Endō Shūsaku

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Endō, Shūsaku ( Japanese 遠藤 周 作 ; born March 27, 1923 in Nishi-Sugamo , Kita-Toshima County (today: Toshima ), Tokyo Prefecture ; † September 29, 1996 ) was a Japanese writer and recipient of the Akutagawa Prize , des most important Japanese literary prize.

Endo's works are strongly influenced by his Roman Catholic faith. His mother was already a Catholic and Endo himself was raised Catholic. At the age of 12 he was baptized Paul . He belonged to the Christian minority in Japan with a population of less than one percent.

In 2000, the Endō-Shūsaku Literature Museum was opened in Sotome (today: Nagasaki ) .

Life

Endō Shūsaku was born the second son of a bank clerk and a musician. His parents divorced in 1933. While Endo's father stayed in Dairen , the mother returned to Japan with the children. After graduating from high school in Tokyo , Endo studied French literature at Keio University and graduated at the age of 25. After the Pacific War he studied modern Catholic literature at the University of Lyon from 1950 to 1953 . One year after he returned from France in poor health, in 1954, his mother died.

In the same year he married Junko Okada. In 1956 their son Ryūnosuke was born. Endo worked as a lecturer at the Sophia University in Tokyo. He made several trips to Europe and Israel. In 1968 he founded an amateur theater. From 1985 to 1989 he was President of the Japanese PEN Center . In September 1996 he succumbed to a lung disease at the Keio University Hospital in Tokyo.

Awards

In addition, several works have been included in the UNESCO collection of representative works .

Works

Sea and poison

The novel Sea and Poison ( Umi to Dokuyaku ) is about a cruel event in Japanese war history. He describes how American prisoners of war who crashed over Fukuoka in a B-29 in May 1945 are abused by Japanese doctors for vivisections and experiments and die.

remain silent

The novel Silence ( Chinmoku ) is about the persecution of Christians, which marked the end of the "Christian age" in Japan. The writer Leopold Federmair said of the novel: “The title refers to an ancient Christian topic, which was dealt with in the Old Testament, namely the silence of God. Shūsaku's novel is a Japanese theodicy . "

The novel is set in 1638 and is about the young Jesuit Sebastian Rodrigo. He travels to Japan to do secret missionary work as a priest. Torture, crucifixion and inhuman humiliation often make the priest despair of his task. In his opinion it is God who is silent.

The novel was filmed twice: in 1971 by the Japanese director Masahiro Shinoda under the title Chinmoku and in 2016 by Martin Scorsese under the title Silence .

Rebirth on the Ganges

The novel Rebirth on the Ganges ( Fukai Kawa ) describes the journey of five Japanese who hope for a spiritual renewal from the trip to the Ganges . The novel was made into a film.

samurai

The novel Samurai describes a little known but historically documented part of the encounter between the West and Japan in the age of colonialism (around the 16th / 17th centuries).

Hasekura Tsunenaga , a samurai, sets off with a Franciscan priest on a trip to Mexico (then New Spain) in order to establish transpacific trade relations. The path in which the samurai becomes a Christian leads on via Spain to Rome , to an audience with the Pope . On returning to Japan, the samurai finds that his country has gone into isolation and that Christians are no longer welcome. In addition to the exotic journey, the book deals with the search of the individual for his faith as well as his responsibility towards the feudal ruler and the church authorities.

Work overview (selection)

  • 1954 Aden made ( ア デ ン ま で )
  • 1955 Shiroi Hito, Kiiroi Hito ( 白 い 人 ・ 黄色 い 人 'White Man, Yellow Man' )
  • 1958 Umi to Dokuyaku ( 海 と 毒 薬 )
    • Sea and poison , translated by Jürgen Berndt. People and World, Berlin 1976.
  • 1959 Obakasan ( お バ カ さ ん )
    • The wonderful dreamer , translated by Maja Ueberle-Pfaff (from English). Herder, Freiburg 1993
  • 1960 Kazan ( 火山 )
  • 1963 Otoko to kyūkanchō
    • The men and a bird , translated by Jürgen Berndt. In: Dreams of Ten Nights. Japanese stories of the 20th century , edited by Eduard Klopfenstein. Theseus Verlag, Munich 1992. ISBN 3-85936-057-4 .
  • 1965 Ryūgaku ( 留学 )
    • Foreign Studies , translated by Mark Williams, London 1989 (English)
  • 1966 Chinmoku ( 沈 黙 )
    • Silence , translated by Ruth Linhart. Droemer Knaur, Munich 1992; New edition: Septime-Verlag, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902711-40-3 .
  • 1969 Taihen dā ( 大 変 だ ァ English Good Grief! )
  • 1973 Shikai no Hotori ( 死海 の ほ と り 'At the Dead Sea' )
  • 1973 Iesu no Shogai ( イ エ ス の 生涯 'The life of Jesus' )
    • A life of Jesus , translated by Richard A. Schuchert, New York, Mahwah, 1978 (English)
  • 1973 Kirisuto no Tanjō ( キ リ ス ト の 誕生 'The Birth of Christ' )
  • 1973 Fukai Kawa ( 深 い 河 )
    • Rebirth on the Ganges , translated by Otto Putz. Volk und Welt, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-353-01033-5 .
  • 1980 Samurai ( 侍 )
    • The Samurai , translated by Jürgen Berndt. Volk und Welt, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-353-00368-1 .
  • 1986 Sukyandaru ( ス キ ャ ン ダ ル 'Scandal' )
  • Kuchibue o fuku toki ( 口 笛 を ふ く 時 'When I whistle' )
    • A clinic in Tokyo , translated by Rainer Rönsch (from English). People and World, Berlin 1982.

theatre

  • May 13, 1966 Ōgon no Kuni ( 黄金 の 国 , The Land of Gold ), WP: Kumo Theater Group, Tokyo, director: Akutagawa Hiroshi
  • September 30, 1969 Bara no yakata ( 薔薇 の 館 , The House in the Middle of Roses ), WP, Tokyo, directed by Akutagawa Hiroshi

Film adaptations

  • 1968 Nihon no seishun , directed by Masaki Kobayashi
  • 1969 Watashi ga suteta onna , directed by Kirirō Urayama
  • 1971 Chinmoku , directed by Masahiro Shinoda
  • 1976 Saraba natsuno hikariyo , directed by Shigeyuki Yamane
  • 1981 Mayonaka no shōtaijō , directed by Yoshitarō Nomura
  • 1986 Umi to dokuyaku , director: Kei Kumai ; Silver Bear of the Berlinale 1986
  • 1988 Yojo no jidai , directed by Shunichi Nagasaki
  • 1995 Fukai kawa , directed by Kei Kumai
  • 1997 Aisuru (based on Watashi ga Suteta Onna ), director: Kei Kumai
  • 2016 Silence , directed by Martin Scorsese

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shusaku Endo: Sea and Poison. In: aus.readesen - book presentations: thoughts and reflections. Retrieved November 24, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Leopold Federmair : Why is God silent? Shusaku Endo's novel from 17th century Japan . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 25, 2016, p. 49.
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Endō is the family name, Shūsaku the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Endō, Shūsaku
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 遠藤 周 作 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Nishi-Sugamo , Kitatsohima-gun , Tokyo Prefecture
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 1996