Ferreira's apostasy event

Ferreira's apostasy event is the pivotal crisis of Shusaku Endo's Silence, shattering the morale of the Catholic mission in Japan and forcing the protagonist Sebastian Rodrigues to confront the unbearable silence of God. After thirty-three years of missionary work, the Portuguese Provincial Christovao Ferreira, a theologian of considerable ability and a source of inspiration to priests and faithful alike, succumbed to the torture of 'the pit' at Nagasaki and renounced his faith. His defection was not merely the failure of one individual but a humiliating defeat for the faith itself and for the whole of Europe, and it became the central mystery that Rodrigues and his companions crossed the world to investigate.

Background and the Unthinkable Defection

News reached the Church in Rome that Christovao Ferreira, sent to Japan by the Society of Jesus in Portugal, had apostatised after undergoing the torture of 'the pit' at Nagasaki. An experienced missionary held in the highest respect, he had spent thirty-three years in Japan, had occupied the high position of provincial and had been a source of inspiration to priests and faithful alike. He was a theologian, too, of considerable ability, and in the time of persecution he had secretly made his way into the Kamigata region to pursue his apostolic work. From here the letters he sent to Rome overflowed with a spirit of indomitable courage. It was unthinkable that such a man would betray the faith, however terrible the circumstances in which he was placed. In the Society of Jesus as well as the Church at large, people asked themselves if the whole thing were not just a fictitious report invented by the Dutch or the Japanese. From the beginning of the mission until the year 1632, in spite of crucifixions, burnings, water-torture and the rest, no missionary had apostatised. But such a record could not last; and finally the blow fell. Christovao Ferreira, the Portuguese Provincial, after six hours of agony in the pit gave the signal of apostasy. His defection being so exceptional might seem of little significance; but the fact that he was the acknowledged leader of the mission made the shock a cruel one — all the more so when it became known that he was collaborating with his former persecutors.

The Torture That Broke Him: The Pit

The Tokugawa Bakufu, seeing that 'glorious martyrdoms' were not serving the desired purpose, had bit by bit preceded death with torture in a tremendous effort to make the martyrs apostatise. Among these tortures was the 'ana-tsurushi' or hanging in the pit, which quickly became the most effective means of inducing apostasy. The victim was tightly bound around the body as high as the breast, one hand being left free to give the signal of recantation, and then hung downwards from a gallows into a pit which usually contained excreta and other filth, the top of the pit being level with his knees. In order to give the blood some vent, the forehead was lightly slashed with a knife. Some of the stronger martyrs lived for more than a week in this position, but the majority did not survive more than a day or two. A Dutch resident in Japan declared that some of those who had hung for two or three days assured him that the pains they endured were wholly insufferable, no fire nor no torture equalling their languor and violence. Yet one young woman endured this for fourteen days before she expired. It was after six hours of this agony that Ferreira gave the signal of apostasy.

The Aftermath: Collaboration and the 'Swamp of Japan'

After his apostasy, Ferreira was given a Japanese name, Sawano Chuan, and lived in a mansion in Nagasaki together with a wife. He collaborated with his former persecutors, translating books on astronomy and medicine at the magistrate's order, and writing a book called Gengiroku to refute the teaching of Deus and to show the errors of Christianity. When Rodrigues finally met him at the temple Saishoji, Ferreira argued that Japan was a swamp that could not absorb Christianity. He claimed that the Japanese had never had the concept of God and never would, and that the Christianity they believed in was like the skeleton of a butterfly caught in a spider's web — only the external form remained, the blood and the flesh were gone. He told Rodrigues that the sapling of Christianity had decayed at its roots in this swamp, and that even Saint Francis Xavier had failed to notice how the Japanese had twisted and changed the Christian God into something different. The interpreter who had been present at the cross-examination of many missionaries boasted that the fathers who apostatised after Inoue's cross-examination were Fathers Porro, Pedro, Cassola and Father Ferreira. When Rodrigues first heard this, he could not believe it, but the interpreter insisted that Ferreira was alive, had taken a Japanese name, and lived in a mansion in Nagasaki together with his wife, in good repute.

The Meeting at Saishoji and the Final Temptation

When Rodrigues was brought to meet Ferreira at the temple Saishoji, he found an old man with a shaven chin and upper lip, wearing a black kimono, his chestnut hair bound back in Japanese style. Ferreira, with a challenging smile, told Rodrigues that he was translating a book on astronomy and was of some use to the people of this country. He showed Rodrigues the scar behind his ear from the pit torture. The most devastating moment came when Ferreira, in the darkness of the prison, told Rodrigues that the groaning he heard was not snoring but the moaning of Christians hanging in the pit. He confessed that he had not apostatised because he was suspended in the pit — for three days he had hung in a pit of foul excrement without saying a single word that betrayed his God. The reason he apostatised was that he was put in the cell and heard the voices of those people for whom God did nothing. He told Rodrigues that prayer did nothing to alleviate their suffering, and that if Christ were there, he would certainly have apostatised for them. This argument, that true love meant sacrificing one's own salvation to end the suffering of others, became the final temptation that led Rodrigues to place his foot on the fumie.

Significance: The Defeat of the Mission

Ferreira's apostasy represented the complete collapse of the Jesuit mission in Japan. The man who had been the acknowledged leader of the mission, a theologian of considerable ability who had spent thirty-three years in Japan, had not only renounced his faith but had become a tool of the persecutors, writing books to refute Christianity and identifying Christian objects for the magistrate's office. His defection was so shocking that it prompted four priests in Rome to plan a secret mission to Japan to atone for the apostasy which had so wounded the honor of the Church. For Rodrigues and his companions, who had been Ferreira's students at the monastery of Campolide, it was impossible to believe that their much admired teacher had grovelled like a dog before the infidel. The search for the truth about Ferreira became the driving force of their mission. When Rodrigues finally met him, he found not a monster but a broken old man who had been defeated by the 'swamp of Japan' — a phrase that became the central metaphor of the novel for the impossibility of transplanting Western Christianity into Japanese soil. Ferreira's fate foreshadowed Rodrigues' own, and his arguments about the swamp of Japan and the silence of God became the intellectual and spiritual crisis that Rodrigues had to overcome, or succumb to, in his own moment of decision.