Silence (novel)

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Fumi-e

Silence ( Japanese 沈 黙 , Chinmoku ) is the title of a book by the Japanese writer Shūsaku Endō from 1966.

The book was published in German, translated by Ruth Linhart, in 1977 and then - reviewed by her - in 2015. The German edition of the book contains, in addition to Endō's text, a foreword by director Martin Scorsese , a Postscriptum Endōs, a detailed afterword by William Johnston ( Sophia University ) and comments by the translator.

Endo's novel served as a template for Scorsese's film Silence from the year 2016 and for the opera Chinmoku of Matsumura Teizo .

In 1966, Endo received the Tanizaki Jun'ichirō Prize for the work .

action

prolog

News came to the Church in Rome that Cristóvão Ferreira, the head of the mission in Japan, had apostatized. In Rome they knew about the persecution of Christians and the torture and knew how steadfast the Christians endured this without forsaking. But what about Ferreira? To find out, three former students of Ferreira in Portugal, the young Jesuits Rodrigues, Francisco Garpe and João de Santa Maria, set off for Japan in 1638.

Rodrigues' letters to Rome I to IV

In Macau, Valignano initially refuses to allow the three of them to continue their journey, as the land closure ordered by the Japanese government in 1638 makes legal access impossible. Finally, Valignano gives permission to continue your journey. With the help of an outcast Japanese convert named Kichijirō, who gets them a ship to Japan, the three prepare for the onward journey. During the preparations, João de Santa Maria, weakened by the trip, dies.

Rodrigues and Garpe, accompanied by Kichijirō, who, when asked by Carpe, said he was not a Christian, sail on to Japan. They reach the coast and all three swim ashore on a lonely stretch of coast at night. Kichijirō gets help from the locals and gets clothes. On their way along the coast, the two priests come to a village where they are welcomed by an underground Christian community . Without a priest, only the sacrament of baptism can be passed on there. The missionaries learn that in Japan inquisitors have put bounties on Christians. The villagers hide them in a hut.

The two hike on, the rainy season begins. She comes through villages, asking for Ferreira, but only learn that he was in Nagasaki in 1633 . You meet farmers who know Kichijirō and say he is a Christian. Rodrigues visits the home of Kichijirōs, whom he meets there. Rodrigues returns, reunites with Garpe. You must flee from controlling government officials.

Kichijirō states in the village that he is the great one who protects the priests, sometimes gets drunk. The farmers in the area suffer very much from the taxes the samurai demand from them. The officials come back and threaten to track down Christians. They come back a few days later and take the crying Kichijirō and two other men hostage with them. The three are interrogated and tested to see whether they are ready to step on a metal plate with the image of Christ, a procedure that has gone down in history as “ Fumi-e ” (“ Step on the picture”). The three do it, Kichijirō is let go, but the two farmers are still tied to stakes by the sea, on which they die. The officials come back, Carpe and Rodrigues know who reports a priest will receive 300 pieces of silver. So they decide to split up. Carpe goes towards Hirado , Rodrigues travels on by boat, goes ashore. Kichijirō follows him, helps him and is possibly a traitor at the same time. And indeed he betrays him, the officers take him prisoner.

With this end the letters written by Rodrigues, the following chapters are written as reports of the book author.

Chapters V to IX

The arrested Rodrigues meets captured Japanese Christians. An old senior samurai comes and says in the course of the conversation that Rodrigues should get the peasants to renounce. The old man's interpreter learned Portuguese in Arima , as told by the haughty priest Cabral . He points out that although the founder of Buddhism was mortal, the successors who rose to the highest level were not. The interpreter lists the apostate missionaries, including Ferreira. Rodrigues is being transported away by boat, Kichijirō sees on the bank. Then we continue on the highway to Nagasaki. Kichijirō appears, the traitor.

In the new prison, which seems to have just been built, Rodrigues meets Japanese Christians and confesses them. He is interrogated with the help of Prince Inoue Masashige's interpreter . Kichijirō appears, says that he is weak and betrayed him out of weakness. The Fumi-e procedure begins, Kichijirō steps on it and is allowed to leave. Rodrigues states that martyrdom is not the big deal; it is, at least for these peasants, a shabby ending.

Inoue appears for the second time and explains that Christianity is not suitable for Japan. He sees fighting it as an unpleasant but necessary task. Missionary work can be compared to the imposition of an unwanted love.

