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 "Yes, it's obvious. Since I love to make exacting knives from all over the world, commemorating all kinds of customs and traditions… it was inevitable at least once a month someone asks me when I'm going to make Hari-Kari knives! Well I finally came up with something even better!
The exact beginning of Hari-Kari began with the Japanese Samurai starting around the 5th century A.D. The samurai were basically bodyguards who were tasked with the responsibility of keeping their Lord alive and in power. It is a duty that the samurai took very seriously. If the samurai failed in his duty shame and dishonor would descend upon him, the samurai method of atoning for his failure was to commit Hari Kari(suicide).
Now actually, Hari Kari does fascinate me because the actual knife and sword used (the samurai uses the knife to make a wide cut across his front in order to cut through all the vital organs, and his "Annaisha" or "guide" stands over him with a huge sword to cut off his head just to make sure the job is done) are of exacting design requirements, and are actually some of the most beautiful knives and swords in the world. But come on… the thought of making such a knife is just a bit too much, even for a macho sportsmen like me!
However there is another kind of Hari-Kari knife that I discovered from talking to my high-school friend Mako, and his grandfather (a grand master knife-maker) has always been an inspiration to me. It's not very well known and was only used in select providences of Japan. The knife is called MAYONAKA or "MIDNIGHT DOOM". The knife was always worn by these select samurai as a reminder of the precious gift of life. They held the light at midnight as the most sacred, and felt it had curing powers, and it represented to them the turning over of the next leaf of life… the climbing over the mountain peak, as it were into the next day. It was a sign of hope. To them they used the world "Doom" to mean the weakness of losing that hope. Therefore they carried these knives, which were shaped in the "AITE IRU/SHIMATTE IRU" style to remind them to wait for the midnight light to show them the new day before they decided to throw away the most sacred gift… that of life. Literally, "aite iru shimatte iru" means "open and shut". To them, life "opened" and "shut" with the whim of the wind, so it was up to them to control a bit of their fate.
This was a very unique and almost "blasphemous" concept to many samurai's who thought nothing of taking their own life (think of the Kamikaze's several thousand years later!). Therefore the Mayonaka knife was not well known, and very rare. It was only because of the unbelievable generosity of Mako's grandfather that I was able to get the "specs" to make such a knife, since he was a direct descendent from samurai's who carried them. So as a collector, you have something rare, something that does carry the "sexy" title of Hari-Kari, yet a knife that celebrated the grand magic and wonder of life, rather than the taking of it!"
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