Westerners say that not to fear death is characteristic of savages.
Well, perhaps I am one of those ‘savages’.
Many times in my childhood, my parents admonished me
that since I was born in the house of a samurai,
I had to be able to perform seppuku, to slit my abdomen.
And I remember thinking that there would be physical agony
and that it would have to be endured.
Therefore, perhaps I am one of those so-called savages.
Yet I cannot accept the Westerners’ view as right.

Mōsō / Daydreams, Mori Ōgai, 1911