Year of the Ram

The Year of the Ram is a temporal marker in the official record of the life of Okada San'emon, the former Portuguese missionary Sebastian Rodrigues, after his apostasy. According to the statement submitted to the inspectors upon his death, San'emon, born in Portugal, Europe, was first placed under the charge of Inoue Chikugonokami in the Year of the Ram, thirty odd years before his death in the Year of the Cock. This year thus designates the beginning of his life under Japanese supervision, a period that would eventually lead to his residence in the Enclosed Building, where he lived for thirty years until his death at the age of sixty-four.

The Year of the Ram in the Context of Persecution

The Year of the Ram belongs to the broader historical period of the Christian persecution in Japan, a time when the Tokugawa Shogunate systematically sought to eradicate Christianity. The novel's translator notes that the 'swamp of Japan' is a central metaphor for the country's inability to absorb the type of Christianity that had been propagated, a concept that Ferreira and Inoue both articulate. The Year of the Ram is situated within this 'Christian century,' a troubled period of Japanese history that saw the Edict of Expulsion in 1614 and the subsequent ruthless hunt for Christians. The year is also part of the era when the missionary effort was initiated in the Sengoku Period, a time of warring daimyos, which eventually gave way to the unified, xenophobic state that Rodrigues encounters.

The Year of the Ram and the 'Swamp of Japan'

The Year of the Ram is implicitly linked to the novel's central thesis about the failure of Western Christianity to take root in Japan. The interpreter who debates Rodrigues argues that Christian doctrine is something the Japanese do not want, a foreign imposition. Ferreira, in his meeting with Rodrigues, explicitly states that Japan is a swamp where the sapling of Christianity rots at its roots. The Lord of Chikugo, Inoue, later tells Rodrigues that he was not defeated by him but by this swamp of Japan. The Year of the Ram, as the starting point of Rodrigues' life as Okada San'emon, marks the moment when this defeat is formalized and the former priest begins his existence within the Japanese system, a living testament to the swamp's power to absorb and transform.

The Year of the Ram and the System of Control

The Year of the Ram is also the period when the mechanisms of control over Christians were fully operational. The novel details the reward system for informing on Christians, with three hundred pieces of silver for a priest, two hundred for a brother, and one hundred for a lay Christian. The execution of the one-eyed man, Chokichi, is a brutal example of the state's power, and the announcement board at the Mountain Villa formalizes the rewards for informers. The Year of the Ram, as the year Rodrigues was placed under Inoue's charge, places him directly within this system of surveillance and punishment, where his life is no longer his own but is managed by the state.

The Year of the Ram and the End of a Life

The Year of the Ram is retrospectively defined by its endpoint: the death of Okada San'emon. The official record states that he died of illness at a little later than half past four in the afternoon of the 25th of July in the Ninth Year of Enpo, the Year of the Cock. He was sixty-four years of age. The statement notes that he was first placed under Inoue's charge in the Year of the Ram, thirty odd years prior. This temporal framing gives the Year of the Ram a specific, almost bureaucratic significance, marking the beginning of a long, supervised life that ended in a controlled death, his body cremated at Muryoin Temple and given a posthumous Buddhist name. The Year of the Ram is thus the year the former priest Sebastian Rodrigues was officially absorbed into the Japanese system, beginning his long, silent existence as Okada San'emon.