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Current estimates peg the number of Japanese people who identify as Christians at roughly 2 million. Far from being a modest number, this still only accounts for less than 1% of Japan's entire population: a majority of which primarily practice either Shintoism or Buddhism to some degree. .
Interestingly enough, religious affiliation remains an alien notion in this area of the world owing to the negative connotations associated with the term translated as religion (‘shūkyō’) as it is historically connected to aggressive conversion tactics from a strange or otherwise foreign entity.
Silence is a 2016 epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and with a screenplay by Jay Cocks and Scorsese, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Shūsaku Endō. The film stars Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, and Ciarán Hinds.
Two 17th-century Portuguese missionaries, Father Sebastian Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Francisco Garupe (Adam Driver), embark on a perilous journey to Japan to find their missing mentor, Cristóvão Ferreira (Liam Neeson). While there, the two men minister to the Christian villagers who worship in secret. If caught by feudal lords or ruling samurai, they must renounce their faith or face a prolonged and agonizing death.
𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒔𝒘𝒂𝒎𝒑.
Having written primarily from the rare perspective of a Japanese Catholic, it is likely not a coincidence that Endō so insistently uses the analogy of a swamp in 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 to illustrate the challenge of discussing Christianity in Japan without some historical rendering.
His unwavering straightforwardness begs the question: How in the world did we get here?
Well, I'm very happy you asked.
In 1543 the first Europeans arrived to Japan; this was not intentional, as a ship with Portuguese merchants was blown off course and landed south of Kyushu on the island of Tanegashima. The Shimazu family (who ruled Satsuma and controlled Tanegashima) was impressed by objects these merchants had onboard that were indicative of modernity - primarily, firearms - and this initial interaction would make them open to Europeans that could potentially arrive in the future.
The first Christian mission trip arrived in 1549 and was headed by a Francis Xavier; Xavier was the founding member of the Society of Jesus (commonly referred to as Jesuits), and this was the first order to make missionary work their official life purpose. His first mission (carried out in Goa, in 1541) bore little fruit, and resulted in Xavier moving on to Malaysia in 1545.
While in Malaysia Xavier ended up meeting a Japanese man named Anjiro (Or Yajiro, according to other sources) who had fled from his hometown after being implicated in a murder, and Anjiro developed an impassioned sense of curiosity about Christianity and its principles.
Inspired by the conversations had with Anjiro about Japan, Xavier went with him (and two other Japanese converts) to Kagoshima, and they were received well by its citizens. It didn’t take too long for Xavier and his crew to be given permission to speak to the people living there without restrictions, and they took to preaching sermons through both translators and the Japanese they managed to learn in the short time they were tolerated as residents.
After having spent ten months in Kagoshima ( and converting about 100 people) Xavier made way for Hirado (this is Northwest of present-day Nagasaki) so as to take advantage of a recently established Portuguese Port that was located on the upper coast of Kyushu.
This migration likely happened for spiritual reasons as opposed to economic ones, but this worried the Shimazu family immensely as this new port ruined the monopoly they previously had on European trade, and this was particularly worrisome given the accessibility this granted to tools ( like weaponry) that could be used to subvert their claims to authority. It is rumored that Xavier’s proselytizing efforts encouraged more people to convert to Christianity in just 20 days in Hirado than in the entirety of the time previously spent in Kagoshima, and this developed into an eagerness to meet with the emperor (or the Shogun) and relocating to the country's second-largest City, Yamaguchi.
Employment as a domestic servant to a prince is what brought Xavier to Imperial City ( present-day Tokyo), and to put things kindly this brought him no closer to meeting with the emperor in question. Left to reconcile with remnants of what would eventually be called the Warring States Period (1467-1568) the Shogun was in exile, the emperor was essentially powerless, and the losses suffered by residents made Xavier’s message less a matter of priority than an extraneous nuisance.
Xavier returned to Yamaguchi and earn good favor with local Lord Ouchi Yoshitaka using tactics much like his predecessors did 10 years prior, and this would lay the foundation for Otomo Sorin (Lord of Bungo in the Eastern area of Kyushu) to convert to Christianity in 1578 for what have been surmised as political reasons: 26 years after Xavier had passed away and 16 years after Sorin had became officiated as a Buddhist-lay priest.
(𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆…)
In 1568 the Jesuits secured their most promising ally when Oda Nobunaga (The first of Japan's “great unifiers”) started to do business with them. This gave Nobunaga a great advantage in any of his conquest related desires as this made it easy for him to secure guns and ammunition, but his influence was undermined by an act of betrayal that resulted in his death by suicide in 1582. He was replaced by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, whose policies would be indicative of being increasingly suspicious of both Christian motives and abilities.
