Haratsuka

Haratsuka is a remote village on the Goto Islands, a cluster of islands off the coast of Kyushu, that becomes a crucial site in Sebastian Rodrigues's underground missionary work. It is one of several communities—alongside Odomari, Miyahara, Dozaki, and Egami—where villagers, though outwardly appearing Buddhist, have secretly maintained their Christian faith for years without any priest or brother to guide them. The Christians of Haratsuka, like those in Tomogi, are poor farmers and fishermen who eke out a living from the barren land and the black sea, their lives marked by crushing taxation and feudal oppression. For them, Christianity has provided a human warmth and a promise of salvation that their harsh existence otherwise lacks, and they have long awaited the day when a priest would once again cross the distant sea to bring them the sacraments.

Rodrigues's Arrival and the Christians' Reception

Rodrigues first learns of Haratsuka from two peasants who travel from the Goto Islands to the charcoal hut on Tomogi Mountain where he and Francisco Garrpe are hiding. The men, one with bloodstained feet from the journey and the other nearly toothless, arrive exhausted after a two-day trek of twenty leagues, having been directed by Kichijiro. They describe how the villagers of Haratsuka and the surrounding districts have secretly preserved their faith, teaching their children prayers and waiting desperately for a priest. Moved by their plea, Rodrigues decides to visit the Goto Islands despite the warnings of the Tomogi Christians, who fear a trap. He crosses the black sea at night in a small boat, and upon reaching the shore of Kabashima, an island close to Goto, he is met by three fishermen—among them Kichijiro, who has now become a local hero for facilitating the priest's arrival.

The Mission and Its Dangers

Once in Haratsuka, Rodrigues is overwhelmed by the fervor of the hidden Christians. They come to him in droves, ignoring the ban on Christianity, and he baptizes children, hears confessions, and celebrates Mass in a crumbling farmhouse that serves as a chapel. The peasants, who have lived and died like beasts, find in his teaching a path to cast off their fetters, and they press him for crucifixes, medals, and holy pictures—objects of devotion that he cannot supply in sufficient number. He teaches them to organize themselves with a Jiisama and Tossama, the secret leadership structure that the Tomogi Christians had devised during the years without priests. Yet the very success of his mission creates danger: the gatherings are large and conspicuous, and Rodrigues realizes that sooner or later the news will reach the officials. The Christians of Haratsuka, like those elsewhere, live under the constant threat of betrayal and persecution, and the reward of three hundred pieces of silver for informing on a priest is a powerful temptation for their destitute neighbors.

Significance and the 'Swamp' of Japan

Haratsuka, like the other villages Rodrigues visits, embodies the central paradox of the novel: the Christian faith has taken root in the hearts of the Japanese peasants, but it has done so in a form that may be fundamentally different from the European Christianity the missionaries brought. The peasants' devotion is simple, concrete, and focused on tangible objects like crucifixes and holy pictures; they honor the Virgin Mary perhaps even more than Christ, and their understanding of Heaven is shaped by their earthly suffering—a place where there will be no taxes, no hunger, and no hard labor. This transformation of the faith, which Christovao Ferreira later describes as a butterfly caught in a spider's web, losing its true reality and becoming only a skeleton, is the 'swamp' of Japan that Inoue and Ferreira both invoke. Haratsuka is a place where the sapling of Christianity has been planted, but the soil—the cultural and religious landscape of Japan—has begun to twist and change it into something new. For Rodrigues, the desperate longing of the Haratsuka Christians is both a source of profound joy and a troubling reminder that the faith he serves may not survive in its original form in this land.