Kiku's Prayer: A Novel

by Shusaku Endo

  “There’s nothing to worry about.” Seikichi became suddenly spirited. “I’m sure you’ve already heard the news. There’s no more magistrate’s office, the magistrate himself has vanished, and now the emperor is in charge. Everybody’s been saying that Kirishitan countries like America and France can now start letting people know that what we believe is true, so we won’t have to practice our Kirishitan teachings in hiding anymore. They say we’ll be able to march right up to His Majesty and declare in a loud voice that we’re Kirishitans!”

  “Oh!” Kiku had no interest in what those Kirishitan teachings were. But it thrilled her to think that the time had come when the people running the country would recognize something that Seikichi believed in so fervently. “That’s wonderful, Seikichi!” She smiled like a girl sharing in the joy of her older siblings.

  Everything seemed like a dream to Kiku.

  Complex matters were beyond her grasp. But even if she didn’t understand everything, as she listened to what Seikichi was saying, she felt that the days ahead would be joyful and free. In any case, the magistrate’s office that had been so frightening until now had lost all its power. And Seikichi and the others from Nakano could live from now on without reproach.

  Perhaps now the people of Magome could get rid of some of their antipathy toward the residents of Nakano, who would no longer bear the mark of blame on their shoulders. And surely her cousin Ichijirō and Granny and her parents would stop calling the Nakano people Kuros and not consider them weird anymore.

  When that happens—

  Her heart puffed up like a balloon.

  When that happens, maybe I can become Seikichi’s wife. Realizing what she was daydreaming about, Kiku unwittingly blushed.

  “You still have it, don’t you?” Seikichi suddenly asked.

  “What?”

  “What I gave you. The Santa Maria …”

  “I take special care of it,” Kiku nodded happily. “I talk to her every day.”

  “Talk?” Seikichi was startled. “How do you talk to her?”

  “Well, not talking, really…. I blamed her. I hated her, knowing that it was because you worshipped her that you were suffering so much. So I kept telling her how much I disliked her…. But it’s all right now. Cause you’re out of prison now.”

  “How could you have done something so evil?” Seikichi cried, seemingly horrified. “Our Lady Santa Maria is the mother of Lord Jezusu. To say hateful things to His mother … It’s terrible!”

  “Who is Lord Jezusu? The strange words you Kirishitans use sound like Chinese gibberish….”

  “Lord Jezusu is the Son of Deus. And Mary is Lord Jezusu’s mother.”

  “So Deus and Mary are husband and wife?”

  Seikichi rolled his eyes. “Husband and wife?! No, they’re not husband and wife! Deus doesn’t have a wife!”

  “That’s ridiculous! How was this Jezusu born if they weren’t husband and wife?”

  “Mary got pregnant when she was a virgin.”

  Stunned, Kiku opened her eyes wide and then flushed crimson. Even she knew that there wasn’t any way a virgin could be with child. What kind of foolish stories did Seikichi believe in, anyway!?

  Seikichi did his best to recite for Kiku the stories he knew from the Bible.

  The Virgin Mary conceived a child and gave birth to Jezusu. Mary, though she remained a virgin throughout her life, was the wife of the carpenter Joseph and the mother of Jezusu. Jezusu was killed by evil men who hated him, but before long he came back to life and appeared before his disciples….

  The more he talked, the more disenchanted Kiku became, and with a look in her eyes that indicated that she thought he was making fun of her, she muttered, “I’m amazed you believe such nonsense!”

  “What can’t you believe about it?”

  “There’s no way I can believe that this virgin married a carpenter and stayed a virgin until she died.”

  “You have to admire a man who can be that kind of husband.”

  “So, if you got married you wouldn’t do anything with your wife, huh? And you honestly think she could have a baby while still a virgin, do you?”

  At this point, Kiku lost all sympathy for Seikichi, even though she loved him. As a child she had been so precociously adept at winning arguments that even Ichijirō couldn’t get in the last word. She did not lose any of her glibness after she matured into a young woman.

  “What are you saying?!” Seikichi was angry. “I can’t believe I’m hearing something so shameful coming from a woman’s mouth!”

  “Stupid things are stupid whether they come from a woman or a man. I suppose if you got married, you’d be a husband just like that carpenter and never lay a finger on your wife!” As she spoke, she suddenly pictured herself as Seikichi’s bride. Would he really never touch her? Kiku turned bright red at the thought. “I don’t get it! I just don’t understand it.”

