Gracie Watkins
Professor Joe Pulido
Modern Civilizations
6 February 2015
Shusaku Endo’s Silence
Shusaku Endo’s novel Silence takes place during the 1600’s in Japan, mostly Nagasaki. During this time, the land of Japan was unified under the leadership of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who by 1600 had formed a strong unification in Japan on a political and societal level. Endo’s story about the missionary work of Padre Sebastian Rodrigues takes place during the Tokugawa Era (1600-1868). A shift of power had happened from the main city of Kyoto to Edo (modern day Tokyo), a small fishing town that became a thriving metropolis. Endo’s Silence bridges the Warring States Era into the Tokugawa Era. The Warring States Era was a very militaristic period when the
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Japan starts fragmenting as a county and many regions contend with each other. The main theme of a feudal society is established, created mostly out of fear and protection. One of the main characters within the feudal society that we see a lot in Silence is that of a Samurai, or “foot soldier,” and also peasants. Endo’s Silence is a story of two missionaries from Portugal named Sebastian Rodrigues and Francis Garrpe.
Starting in 1637, they are given permission, along with a few other men, from their superiors to secretly enter Japan and investigate the persecution of the Christians. At this time in Japan, Christianity was outlawed. The Christians were being investigated, tortured, and murdered. Rodrigues and Garrpe’s mission was to convert the Japanese people as well as serve the already existing Christians in secret. Their mentor, Father Ferreira, had reportedly apostatized underneath the crushing power of the Japanese, and both were curious as to find out why. The first part of the story is told through letters written by Rodrigues until the Japanese government captures him. The story is then shifted into third person, and the reader loses the interior thoughts of Rodrigues. At first, Rodrigues is sure that the reason why faith in Christianity is so lacking in Japan is because of their lack of priests and churches. The blind faith they go into Japan with is what makes their questioning of faith so huge. Rodrigues and Garrpe are Roman Catholics from Portugal. During their time of entering Japan, the Christian faith was strictly forbidden and any previous roots by past missionaries had been all but all but ripped …show more content…
out. Previously to the persecution, almost 400,00 Christians were living and actively practicing the Christian faith in Japan. Of course, this was ended when “the doubts of the Japanese government were aroused by information which they obtained from the Vatican, that these priests were seeking conquest of Japan, and that the Pop at Rome claimed rule over the whole world as Vicar of Christ; hence if Japan should become Christianized the Emperor of Japan would be subordinate to the Pope,” (Harris, 29). This caused the Japanese government to start pushing out and eliminating the Christian faith altogether, becoming a part of the “cleansing” that was one of the main themes during the Tokugawa Era. The persecution of the Christians did not end in Japan until about 1872. Tokugawa Ieyasu was bothered by the aggressiveness of the Christians and “saw the Spanish and Portuguese administration of Christianity in Japan as a dangerous political machine…. Christian churches were ordered destroyed, and Japanese converts were ordered to renounce their Christianity,” (Tokugawa Japan). Throughout his journey through Japan, Rodrigues experiences many questions about the faith that he so truly believes in, and doubts God’s “silence;” his quietness and lack of action to help the Christians in Japan. Throughout the story, his faith strengthens and weakens back and forth and he begins to question God. Finally, he is broken down enough to eventually step on the fumie, and apostatize. Throughout the story, Rodrigues is met many times with questioning his faith, the lack of response, the silence, from God. One of the most interesting characters is Kichijiro, a sniveling, cowardly “Chrisitian” that shows up time and again having already apostatized, helps Rodrigues, and then turns him in to the government. But time and again he shows up, begging for forgiveness and helping him and following where he is taken after he is captured. No matter how many times he betrays the priest, he is never angry with him. One might believe that his character was supposed to be written as a parallel to God being with the priest. He is always in the shadows and testing and putting Rodrigues in situations that test and push his faith in Christianity. There is a sense of possible redemption with Rodrigues because unlike Ferreira, who ends up not only with a Japanese name and working for their government (also like Rodrigues), he is writing against his religion, what he has believed and worshipped his whole life.
Rodrigues never does this. Even after he apostatizes, he still has his belief, and in some way it comes out stronger in the end of the book than it was in the beginning. In the beginning of the book, it was a sort of blind faith, where God answers all prayer and can heal any situation. After being in the middle of everything, within the heart of true believers dying for their Lord, I think his faith becomes stronger after all the trials he is put through throughout his
journey.
Father Rodrigues tries to rationalize at the eve of trails and tribulations that the reason so many Christians were suffering was because they did not have the right facilities or people to take care of confessions, Mass, etc. He went into Japan with a blind view to Christianity, a more flowery view than that of the Japanese Christians. Rodrigues and the Japanese Christians both experienced their own sense of raw faith that filled their hearts and minds. Through his journey, Rodrigues finds his true faith in God and almost reinvents what he believed before.
Bibliography
• Craig, Albert M. The Heritage of World Civilizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Person Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
• Endo, Shusaku. Silence. New York: Taplinger Pub., 1979. Print.
• Harris, Marriman C. Christianity in Japan. Cincinnati: Jennings and Graham, 1907. Print.
• "Tokugawa Japan to 1700." Tokugawa Japan to 1700. 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.
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