The role wasn't a complete sinecure: the ruling warlord, Tokugawa Ieyasu, ordered the seppuku, or ritual suicide, of one of Koetsu's circle, the tea master Furuta Oribe, for some real or imagined disloyalty.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | The Subtle Magic of Koetsu

In 1987, Rudolf Hess, the last member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, died at a hospital near Spandau Prison at age 93, an apparent suicide.

CNN: Saturday,