Odomari

Odomari, a village on the Goto Islands, stands as a testament to the resilience of the hidden Christian communities during the brutal persecution of the Tokugawa Shogunate. In a country where Christianity was outlawed and its adherents subjected to torture and death, the villagers of Odomari managed to escape the vigilance of the authorities and maintain their faith in secret, becoming a beacon of hope for the underground Church and a crucial destination for the missionary Sebastian Rodrigues.

Location and Context

Odomari is situated in the Goto Islands, a region west of Nagasaki. The novel's translator notes that the central problem of the book is the conflict between East and West, especially in its relationship to Christianity, and that Japan is a 'swamp' that cannot absorb the type of Christianity that has been propagated there. This 'swamp' is a recurring metaphor for the cultural and spiritual environment that distorts and ultimately destroys foreign ideologies. The village of Odomari, however, represents a place where the seed of Christianity, despite the hostile environment, managed to take root and survive, hidden from the surface.

The Hidden Christian Community

When Rodrigues first learns of Odomari from two peasants who have traveled from the Goto Islands, he is astonished by the news. The peasants inform him that in the district known as Odomari, the villagers had succeeded in escaping the vigilance of the officials, and they were still Christians to a man. Not only Odomari, but the neighboring districts and villages of Miyahara, Dozaki, and Egami, although to outward appearances Buddhist, were in fact Christian—a fact which was barely kept hidden. For a long, long time they had been awaiting the day when priests would once again come across the distant sea to help them and give them a blessing. This revelation underscores the depth of the faith that persisted in the absence of clergy, a faith that had been passed down through secret organizations and lay leadership.

Rodrigues' Mission to Odomari

Driven by the desperate pleas of the peasants, Rodrigues decides to travel to Odomari. He leaves his companion Francisco Garrpe behind in Tomogi and sets out on a moonless night, crossing the black sea in a small boat. The journey is fraught with fear and suspicion, as Rodrigues doubts the intentions of his guide. Upon reaching the shore, he is met by three fishermen, including the treacherous Kichijiro, and is immediately overwhelmed by the work that awaits him. The peasants and fishermen of Goto, he finds, are eagerly waiting for a priest, and he is completely overwhelmed with work, baptizing children and hearing the confessions of adults. They come to him like an army marching through the parched desert and then arriving at an oasis of water, thirsty and longing for refreshment. The crumbling farmhouse he uses for a chapel is jammed tight with their bodies.

The Nature of Faith in Odomari

Rodrigues observes that the Japanese peasants find in Christianity a path to cast away the fetters that bind them, a stark contrast to the Buddhist bonzes who simply treat them like cattle. The faith of the Odomari Christians is simple and profound, but Rodrigues also notes a troubling aspect: they press him for crucifixes, medals, and holy pictures, and when he has none to give, they are crushed. He reflects that their whole attitude makes him uneasy, wondering if there is not some error in their outlook. This foreshadows the novel's central theme that the Christianity practiced in Japan may have been twisted and changed by the 'swamp' into something different from the European model. The villagers' faith, while genuine, is also tied to tangible objects and a longing for a Paradise free from earthly suffering.

The Fate of Odomari and Its Significance

The fate of Odomari is not explicitly detailed in the novel, but its significance is profound. The village represents the enduring, yet fragile, nature of the Christian faith in Japan. It is a place where the 'sapling' of Christianity, though planted in a 'swamp,' managed to survive for a time. However, the novel's later events, including the systematic persecution and the apostasy of Rodrigues, suggest that even such strongholds were eventually crushed. The interpreter who debates Rodrigues later argues that Christian doctrine is something the Japanese do not want, and that the missionaries are forcing a foreign religion on the country. The magistrate Inoue himself later states that the roots of Christianity have been cut, and that the God whom the peasants of Goto secretly serve has gradually changed so as to be no longer like the Christian God at all. Odomari, therefore, becomes a symbol of both the heroic resistance of the Japanese Christians and the inevitable cultural transformation—and ultimate defeat—of a foreign faith in the 'swamp' of Japan.