Execution of the One-Eyed Christian

The execution of the one-eyed Christian, Chokichi, occurs without warning in the courtyard of the prison where Sebastian Rodrigues is held. The event follows a failed fumie test in which Chokichi and three other Christians—including the woman Monica and the old man Mataichi—refuse to trample on the sacred image. After the officials withdraw to confer, the guards and Christians begin to talk and joke among themselves, creating an atmosphere of deceptive calm. Then, suddenly, an official runs across the courtyard, draws his sword, and beheads Chokichi with a single stroke. The execution is over in an instant; the official sheathes his sword, and a guard drags the body by the feet toward a hole the Christians themselves had dug earlier, leaving a trail of black blood on the ground. The cicada continues to sing, the flies continue to buzz, and the world outside goes on as if nothing has happened.

The Regime's Methodical Violence

This execution is not an isolated act of cruelty but a calculated instrument of the Tokugawa Shogunate's policy to eradicate Christianity. The regime had already issued the 1614 Edict Expelling Missionaries, declaring that the Kirishitan band sought to 'change the government of the country, and obtain possession of the land.' To enforce this, the authorities employed a system of rewards: three hundred pieces of silver for informing on a priest, two hundred for a brother, and one hundred for a lay Christian. The prohibition of fences and hedges between houses allowed neighbors to spy on one another, and the annual fumie ceremony forced every household to trample on the image of Christ or the Virgin. The execution of Chokichi is a public demonstration of what happens to those who refuse this ritual of apostasy.

The Spectacle of Suffering and Rodrigues' Crisis

Rodrigues witnesses the execution from his prison cell, clutching the bars. The suddenness of the violence—the swish of the sword, the thud of the body—shatters his composure. He had expected torture and martyrdom, but not this casual, almost administrative killing. The one-eyed man had been a fellow prisoner, a Christian named Juan who had given Rodrigues a cucumber from her bosom during their capture. Now his body lies prostrate in the sun, and the guards drag it away as if disposing of refuse. Rodrigues' hands tremble as he clutches the bars, and he cries out inwardly: 'Why are you silent? Here this one-eyed man has died—and for you. You ought to know. Why does this stillness continue?' The silence of God, which had troubled him since the martyrdom of Mokichi and Ichizo, now becomes unbearable. The world's indifference—the cicada's song, the flies' buzzing—mocks the significance of the sacrifice.

The Aftermath and the Regime's Logic

After the execution, the officials address the remaining Christians, telling them that this is what happens when they 'make light of life' and urging them to go through the formality of trampling. Kichijiro, the apostate, is brought out and immediately tramples on the fumie, then flees without looking back. The regime's logic is clear: it does not seek to convert the Christians but to break their public witness. The execution is a tool of biopolitical control, reducing the Christian to a 'homo sacer'—a life that can be killed without ritual or consequence. The body is disposed of in a hole, the blood is left to stain the ground, and the world continues as before. For Rodrigues, this event marks a turning point: the idealized martyrdom he had imagined gives way to the grim reality of state violence, and the silence of God becomes a question he can no longer suppress.