Today I would like to introduce the plot of Shusaku Endo's Silence and explain the story, so please enjoy.
enjoy.
When various missionaries from Europe came all the way to Japan to spread Christianity,
Christianity was banned in Japan during the Edo period.
Christianity was persecuted and persecuted.
Amidst this, a missionary named Ferreira, a clever theologian who had come to Japan to spread Christianity, was
defeated by a Christian bullet and a
report was sent to Europe that he had renounced Christianity and returned home. This was the story
of this wonderful missionary, Ferreira.
Rodrigo and Garpe
thought it would be hard to believe that Ferreira had returned home to Christianity, so in
order to verify the truth,
Ferreira and Garpe came to Japan.
Ferreira and Garpe then met a weak Japanese
man named Kichijiro.
With the help of Kichijiro, they were
able to infiltrate Nagasaki.
There, Ferreira and Garpe one day met hidden Christians. They tried to
somehow absolve Christianity, which was banned in Japan.
Ferreira learns that there are Japanese people who are continuing to follow them in secret, trying not to be found.
However, the country finds out that these hidden Christians are secretly practicing Christianity, and they are captured. They are
subjected to various cruel tortures and die.
Seeing them, Garpe instinctively runs to them and loses his life along with them.
Rodrigo is integrated, but
due to the betrayal of the weak Kichijiro, he is reported
and Rodrigo is also captured.
Rodrigo is taken to the Nagasaki Magistrate's Office,
and there he finds Ferreira, a man he had heard rumored to have returned to Christianity after succumbing to oppression.
Rodrigo despises Kichijiro, who betrayed him, and Ferreira, his master, who had given in to
oppression and given up his faith in God.
Rodrigo wanted to die a martyr while maintaining his loyalty to God.
One day, Rodrigo was performing his honor in prison
when he suddenly heard what sounded like a groaning sound coming from far away.
Rodrigo thinks it must be someone's
snoring, and yells out that it's too loud and he can't sleep, so please stop the noise.
But his master Ferreira
tells him that the voice is not an echo, but the voice of a Japanese believer who was a hidden Christian and is being tortured. He is told
that these tortured believers
have already sworn to renounce Christianity, but
that they will never be forgiven unless they return Rodrigo, the missionary, to his homeland.
This is a shock to Rodrigo.
Rodrigo is troubled. Should he
keep his faith and turn a blind eye to the torture of the Japanese believer,
or should he abandon his faith in God and follow the teachings of Jesus to
save the suffering people from torture? He struggles with this question for a long time.
Then Rodrigo realizes that his master
Ferreira has been in the same situation for the same reason, and has converted to Christianity and returned home.
Rodrigo also decides to convert to Christianity and return home to help them.
Rodrigo then decides to step on the fumie in the courtyard of the Nagasaki Magistrate's Office. The
image of Jesus is engraved on Bunshichi's copper plate. [Music]
[Music]
When Rodrigo tries to step on the fumie, a strong pain hits his foot bath. At
that moment, Jesus inside the fumie speaks to him. [Music]
[Music]
I know better than anyone how much your feet hurt.
I know better than anyone how much you hurt. I was born into this world to be stepped on by you, and I have borne 10 hours of pain in order to overcome your pain. This is what Jesus
told Rodrigo.
And so, Rodrigo stepped on the fumie and returned home to Christianity.
Now that Rodrigo has been forgiven, Kichijiro, who betrayed him, visits him, asking for forgiveness.
And through Kichijiro's face, es speaks again. I was
not silent; I suffered alongside you.
Who can say that the weak are more fortunate than the strong?
These are the kinds of things Jesus speaks to him.
And so, Rodrigo finally came to understand the meaning of God's teachings.
Rodrigo said to Jesus, "
I stepped on the fumie, but only you know that I did not return home, Lord."
That's what Rodrigo said to Jesus. That
's the end. What did you think? This work, Hitogi, was a novel written by Endo Shusaku in 1966.
The author, Endo Shusaku, is also a Christian.
However, the reason why Endo Shusaku became a Christian was because his mother was a Christian. He
was drawn to the church as a child, and was
baptized and became a Christian. So,
So,
rather than being a devout believer, he wrote this work, Silence, from a somewhat bird's-eye view of Christianity and God.
As the title, Silence, suggests,
this story describes the silence of God. The
hidden Christians died after being subjected to severe torture. The
missionary, Rupe, died trying to save the tortured Ghiristans. Their master,
Herrera, was forced to return to his homeland as a Christian. No matter
how many miserable events those who believe in God suffered, God never showed up. At
the end of the story, Rodrigo is required to sever his ties with God and return to Tokyo in order to save his friend who is being tortured.
At that moment, Jesus tells Rodrigo that he will step on the fumi-e, and that he was not silent, but was born to suffer with him.
This is the end of the story, and Rodrigo finally
understands that God was not silent, and the meaning of God's teachings.
Kichijiro, who appears in color early in the story, and Keiro, the man who
betrayed Rodrigo, are portrayed as extremely weak. They
are characters who are written to persevere in their weakness in order to survive.
In order to survive, he quickly broke off the fumi-e and betrayed his family. He
betrayed Rodrigo to avoid being caught, and yet
he himself continues to believe in Christianity until the very end.
This is the kind of character he is.
Seeing Kichijiro like that makes us realize that not everything can be strong,
and at the same time, it makes us think about the very existence of God.
What is God?
In this story, God is portrayed as a being who bestows love equally on all living beings, strong and weak alike. He
bestows love on those who persevered and were tortured to death, and
on those who could not persevere and compromised themselves to live by stepping on the fumi-e. At
the end of this work, "Silence," Rodrigo has this line: "
Even if that person paid attention to me, my life up to this point speaks to me about that person.
Even if I deny God, even if I was forced to
step on the fumie (a sacred image) at the Nagasaki Magistrate's Office, God continues to live within me." I
can feel this message that God exists within each and every one of us. I
visited Nagasaki for the first time last year. It
was the place where diplomatic relations were conducted during Japan's isolation, so it has a
strange cityscape where Japanese cultural districts, Western culture, and Chinese cultures mix together, which was interesting.
Churches and Chinatowns coexist, and there's an island nearby.
After reading "Silence," I became very interested in the connection between Nagasaki and Christianity, so I'm
glad I went. I was
able to visit Oura Cathedral and the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan Memorial Museum.
In 2018, the Hidden Christian Sites of Nagasaki and the Amakusa Region were registered as a World Cultural Heritage Site. There are
still hidden Christians being transferred to the islands of the Goto Islands, and the
massacre that broke out when Christians could no longer endure the Christian bombing.
Nagasaki also has a region called Shimabara, famous for the Shimabara Amakusa section.
By the way, this work, Silence, is set in the period after the end of the Amakusa Eggs from the island.
I haven't been to Shimabara or Amakusa, or the related heritage of the Hidden Christians yet, so I hope to be able to go there someday. If
you're interested, please
read the work Chikagi.
And if you have the opportunity to go to Nagasaki, why not take note of these points and walk around the city? What did you
think? This channel is a modified version of the literary Arase-san video. I would be
very happy if you could subscribe and rate it. Also,
thank you to everyone who always leaves comments. I've
been quite busy recently and haven't been able to make much progress, but I
hope to continue uploading as many videos as possible in the future, so please look
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