As a sign of turning away from the Christian faith, he asked for evidence to perform the Fumi-e. Rodrigues is not ready to ask the Christians to do so. He is taken to the coast, where several Japanese Christians are drowned in the presence of Francisco, who is also captured. Francisco drowns trying to prevent this from happening. Time goes by, the interpreter announces Ferreira, whom he finally meets in a Buddhist monastery. Ferreira, who now lives in a Buddhist monastery under a Japanese name, denies Christianity and teaches a.o. a. Buddhists in Astronomy. He is also writing a book in which he points out the mistakes of Christianity. Rodrigues despises him for it. This land is a swamp, the saplings of Christianity are rotting here, says Ferreira. On returning to his cell, Rodrigues also began to have doubts.

The converts who are still alive are subjected to a special torture in which people are hanged upside down in a pit. As a condition for her pardon, Inoue demands that Rodrigues renounce Christianity and also step on the image of Jesus. Rodrigues initially refuses, but then has a vision in which Jesus says he can do this. Rodrigues enters the picture and is pardoned. A rooster crows.

Children ridicule Rodrigues as an apostate Paul. He lives under house arrest and has to control imports with Ferreira, whom he is hostile to. He spends the remaining years of his life in solitude.

Appendix: From the report of a Dutchman

Commissioner Inoue visits Rodrigues. The name of a deceased Japanese man has just been given to him and his wife is also given to him. Conversation about Japanese swamp. Remaining Christians will adjust the faith. When Rodrigues is visited by Kichijirō, who wants to confess his sins, Rodrigues refuses, since he no longer sees himself as a father after the renunciation. Kichijirō is arrested when a Christian amulet is found on him.

Appendix: From a report by an overseer in Kirishitan Yashiki

At Kichijirō, the servant of Rodrigues, a Christian amulet is found, whereupon he is locked up. Rodriguez dies and is cremated and buried Buddhistically.

Historical background

Endō Shūsaku, himself a Catholic Christian, wrote a work based on the history of Christianity in Japan after thorough research: Cristóvão Ferreira really lived and succumbed to apostasy. The Italian priest Giuseppe Chiara , who also renounced his faith, served as a model for Rodrigues . Both of them - living under house arrest - grew very old in Japan.

Also historical is the description of the persecution of Christians, the fummy procedure, i.e. the request to trample an image of Christ, as well as the depicted execution procedures of those who have not fallen away on crosses, in pits or in water.

Notes on the book

With this historical background in mind, Endō created its own story. He introduces the traitor figure of Kichijirō and supports his story with bogus documents from Rome for the letters of Rodrigues, with imaginary entries from the diary of an employee of the Dutch station on Dejima and with imaginary comments from the supervisor in the Christian accommodation in Edo , today Tokyo .

Of course it could have happened that way, whereby the eponymous question "Why is God silent" is not the main concern of Endo. Endō's question is echoed in the book in the conversations that the educated Commissioner for Religious Questions ( shūmon bugyō ) Inoue has with Rodrigues: Did the Japanese Christians even understand what Christianity is? And Endō suggests in his accompanying word that a Christian denomination without a Pope as God's representative on earth would be better suited for Japan, for East Asia.

Used book editions

  • Endō, Shūsaku: 沈 黙 (Chinmoku = silence ). Shincho Bunko, 1966. ISBN 978-4-10-112315-8 .
  • Endo, Shusaku: Silence . Translated from the Japanese by William Johnston. Picador Classic, 1969. ISBN 978-1-4472-9985-1 .
  • Endō, Shūsaku: silence . Translated from the Japanese by Ruth Linhart. Septime Verlag, Vienna, 2015. ISBN 978-3-902711-40-3 .

Film adaptations

Scorsese's film follows the book closely, necessarily summarizing the story. Only at the end of the film does Scorsese add a scene that does not appear in the book: Rodrigues' wife secretly slips the deceased a crucifix during the cremation. The wanted Ferreira is portrayed more positively in the film than he is in the book from Rodrigues' point of view.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ In Arima (today part of Minamishimabara ) there was a Jesuit seminary founded by Alessandro Valignano near the Hinoe Castle from 1580 to 1612 .
  2. ↑ In 2017 Finch & Zebra published an audio book ( ISBN 978-3-8398-1563-2 ) read by Benno Fürmann .