  Seikichi, unable to grasp the workings of a woman’s mind, said nervously, “Are you mocking us Kirishitans?”

  “No, I’m not mocking you. But it all sounds so strange. That a dead man could come back to life—what kind of person would tell you something that’s so obviously made up?”

  “It’s exactly what the padre said.”

  “Lord Petitjean did? I don’t suppose Lord Petitjean actually saw all this happen? Talking about things you’ve never seen, and then believing in it—you Kirishitans really are strange people.”

  “Shut up! I hate people who mock us Kirishitans the way you are!” Seikichi shouted as Kiku kept firing away at him like a machine gun. Their voices echoed so loudly that even Father Laucaigne and the others could hear them inside their house.

  “Qu’est-ce qu’il y a?” Father Laucaigne stood up in surprise. He had hoped to give the two lovers some time alone. And now they were apparently engaged in a ferocious argument.

  When Laucaigne rushed out into the garden, Seikichi had just stomped away.

  “Kiku, what has happened?”

  “I hate him! I hate men like that!” she shouted. And then she began to wail….

  This was the first time Kiku had ever been in love. And because Seikichi was the object of her love, she had been utterly captivated by him and had been completely forthright in expressing her affection for him. During his incarceration, she had experienced his sufferings as though the tortures were being inflicted on her own body.

  And yet, he understood nothing of how she felt, and had gone so far as to lash out at her with “I hate people who mock us Kirishitans like you are!”

  I’m not going to see him again. I’ll never speak to a man like that again. She had made up her mind. Father Laucaigne and his comrades tried to elicit the details of their argument from her, but no matter how they tried to pacify her, she kept stubbornly repeating, “I’m done with him. I don’t ever want to see his face again!”

  Laucaigne was as tenderhearted as Petitjean, so he tried to assuage her anger, but he ended up only flustered. Having been educated at a seminary where women were off-limits, after all, he knew nothing of the subtle workings of a woman’s heart.

  As she had done so often before, Kiku went into the chapel, stood in front of the statue of that woman, and spilled out the feelings of her heart that she could reveal to no one else.

  “All of this, everything is your fault. Seikichi’s going around telling lies about how you gave birth to a child when you were still a virgin. He believes nonsense about you having a husband but living out your whole life as a virgin. And he even argued with me about it. This is all your fault!”

  As always, the Blessed Mother Mary peered back at Kiku. But her face resembled that of an exasperated woman who has just been argued into silence by her younger sister. It was also reminiscent of the face of a frustrated young mother whose child has just thrown a tantrum.

  “Since this is all your fault, I won’t forgive you unless you put everything back the way it was before. I’ll be really mad at you if you do something to ruin
my relationship with Seikichi!” Kiku pointed a finger as though to threaten the Blessed Mother. “But if you help me to marry Seikichi …” She became conscious of the look of bliss on her own face and blushed. “… I’ll do anything you want. I’ll bring you gifts of pretty flowers and rice cakes…. I’ll even become a Kirishitan. I don’t like the Kirishitans. But if you help me become Seikichi’s wife, I don’t mind becoming Kirishitan.”

  The statue of the Blessed Mother to which Kiku made this promise still stands in the Ōura Catholic Church in Nagasaki. Her cherubic, unsullied face seems to change expressions depending on the angle from which she is viewed, the intensity of the light shining on her, or the feelings in the heart of the petitioner offering prayers to her.

  Kiku was able to converse with her like a little girl talking with her doll, even though she did not believe even slightly in the Kirishitan faith….

  The emperor dispatched a governor-general from the new administration to assist with the pacification of Kyushu. His name was Sawa Nobuyoshi, and he would later become the Minister of Foreign Affairs.4 His assistant was Inoue Monta, later known as Inoue Kaoru.5

  Matsukata Masayoshi, Machida Minbu, and Sasaki Sanshirō had already taken over the vacated offices of the magistrate and functioned as the leaders of the city government, and they were joined by Inoue Monta. Inoue was informed by Matsukata and the others that Nagasaki, like Yokohama, was a foreign concession, leading to an incident that had involved the Kirishitans hidden in Urakami Village.

  “Japan has no other gods beside His Imperial Highness. Lord Sawa has been very clear on that point,” Inoue explained to his fellow officers.

  Matsukata and his allies were also well aware that Sawa was a prominent exponent of expelling the foreigners from Japan.