Now, in 1578 Otomo Sorin found himself anticipating the wrath of the Shimazu family as they had started immobilizing Northward and had by this time secured almost the entirety of Kyushu. Sorin asked Hideyoshi for aid, and his commissioned army was able to force the Shimazu forces southward where they would ultimately surrender. Subsequently, Hideyoshi was able to find a way to unite all of Japan under his banner, and he too preserved a curiosity for what Europeans had to offer as both collateral and obtainable goods. His interests became tainted with concern upon observing that many lords were converting to Christianity (Typically, from Buddhism) as it was believed this pattern of behavior may set a precedent for conflicting loyalties, and his fears were reinforced by the posturing of missionaries as advanced wardens to a (typically) foreign territory. In 1587 Hideyoshi began ordering the expulsion of missionaries from Japan, and on February 5th, 1597 he ordered the apprehension and first execution of twenty-four leading Christians from the Kansai area on a hilltop in Nagasaki.
This is an appropriate time to reflect on why some Japanese residents converted typically from Buddhism at this point in time, as the punishment alone for doing so would dissuade most of 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆’s viewers.
While apprehended, Rodriguez is shocked by Monica’s (A presumed native of Goto that has also been arrested) composed attitude towards dying, and Monica tells him that ‘Paraiso (‘Paradise’) is so much better than here’ and goes on to list a number of obligations (Like taxes) that serve as a paramour to hardship. Without context it might be safe to assume that Christianity was an accelerant of sorts when it comes to the destitution that Monica has been experiencing, but historical record has shown some amount of mistreatment towards the citizens of Japan across the board..
Specifically, in 1618 following an order established by the Tokugawa shogunate a feudal Lord by the name of the Matsukura Shigemasa began constructing what would end up being the Shimabara Castle; In need of funding for this project, Japanese peasants were regularly taxed beyond what they could afford, and the punishments for non-compliance were inscrutable and cruel. Shigemasa’s most notorious penalty was called the ‘raincoat dance’: called such because individuals would be forced to wear straw (like a raincoat) that was doused in oil and set on fire. To make matters worse, family members of those that couldn't pay these taxes weren’t safe: they were taken hostage and sometimes penalized in some capacity as well.
This separates the dawn of Francis Xavier with the rise of missionaries that followed his example. Prior to Shigemasa (or other authoritative figures like him) individuals could be drawn to Christianity using qualities that make it similar to Buddhism like its emphasis on morality, but this renewed age of anguish necessitated a preferential denominator. Of particular note is a distinct difference of opinion as it involves life after death, and is likely what made embracing Christianity in secret so alluring at the given time
The concept of rebirth is one of the central beliefs of Buddhism as indicated by the suggestion that attaining Nirvana is the only way any person can escape from an endless cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation ( and secondary to all of this, suffering) whereas Christianity (outside of conversations about purgatory) is driven by the assertion that after dying most people can count on spending their afterlife eternally in either Heaven or Hell.
In short, Christianity was extremely far from being this isolated variable that made people suffer.
It gave people with nothing of tangible substance to offer a convincing reason to persevere in addition to an immeasurable glimmer of hope for reprieve.
In the year 1596 a Cristóvão Ferreira became a member of the Society of Jesus, and in 1609 he was sent to Nagasaki to serve in a seminary in the area of Arima with the intent of learning Japanese.
This brings us to 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆’s real-life origin story.
In 1612 Ferreira was sent from Nagasaki to Kyoto (what was then the capital of Japan) following the condemnation of local lord Arima Harunobu (Who, refused to die by suicide, citing Christian principles) and he would spend the next twenty years witnessing the consequential havoc maintained in the name of of suppressing his beliefs and he wrote extensively on the subject of Martydom (in addition to techniques used to torture ‘hidden Christians’ that are accurately depicted in 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆) from 1627 to 1632.
Ferreira’s trail went mostly cold in 1632, but letters inscribed by other leading Jesuits would corroborate the content of his writing. One such correspondence (Written by someone in the Philippines at the time) described a new kind of torture called the pit (‘Ana-Tsurushi’) (Which, is also depicted in 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆) and this treatment was 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒅 for Christians given the fact it restricted clear-thinking and sound decision making in a short period of time.
On October 18th, 1633 Ferreira was arrested and forced to the same location of the first twenty-four Martyrs of Japan as described above, and after hanging in “the pit” for five hours he decided to recant his faith.
Left out of 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 in all forms (Likely due to not being immediately relevant) are the efforts that were taken to rescue Ferreira prior to the events that transpire on screen and in Endō’s novel. Sebastião Rodrigues, who is likely inspired by a Jesuit by the name of Guiseppe Chiara, represents what would be three separate attempts (That happened over the course of 10 years) to seek out Ferreira for the purse of gaining confirmation about his reported apostatization. Some of these endeavors, perhaps understandably, were thwarted by duplicitous acts in combination with living conditions that most would consider to be uncomfortable and in the most extreme of cases simply unbearable.
