Garrpe's Drowning Attempt

Garrpe's Drowning Attempt is the pivotal martyrdom of Francisco Garrpe, the Portuguese Jesuit who, after being captured and brought to a pine grove near Nagasaki, witnesses three Christians—including the woman Monica who had earlier given him a cucumber—being wrapped in straw mats and rowed out into the shoals to be drowned. In a desperate act of love, Garrpe rushes into the sea, swims after the boat, and drowns while praying, his death becoming a turning point that deepens Sebastian Rodrigues' crisis of faith and exposes the brutal logic of the Tokugawa persecution.

Background and Setting

The event takes place on a gray morning in a pine grove near the sea, where the interpreter has brought Rodrigues to witness something. The overcast sky gives a brown appearance to the lazy sea, and the monotonous sound of waves biting at the shore reminds Rodrigues of the earlier martyrdom of Mokichi and Ichizo. The interpreter, speaking with a smile of delight, reveals that the magistrate has arranged this spectacle: if Garrpe apostatises, the three Christians will be spared. The interpreter explains that these three have already trampled on the fumie, but the authorities want not their apostasy but Garrpe's, in order to demoralise the hidden Christians in the islands.

What Happens

The officials roll straw mats around the bodies of the three prisoners, leaving only their heads protruding, making them look like basket worms. They are put into a boat and rowed out into the deep inlet. Garrpe, who has been listening to the officials, suddenly rushes forward, raises both arms, and plunges from the shore into the sea. Sending up clouds of spray, he swims toward the boat, shouting something. His voice carries no tone of censure or anger; it fades out as his black head sinks between the waves. The officials lean over the side of the boat, laughing, and one of them mocks Garrpe with a lance as he tries to get near. Garrpe's head appears again like a piece of black dust, buffeted by the waves, and his voice, feebler than before, keeps shouting something. Then an official sets up one of the Christians at the side of the ship and pushes him vigorously with the tip of his lance; the figure of straw falls into the sea and disappears. With dramatic speed the next goes under, and finally Monica is swallowed by the sea. Only Garrpe's head, like a piece of wood from a shipwrecked boat, floats for some time on the water until the waves from the boat cover it over.

Consequences and Aftermath

The interpreter, rising from his stool, calls the business horrible and turns on Rodrigues with hatred, saying, 'Father, have you thought of the suffering you have inflicted on so many peasants just because of your dream, just because you want to impose your selfish dream upon Japan? Look! Blood is flowing; again. The blood of those ignorant people is flowing again.' He then spits out that at least Garrpe was clean, but Rodrigues is the most weak-willed and does not deserve the name of father. After this, Rodrigues sits staring at the wall all day long, watching the dark sea and the little black head of Garrpe floating on its surface, and the three Christians sinking like pebbles. He cannot save them, nor like Garrpe can he sink beneath the waves in pursuit. His pity for them is overwhelming, but pity is not action, not love. The interpreter's words—that the missionaries' selfish dream trails out a line of blood—and Inoue's comparison of this dream to the persistent love of an ugly woman pierce his wounds like a needle. The memory of Garrpe's drowning becomes a haunting image that, along with the silence of God, drives Rodrigues toward his own crisis and eventual apostasy.

Thematic Significance

Garrpe's Drowning Attempt embodies the novel's central conflict between sacrificial love and the brutal reality of persecution. Garrpe's act is a direct, physical imitation of Christ—he plunges into the sea to be with the suffering, echoing Christ's descent into death. Yet his death does not save the Christians; they drown anyway. The event forces Rodrigues to confront the question of whether his own faith is a selfish dream that causes others to die. The interpreter's accusation that the missionaries' dream causes blood to flow, and Inoue's metaphor of the persistent love of an ugly woman, frame Christian mission as a form of violence. Garrpe's drowning, unlike the glorious martyrdoms Rodrigues had imagined, is a wretched, silent, and seemingly futile death—a death that, like the sea itself, offers no answer to the silence of God.