College at Macao

The College at Macao was the nerve center of the Jesuit mission to Japan and China, founded by Alessandro Valignano a decade before the events of the novel. It was from this college, situated on an island at the mouth of the Chu-Kiang River, that the last priests to enter Japan during the persecution were dispatched. The college was not merely a seminary but the administrative hub of the Japanese Province of the Society of Jesus, and it was here that the fate of the mission was debated and decided.

Foundation and Role

The College at Macao was established by Alessandro Valignano, the Visitor to the Japanese mission, who had been entrusted with the entire administration of the Japanese Province after the outbreak of persecution. Valignano had founded the college specifically for the formation of missionaries bound for China and Japan. The college was located in Macao, a town that served as the base of Portuguese operations in the Far East and a crucial hub for trade between China and Japan. The college's rector, Valignano, was a prudent Superior who had been in Macao for ten years by the time Rodrigues and Garrpe arrived. From his room overlooking the bay, he could see the harbor of Macao, with black junks floating on the sea red in the evening sun.

Opposition to the Japan Mission

When Rodrigues, Garrpe, and Juan de Santa Marta arrived at the college on May 1st, they found Valignano utterly opposed to their journey to Japan. Valignano argued that the sea journey was extremely dangerous for Portuguese ships, that the Japanese government had cut all commercial relations with the Portuguese since the Shimabara Rebellion, and that English and Dutch warships infested the seas near Japan. He was deeply troubled by the dilemma between his duty as a Superior and the fate of the persecuted Christians. Despite the priests' pleas that the Christians were like a flock without a shepherd, Valignano remained silent, resting his forehead on his hands. It was only after the persistent pleading of Garrpe that Valignano finally consented to their secret mission.

Preparation and Departure

At the college, Rodrigues and Garrpe worked with all their strength while Santa Marta lay ill with malaria. The college provided them with a junk for their journey, though it was initially found to be eaten by white ants. They repaired the ship and sealed it up, planning to sail for Taiwan first. Valignano found twenty-five Chinese sailors for them, men with wiry hands who could lift heavy loads. It was also at the college that they met Kichijiro, a drunken Japanese fisherman who became their guide. The college was the site of their final spiritual preparation, as they had no luggage to bring to Japan except their own hearts. Rodrigues wrote his letters from the college, describing the long and arduous journey around Africa and across the Indian Ocean that had brought them to this crumbling town in the Far East.

Significance in the Narrative

The College at Macao represents the institutional Church's last outpost before the mission entered the "swamp" of Japan. It was a place of relative safety and learning, where missionaries studied reports from Japan and prepared for their work. Valignano's warnings about Inoue, the cunning persecutor who had once been baptized, proved prophetic. The college also symbolizes the contrast between the earlier, more prosperous era of the mission—when missionaries had debated whether their habits should be made of silk or cotton—and the desperate, hunted existence that awaited Rodrigues and Garrpe in Japan. The college's existence as a base for the mission was ultimately rendered irrelevant by the Tokugawa Shogunate's successful eradication of visible Christianity, but it remained the last point of contact between the European Church and the Japanese Christians who would soon be left without priests.