![]() ![]() At Tokyo's Keio University he majored in French literature, graduating BA in 1949, before furthering his studies in French Catholic literature at the University of Lyon in France between 19. (from t Shusaku Endo ( 遠藤周作), born in Tokyo in 1923, was raised by his mother and an aunt in Kobe where he converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of eleven. ![]() Before his death in 1996, Endo was the recipient of a number of outstanding Japanese literary awards: the Akutagawa Prize, Mainichi Cultural Prize, Shincho Prize, and Tanizaki Prize. A major theme running through his books, which have been translated into many languages, including English, French, Russian and Swedish, is the failure of Japanese soil to nurture the growth of Christianity. Shinoda chose to make this point by ending his movie with a portrayal of Rodrigues, the “fallen priest”, apparently living on following his renunciation of holy orders by taking the Japanese wife who is offered to him by the authorities as reward for his act of cooperation.Shusaku Endo ( 遠藤周作), born in Tokyo in 1923, was raised by his mother and an aunt in Kobe where he converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of eleven. To Shinoda, Rodrigues’s decision to trample the crucifix represented a relatively straightforward act of apostasy – he saw Rodrigues as ultimately cracking under psychological pressure and renouncing all that his life to date had stood for. He must do so not only to save his own life, but also those of the poor Japanese peasants who are being threatened with ongoing torture until their priest apostatises. This is the scene in which the protagonist Rodrigues, a Jesuit priest who slipped into Japan in the 1630s in open defiance of the prohibition on all preaching of the Christian gospel, is ultimately confronted with the order to step on a crucifix as an outward act of renunciation of his faith. More specifically, Endo was at pains to explain his displeasure with the way in which Shinoda had rendered the all-important fumie (crucifix) scene. And, given the fact that he had also recently been confronted with a terminal medical diagnosis, our conversation soon turned to discussion of what might loosely be termed his “literary legacy”. ![]() I had had a few dealings with Endo during the course of my attempts to translate two of his lesser-known novels, but I could not help but be impressed by the typical good grace with which he took the decision. Following weeks of speculation that this was somehow Japan’s year to win the Nobel Prize for Literature – with Endo and Kenzaburo Oe, his contemporary on the literary scene, as the overwhelming favourites – the announcement had just been made that the award had gone to Oe. The film represents a powerful reworking of the novel of the same name by the Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo and I, for one, shall never forget one of my first meetings with the author. The blogosphere has been awash this month with reviews of Martin Scorsese’s latest movie Silence. ![]()
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