JAPANESE EXECUTION.

The Times has been favoured by a correspondent with the following account of a Japanese execution :—: —

I went to see an execution at Yeddo, out of a vile curiosity. I repented of it, but still it was a most extraordinary spectacle, and impressed me very much. The culprits were eight in number, one being a womau. They were all beheaded with a sword. The operation was performed with wonderful dexterity and coolness, and not one of them, even the woman, showed the slightest symptom of fear. There was a space of ground roped off ; inside were three holes dug in the ground, with a little mound behind each, on which was spread a mat for the criminal to kneel on. On one side of the enclosure were two Japanese officials, in chairs, to see the thing properly conducted. I had a place directly in front of the mounds, at about six feet distance. The criminals were placed in a row, on one side of the enclosure, blindfolded with pieces of paper (they use paper for everything there). What struck me most was the horrid coolness of the executioner's assistant, a good-looking young lad of about 18 ; he went up to each poor wretch in his turn, gave him a tap on the shoulder, led him up to the mound, and made him kneel on the mat, he then stripped his shoulders, made him stretch out his neck, said, « That will do,' and in a flash the man's head was in the hole in front of him, and his bleeding neck was, as it were, staring me in the face. The assistant, still with the same pleasant smile, picked the head up, threw some water over the face to wash off the blood and mud, and presented it to the Japanese officials, who nodded and signed go to on with the next ; the assistant then gave the corpse a blow between the shoulders to expel the blood, and finally threw the carcase aside like a log of wood. He then repeated the same pleasant programme with the next. I never thought a man's head could come off so easily ; it was like chopping cabbages, only accompanied with a peculiar and most horrid sound — that of cutting meat, in fact. There was a dense crowd of Japanese present, including many women, and even children. These people never ceased to eat, smoke, and chatter the whole time, making remarks on the performance, and even occasionally laughing, just as if they were at a theatre. The executioner poured water ou his sword between each decapitation, as one wets a knife in order to cut indiarubber."