Yakuza Members Mutilate Their Fingers

Suspected Witches Were Drowned

Ordeal by Water, aka swimming a witch, was a form of combined trial and punishment used on suspected witches in the East Slavic world and later England. Women suspected of witchcraft were tied up and cast into deep water. Those who sunk were considered innocent while those who floated were considered witches and promptly executed by fire. Regardless of the outcome of this ordeal, the woman was killed.

Many believed water was a pure and cleansing element. Thus if a person was thrown into the water and they floated, they must have dabbled with the occult, because the water did not accept them. 

Yakuza Members Mutilate Their Fingers

Yubitsume is an act of self-penance still utilized by the Japanese Yakuza. Individuals within the Yakuza, or indebted to them, sever parts of their own finger with a hammer and chisel to demonstrate a sincere apology or as a punishment if they were to violate the Yakuza code or not pay their bets. This practice is not limited to a single cut, but rather another knuckle is severed with each mistake made. 

The punishment is multi-faceted in purpose; firstly the victim suffers through the pain of amputating their own finger thus deterring them from making more mistakes. Secondly, it identifies the offender as someone who broke the Yakuza’s rules in an effort to deter others from doing the same.