For all that 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 lacks in terms of exposition, the less subtle references made to Ferreira and Chiara paint a grander context worth having discussions about at length. Rodrigues and Garupe are far from dealing with ideal circumstances, but experiences leading up to what happens to them Nagasaki serve as an incidental testimony to their lives prior to carrying out their approved mission. 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆’s conscience, character development, and narrative is very much driven by a state of affairs that care little about their arguably privileged perspectives; they become, in a sense, forcibly exposed to scenarios where explicit knowledge pertaining to loyalty in the context of faith quite literally guarantees suffering, and this demands reconciling with absolutionary efforts designed specifically for the purpose of challenging physical manifestations of it in tandem.
Contrary to this fictionalized example of Cristóvão Ferreira, in real life he didn’t directly participate in the persecution of other Christians outside of administrative needs (IE: Working as a translator), but he was forced to live out what would be the majority of the rest of his days as a “make-do” Japanese citizens so as to take advantage of the psychological damage that could be done by forcibly assigning qualities meant to set a precedence for cognitive dissonance and by virtue of this a perpetuated state of agony throughout.
All things considered, 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 presses on as much more than an eerie analysis of the benefits served by a life and subsequent beliefs system that have previously gone largely undisputed. Secondarily, it is a thoughtful push away from egoism as indicated by how often Rodrigues looks down (Sometimes literally) on people that apostatize, and speaks further to the themes of guilt and redemption often at the core of Martin Scorsese’ work.
Speaking of: Scorsese actually met Shūsaku Endō towards the end of 1994, and his interests as a director pleased Endō in light of the disapproval he harbored for cinematic version of 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 released by Masahiro Shinoda in 1971. His issue was with Shinoda’s illustration of Rodrigues’ choices as a matter of loyalty amongst much else when Endo’s vision left readers with the impression that up until his time of death he was still clearly consumed by doubt and some loss of basic agency.
For all that is worth, the end of 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 (2016) would not by the end of Cristóvão Ferreira in less fictional accounts.
Scorsese’s conclusion strays from Endo’s in a way that resolves the tension connected to Rodrigues’ identity, and ironically parallels with Ferreira’s life more than it does Chiara’s. Chiara too decided to apostatize after being apprehended and tortured, but he never spoke a word that would imply regretting this decision.
Around the time he was felt he was about to die (about 20-30ish years after denying his God) Ferreira suddenly changed tune: he would verbally berate himself out loud unprovoked for apostatization and behaving in what he considered to be a ‘cowardly’ manner, and he was reported to the governor by soldiers that confirmed his stance while he was bedridden and gravely ill.
What’s implicated as martyrdom in retrospect on behalf of Ferreira would never be officiated by public decree, but his proposed sentence was carried out in secret so as to avoid causing a stir amongst the public.
His sentence?
Death by pit: The same pit made specifically for Christians circa 1632.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d finish by saying 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 is ultimately about what stays inside of your head versus what comes out of your mouth or is inferred by your actions.
But it’s more complicated than that, and for good reason always will be.
The order established by the Tokugawa shogunate fell apart in 1867 (A story for a different time), and in 1871 religious freedom became law in the entirety of Japan. An approximated 30,000 people came out around this time as ‘hidden Christians’, and is a far cry away from what was about 300,000 Christians in the year 1614 and yet still so far away from zero. The spirit of these ostracized followers was kept intact by religious traditions that adapted with the times and could also be carried out without detection, and contradicts any notion that formulaic displays of faith are what distinguish charismatic or compassionate leaders from honorably dutiful followers. 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 is not about the ability to literally hear God (In whatever forms might strike to applicable viewers), but perhaps more-so about a metaphorically conjoined willingness to listen.
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From the manufacturer
Synopsis:
Legendary director Martin Scorsese's Silence tells the story of two Christian missionaries (Adam Driver and Oscar nominee Andrew Garfield) who travel to Japan in search of their missing mentor (Academy Award nominee Liam Neeson) at a time when Christianity was outlawed. When they are captured and imprisoned, both men are plunged into an odyssey that will test their faith, challenge their sanity and, perhaps, risk their very lives.
Cast:
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Andrew Garfield as Rodrigues |
Adam Driver as Garupe |
Liam Neeson as Ferreira |
Ciaran Hinds as Father Valignano |
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| Starring | Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano | Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill | Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh | Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo | Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley |
| Directed By | Paul Thomas Anderson | Martin Scorsese | Brad Anderson | Martin Scorsese | Martin Scorsese |
| Original Release | 2007 | 2013 | 2004 | 2010 | 2011 |
| Rating | R | R | R | R | PG |
| Runtime | 158 minutes | 179 minutes | 101 minutes | 139 minutes | 129 minutes |
| Format | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD |
| Number of Discs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Reviews with images
Excelente
Distinta a todo lo que hace Scorsese, pero igual buena, coloca en jaque el tema de la fe, plasmandolo en la historia mediante la emoción de los protagonistas
Top reviews from other countries
Tita Fürst - Koren
Der Glaube(n) hat es schwer in den Sümpfen...
Reviewed in Germany on March 6, 2021
