East China Sea

The East China Sea is the body of water that separates Japan from the Asian mainland, serving as the final maritime passage for Portuguese missionaries traveling from Macao to Japan during the Tokugawa persecution. In Shusaku Endo's novel Silence, the sea is not merely a geographical setting but a central symbol of the vast, indifferent distance between the Christian West and the Japanese 'swamp' that absorbs and transforms foreign ideologies. It is the space across which missionaries like Sebastian Rodrigues and Francisco Garrpe journey, carrying their faith into a land that will ultimately defeat them, and it becomes the silent witness to the martyrdoms that define the novel's moral crisis.

Geography and Passage

The East China Sea is the body of water that Rodrigues and Garrpe must cross after leaving Macao to reach Japan. Their journey across this sea is described in Rodrigues's letters: after eight days of fine weather following their departure, a storm struck on May 6th, forcing them to abandon the ship to the winds and waves. The sea is the final barrier between the safety of Macao and the danger of Japan, and it is the space where the missionaries' fate is sealed. The novel's translator's preface notes that the East China Sea was the route taken by Francis Xavier and countless other missionaries who sailed around Africa, passed India, and crossed this sea to preach the gospel in Japan.

Symbol of the Swamp

The East China Sea is intimately connected to the novel's central metaphor of Japan as a 'swamp' that destroys Christianity. The translator's preface explains that Japan is a swamp because it sucks up all sorts of ideologies, transforming them into itself and distorting them in the process. The sea is the medium through which the foreign religion arrives, but it also represents the vast, indifferent distance that separates the missionaries from their homeland and from the God they serve. The sea's silence mirrors the silence of God that torments Rodrigues, as he watches the martyrdoms of Mokichi and Ichizo and later the drowning of Garrpe and three Christians.

Witness to Martyrdom

The East China Sea is the site of the most harrowing martyrdoms in the novel. Mokichi and Ichizo are tied to stakes at the water's edge in Tomogi, and the sea slowly drowns them over two days. Rodrigues watches from his hiding place on the mountain, hearing Mokichi's hymn 'We're on our way to the temple of Paradise' mingled with the sound of the waves. Later, Garrpe drowns in the same sea while trying to save three Christians who are thrown overboard from a boat. The sea is described as 'black' and 'cold,' and its monotonous sound gnaws at the shore, representing the relentless, meaningless suffering that God does not answer.

Cultural and Historical Context

The East China Sea is also the route by which Western influence entered Japan, and it is the space where the conflict between East and West plays out. The translator's preface describes how the Portuguese ships brought missionaries and trade, and how the Japanese government eventually cut off all relations with Portugal after the Shimabara Rebellion. The sea becomes a symbol of the impossibility of transplanting Christianity into Japanese soil, as the interpreter tells Rodrigues that 'a tree which flourishes in one kind of soil may wither if the soil is changed.' The sea is the boundary that the missionaries cross, but it is also the boundary that Japan erects to keep them out.

Narrative Significance

In the novel's structure, the East China Sea functions as a threshold between two worlds. Rodrigues's letters describe the sea journey in detail, emphasizing the danger and the isolation. The sea is also the place where Rodrigues experiences his most profound doubts, as he wonders whether God exists at all. The sea's silence becomes a metaphor for God's silence, and Rodrigues's struggle with this silence is the central theological crisis of the novel. The sea is not just a setting; it is an active participant in the drama, a force that both carries the missionaries to their fate and witnesses their failure.