Kichijiro's Confession and Arrest

Kichijiro's Confession and Arrest is the culminating encounter between the two weakest figures in the novel, a scene in which the fallen priest Sebastian Rodrigues, now known as the Apostate Paul, grants absolution to the man who betrayed him, and which later leads to Kichijiro's arrest and interrogation at the Christian Residence in Edo, exposing the persistent underground faith that the authorities believed they had eradicated.

Confession in Sotouramachi

One evening, while Rodrigues stands leaning against the window of his house in Sotouramachi, he hears a familiar voice calling from the door: "Father, father. It's Kichijiro." Rodrigues, who has taken the Japanese name Okada San'emon and lives under the supervision of the magistrate's office, replies in a low voice, "I'm no longer 'father'" and warns him to leave quickly or risk punishment. Kichijiro persists, saying, "But you can still hear my confession!" Rodrigues lowers his head and admits, "I'm a fallen priest." Kichijiro tells him that in Nagasaki everyone calls him the Apostate Paul, a name the priest already knows well from the children who gather at his door chanting it. Still clutching his knees, Rodrigues laughs bitterly at this recognition.

The Weak Man's Plea

Kichijiro, weeping, confesses: "Father, I betrayed you. I trampled on the picture of Christ." He then articulates the central anguish of his life: "In this world are the strong and the weak. The strong never yield to torture, and they go to Paradise; but what about those, like myself, who are born weak, those who, when tortured and ordered to trample on the sacred image…" Rodrigues, remembering his own act of trampling the fumie, reflects that he too placed his foot on that face—the face of the man who had been ever in his thoughts, on the mountains, in his wanderings, in prison. He recalls how the Christ of the fumie, worn down by countless feet, had spoken to him with compassionate eyes: "Trample! Your foot suffers in pain; it must suffer like all the feet that have stepped on this plaque. But that pain alone is enough. I understand your pain and your suffering. It is for that reason that I am here."

Reconciliation and Absolution

Rodrigues then speaks to Kichijiro with a new understanding: "There are neither the strong nor the weak. Can anyone say that the weak do not suffer more than the strong?" He declares that since in this country there is now no one else to hear his confession, he will do it. He tells Kichijiro to say the prayers after confession and then pronounces, "Go in peace!" Kichijiro weeps softly and leaves the house. Rodrigues reflects that he has administered that sacrament which only a priest can administer, and though his fellow priests would condemn his act as sacrilege, he is not betraying his Lord. He loves him now in a different way from before, and everything that has taken place until now has been necessary to bring him to this love. He thinks, "Even now I am the last priest in this land. But Our Lord was not silent. Even if he had been silent, my life until this day would have spoken of him."

Arrest and Interrogation at the Christian Residence

Years later, according to the diary of an officer at the Christian Residence in Edo, Kichijiro, who had followed Rodrigues to Edo and served as his attendant, was sent to gaol because of his suspicious behavior. During a search of his pocket at the Enclosed Guardhouse, an amulet-case hung from his neck was found to contain an image to which the Christians pay respect, with St. Paul and St. Peter on one side and Xavier and an angel on the other. Summoned from gaol, Kichijiro was asked about his native place and his relatives; he stated he was from Goto and fifty-four years of age in that Year of the Dragon. The discovery of the image raised suspicion about the faith of Hitotsubashi Matabe, who had been on familiar terms with Kichijiro, and Matabe was also kept in prison until Kichijiro could explain himself. When Lord Totominokami came in person and questioned Kichijiro about from whom he had received the sacred object, Kichijiro answered that an attendant named Saizaburo, who had visited the Residence three years earlier, had dropped it, and he had picked it up and kept it. Tokuemon, the gate-keeper, confirmed witnessing the scene one summer day during the airing of clothes. When asked if he had not received it from Okada San'emon, Kichijiro said there was no chance to get anything from San'emon, explaining that San'emon was always attended by a couple of guards on duty whenever he saw him. The interrogation thus exposed the tight surveillance under which the apostate priest lived, yet also revealed that Kichijiro, despite his repeated betrayals and apostasies, had secretly preserved a Christian image, a testament to the faith that could not be entirely stamped out even in the weakest of believers.