History Main / Yubitsume

-->-- '''Daimon Kiyota,''' ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld''

* In ''LightNovel/KamikazeGirls'', Momoko's father is an incompetent low-ranking yakuza member who was supposed to get his finger cut off after a screw-up, but cried and begged so much that the boss let him off the hook. (Momoko has nothing but disdain for his cowardice.)

* ''Anime/AkibaMaidWar'' [[ParodiedTrope parodies]] this by having a maid be forced to chop off a pigtail in a manner similar to the Yubitsume ritual in the first episode. When she can't go through with it, the manager chops it off herself, leaving her [[TraumaticHaircut sobbing over the loss of her "beautiful pigtail"]].

* ''Anime/AkibaMaidWar'' [[ParodiedTrope parodies]] this by having a maid be forced to chop off a pigtail in a manner similar to the Yubitsume ritual in the first episode.

* ''Film/TheYakuza'' has ''two'' yubitsume incidents. [[spoiler:Ken promised his brother he would ensure his nephew (a Yakuza goon) came to no harm, but after he's forced to kill him in self defense he tries to commit seppuku. His brother stops him, so Ken cuts off his finger instead. And in a surprise twist, the American protagonist Harry Kilmer is about to leave Japan when he suddenly returns to Ken's place and asks to speak to him formally. While Ken is fetching tea, he cuts off a finger and presents it to Ken, apologising for the pain he's brought to Ken's life (sleeping with his wife in the past and indirectly causing the death of Ken's daughter in the present). The act enables Ken to finally forgive Kilmer.]]

* As [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo the War against the European Imperialist Aggressors]] ground to its bloody close, many fathers of [[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan Japanese soldiers, sailors, and airmen]] in the [[SuicideAttack Tokubetsu Kogeki]][[note]]Literally 'Special Attack'[[/note]] units cut off the top bits of their pinky fingers and sent them to the Emperor in protest against the war. [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun The Army and Navy]] intercepted said packages, of course, and the Emperor neither heard of nor saw them.

** Subverted on ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'' when a few mooks have just [[YouHaveFailedMe failed]] their boss and begin to tie off their fingers in preparation for this. Unfortunately, they have the [[WrongGenreSavvy wrong idea about who they're working for]] and their boss, from [[AncientConspiracy the Hand]], kills them on the spot.
--->'''Hirochi:''' Who said I was Yakuza?
*** That same boss is shown to have a [[BlackComedy cigar box on his desk with several severed fingers in it]].

* Parodied in a ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' skit. Creator/ChrisFarley went on a Japanese game show and saw two other contestants (host Creator/AlecBaldwin and Creator/JaneaneGarofalo) get a finger chopped off after missing a question.

* Parodied in a ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' skit. Creator/ChrisFarley went on a Japanese game show and saw two other contestants (host Creator/AlecBaldwin and Creator/JaneaneGarofolo) get a finger chopped off after missing a question.

* Parodied in a ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' skit. Chris Farley went on a Japanese game show and saw two other contestants get a finger chopped off after missing a question.

* In ''LightNovel/AlderaminOnTheSky'', yubitsume is the traditional form of penance among the Sinack tribesmen of the north. [[spoiler:Ikta does it before the Sinack chief to apologize for the Imperial Army's misdeeds against her people, knowing it will prove his sincerity to her and secure the aid of the Sinack against the invading Alderan Holy Army.]]

* This is found repeatedly in the ''{{VideoGame/Yakuza}}'' series, naturally. Futoshi Shimano, of the Tojo Clan, doesn't do the ritual with his underlings that fails him: when one bears the bad news that they failed to defeat their target, Shimano cuts off his ''index and middle fingers'' with a straight razor as a warning to the rest.

* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'' has a variation of this, but ''not'', surprisingly, with the quasi-Yakuza/''UsefulNotes/{{Bosozoku}}'' gang "The Ronin". Instead, it's the ''Haitian'' gang that does this, with the gang's leader cutting off his [[TheDragon enforcer's]] [[EarAche ear]] with a machete for failing to destroy the Saints once, which the guy willingly accepts.

* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'' has a variation of this, but ''not'', surprisingly, with the quasi-Yakuza/''UsefulNotes/{{Bosozoku}}'' gang "The Ronin". Instead, it's the ''Haitian'' gang that does this, with the gang's leader cutting off his [[TheDragon enforcer's]] ear with a machete for failing to destroy the Saints once, which the guy willingly accepts.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. This has been mentioned in products that deal with the Yakuza's activities in the Awakened World.

* In the film ''Film/JohnnyMnemonic'', Shinji had his thumb replaced with laser monofilament wire. It is implied by his immediate superior that he had cut off his thumb in the past due to dishonor and had since turned this disability into an asset.

Yubitsume, also referred to as "yubi o tobasu" (meaning "finger flying"), is a ritual from {{yakuza}} tradition that is performed when grovelling in apology just isn't enough. If a yakuza were to dishonor himself or his superiors, he is required to cut off the tip of his left pinky finger and offer it up as an apology to the offended party. And if a yakuza continues to screw up, it might not stop at one pinky tip, continuing in losing more joints and more fingers.

* ''Film/IchiTheKiller'' (film) has an interesting variant. Kakihara cuts off the tip of his tongue instead of his finger. He's also doing it more because he's a masochist than because he really wants to atone for his mistake.

* ''Film/LostGirlsAndLoveHotels'': {{Discussed}} when Margaret asks her lover Kazu, a Yakuza member, about this practice, and he tells her what it's for.[[/folder]]

* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch'' of all places. Only instead of the [[HornedHumanoid Devaronian]] on the receiving end having his finger chopped off, it is one of his horns. Considering that Roland is a part of an organized crime group and the individuals doing this to him were members of The Pyke Syndicate, it falls underneath this trope.

* ''Film/IchiTheKiller'' (film) has an interesting variant. Kakihara cuts off the tip of his tongue instead of his finger. He's also doing it more because he's a masochist taken UpToEleven than because he really wants to atone for his mistake.

* A Chinese version occurs in ''Series/KungFu''. In "A Small Beheading", a sea captain played by Creator/WilliamShatner approaches Caine bearing a pardon from the Emperor of China for killing his nephew, but only if Caine receives a token 'beheading' by losing a finger. [[spoiler:The Emperor has no intention of keeping his word. Caine losing a finger is just to avoid making the pardon seem too good to be true.]]

** A more formal and traditional example appears in ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'', when Dojima lieutenant Daisuke Kuze is asked to atone for releasing Kiryu from his oath and expelling him from the clan on his own, then getting his ass handed to him by the now-a-civilian Kiryu. Some time later, Kiryu runs into another Dojima goon out for revenge against him, as he was forced to do this as well after Kiryu's efforts to go legit inadvertently screwed up one of his boss' operations.

* ''Dirty Sanchez: The Movie''. In Japan, a character has the end of his little finger on his right hand cut off with a cigar cutter.

* ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'': Kurita tries to force Eikichi to chop off one of his fingers to free Katsuyuki. He's only saved from going through with it by the timely arrival of Kurita's boss Matsuoka.

** Iin ''Reaper Man'', Miss Renata Flitwick's father is identified by [[AC:Death]] as missing the tip of his left pinky finger. Understandable, given the former had been a smuggler in life.

* From ''Series/TooOldToDieYoung'', the episode "The Tower" has Martin follow a potential hit to a Yakuza den, who -- as a result of being several tens of thousands in debt, gets his finger off for his troubles (by a katana-wielding Creator/HideoKojima [[TheCameo of all people]]).