Summary Of Ferreira In Silence By Shusak Endo

People have been persecuted for their religious beliefs as far back as the Classical period in ancient Greek and Roman civilizations.1 As the number of popular religions multiplied globally and the amount of international travelers to Asian countries increased due to growing trade relationships, disagreements and arguments ensued between opposing cultures. In the 1500s, the Japanese culture was introduced to the Christian religion, which led to political and social unrest in the Asian nation. This unrest quickly evolved into a full persecution of the Japanese converts and foreign Christian missionaries, and there were also numerous laws and limitations placed on other Japanese citizens. In a fictional novel written by Shusaku Endo, this

The enduring voyage began on March 25, 1638 as the Santa Isabelle set sail toward Japan with Rodrigues, Garrpe, and Juan de Santa Marta on board.4 Sebastiao Rodrigues, an adoring student of Ferreira in Silence, was a depiction of the brave Giuseppe Chiara, an Italian missionary who traveled to Japan in search of Ferreira.5 The first part of their journey was documented by a series of Rodrigues’s letters sent to Rome that reported encounters with horrible weather, health hazards, and sub-par living conditions. The ship took the long path towards the Canary Islands, around the Cape of Good Hope, and then docked itself in Goa. It was there that the priests received the news that their Portuguese ship, the Santa Isabella, wasn’t safe to use during the last leg of their journey, due to the enforcement of new laws created to discontinue the spread of Christianity into Japan.6 This restriction coincided with the laws enforced by the Edict of 1635 that greatly secluded Japan from outer influences.7 With this, more attention was drawn to the Portuguese ships, thereby making the Santa Isabella an extremely dangerous method of transportation. Following Goa, Rodrigues and Garrpe continued onward to Macao, leaving an ill Juan de Santa Marta behind, where he eventually passed away from malaria. Upon arriving to

Rodrigues and Garrpe resided temporarily in an attic the first night, and were then moved to a more comfortable location on a country mountainside in a small hut, that was eventually renovated to have a false-bottom floor for safety. At these locations, messengers greatly assisted the missionaries by providing them with nourishment and the most recent news pertaining to the great oppression of Christianity. Unfortunately, the villagers had very little food to spare, so the priests were left with small portions of mildly nutritious food. Additionally, due to the fear of being caught and persecuted by the Japanese officials or turned in by villagers, the priests were limited to exposing themselves only at nighttime and had to travel unseen by other people. Yet, the priests still managed to overcome the difficulties of spreading the word of Christ by having visitors discretely come to them during the night or in secrecy to learn about and practice Christian beliefs. It was at these times that baptisms, confessional, and other priest-reliant practices were observed. When apart from the foreign missionaries, the Japanese Christians were responsible for the continuation of their religious practices within their villages and