Beheading of the One-Eyed Man (Chokichi)

The beheading of the one-eyed Christian Chokichi is a sudden, public execution that shatters Rodrigues' idealized vision of martyrdom and confronts him with the brutal, silent indifference of the world to a death suffered for faith. It is the first execution Rodrigues witnesses directly, and its swift, unceremonious violence—followed by the world's unchanged stillness—plunges him into a crisis of doubt about God's silence and the meaning of sacrifice.

The Fumie Test and the Refusal

The execution follows a failed fumie test. After days of imprisonment, four Christians—Chokichi, Monica, Haru, and Mataichi—are herded into the courtyard. Officials insist the trampling is a mere formality, but the Christians refuse to move. Chokichi shakes his head repeatedly. The officials, as if expecting this, withdraw to confer. The guards and Christians even begin to joke, creating a deceptive calm. Then an official calls out that all may return to prison except Chokichi.

The Execution

Before Rodrigues can grasp what is happening, a samurai runs across the courtyard. There is the swish of a sharp sound, then a thud. The official sheathes his glittering sword; the execution is over. Chokichi's dead body lies prostrate on the ground. A guard grabs it by the feet and drags it slowly toward a hole the Christians had dug earlier, leaving a trail of black blood like the sash of a garment. From the prison, a woman's high-pitched scream rises like a hymn, then fades into deadly calm. Rodrigues' hands, clutching the bars, tremble as if cramped and paralyzed.

The World's Indifference

After the execution, the world outside shows no change. The cicada continues its dry, hoarse song. A fly buzzes around Rodrigues' face. There is not a breath of wind. A man has died, but the outside world goes on as if nothing happened. Rodrigues shivers, clutching the bars, and asks himself, "So it has come to this…" His perplexity is not from the sudden event itself, but from the stillness of the courtyard, the voice of the cicada, the whirling wings of the flies. He cries out in his heart, asking why God is silent, why this stillness continues, why God averts his face as though indifferent. He wonders if his own desire is for a true, hidden martyrdom or merely for a glorious death, to be honored and called a saint.

The Context of Persecution

This execution is part of a systematic persecution. The Tokugawa Shogunate had outlawed Christianity, and the magistrate's office offered rewards for informants: three hundred pieces of silver for a priest, two hundred for a brother, one hundred for a lay Christian. The Christians of Tomogi, poor farmers who eked out a living cultivating potatoes and wheat, were subjected to harsh taxation and brutal suppression. The Shimabara Rebellion had convinced the authorities that Christianity was a threat to the state. The execution of Chokichi is a direct consequence of this political and religious conflict, a demonstration of the state's power to reduce a human life to a disposable object.

Thematic Significance

The beheading of Chokichi marks a turning point in Rodrigues' spiritual journey. It forces him to confront the gap between the glorious martyrdom he had imagined—filled with angels and trumpets—and the wretched, miserable reality of a man killed in plain daylight, his body dragged away like garbage. The event directly challenges his faith in a God who is supposed to be just and loving. The silence of God in the face of such suffering becomes an unbearable weight, leading Rodrigues to question the very foundation of his mission and his own motives for seeking martyrdom. The execution of the one-eyed man is not a triumph of faith but a raw, traumatic event that exposes the cruelty of the world and the apparent absence of divine intervention.