  Sawa gave firm directions to Inoue and the others: “For a variety of reasons, the shogunate sought aid from France, and so they were unable to come out strongly against the Kirishitans. But we have an obligation to teach the citizens and the peasants that they must rely solely upon His Imperial Highness.” The officers immediately set about to implement them.

  Notices were posted in every prominent location throughout the city of Nagasaki under the signature of the Grand Council of State:

  1. The people are to properly observe the five filial relationships of Confucianism.6

  2. The organizing of factions to make direct petition to the daimyo or to lead others from the villages is prohibited.

  3. Acts of violence against foreigners are prohibited.

  4. Fleeing from the village is prohibited.

  5. The Kirishitan faith, as in the past, is strictly prohibited.

  These new bulletin boards, still smelling of freshly cut wood, were placed where in earlier days the notices from the magistrate’s office had been posted, and people gathered round to read them.

  “What’s this about ‘fleeing from the village’?”

  “It means you can’t leave Nagasaki without permission and go to live somewhere else.”

  “I suppose the folks in Urakami are really upset that they’re still treating the Kirishitan faith as a heretical religion.”

  The citizens of Nagasaki actually gloated a bit among themselves when they read the notice reaffirming the ban on the Kirishitan faith. A majority of the residents did not have positive feelings toward the peasants who were followers of a nonsensical cult that made trouble for the magistrate’s office.

  “Don’t worry about it.” On the other hand, when the Kirishitans of Nakano and Motohara and Ieno read the notice, they paid it little heed. They believed that just as had been the case with the magistrate, the new officials sent by His Majesty would be restrained by the views of foreigners and would not make a move against them. And the upshot of recent events gave them the courage to believe that Deus would not leave them to be slaughtered.

  Their calculations proved correct. Several foreign attachés were quick to launch complaints against the new government. Of particular significance was the fact that Harry Smith Parkes, the ambassador from Great Britain, was among the protestors, since his government had thrown its support behind the new Japanese administration.

  The new government was thoroughly flustered by Great Britain’s participation in the protest against the Kirishitan suppression. But the Meiji leaders had made up their minds that they would maintain the shogunate’s posture toward Christianity as part of their new regime’s religious policy.

  In March, orders unexpectedly came from the local government office for twenty-four of the leading Kirishitans in Urakami to surrender themselves to the police.

  The name of the Nagasaki magistrate’s office had been changed to the “government office.” The name change, however, did not signify that the new administration was planning to change the shogunate’s policy of prohibiting Christianity.

  Included among the twenty-four was, of course, Sen’emon, who had clung to his beliefs to the bitter end, as well as others such as Seikichi who had initially apostatized but then returned to their faith.

  This time we won’t get away with just a beating as we did before. Maybe they’ll kill us.

  When the village head notified them of the surrender order, the faces of those whose names were read out turned pale. The blood similarly drained from the faces of their family members.

  “Lord Deus, Lord Jezusu, and Santa Maria will be with us!” Sen’emon was qualified to encourage the others because he alone had endured the previous round of tortures. Everyone had been showing respect to this unassuming man because of his courage.

  “No matter what happens, Santa Maria will protect us. We all just have to continue offering our oraçiõ to her and put all our trust in her.”

  On the morning of their surrender, however, each of the twenty-four felt somber, as though they were bidding their final farewells to their families.

  The mountains were wrapped in a spring haze, and the flowers were in bloom. For the Kirishitans, this was the month that they would be celebrating the resurrection of Jezusu on Easter Sunday. But it was simultaneously a time of great sorrow—it was also the month when Jesus died.

  They had no way of knowing whether their fate would lead them to death or restore them to life. When the twenty-four left their homes, their families followed behind, intoning prayers. Their numbers swelled from one hundred to two hundred, then from two hundred to three hundred.

  “Go back to your homes now,” the village head and the government officials ordered the crowd, but they shook their heads and formed into ranks that walked all the way to Nagasaki.

  At the gate leading to the government office—the same gate through which they had earlier entered the magistrate’s office—the twenty-four prisoners turned back to their families and called, “Don’t worry! This time we won’t reject Lord Jezusu and Santa Maria no matter what!” And then they disappeared through the gate that summoned up such painful memories for them.

  Even then the families did not withdraw but crouched down quietly and waited. One, then two, of the curious onlookers went away, until finally all were gone. But the Kirishitan men and women refused to budge from where they sat.

  It was a peculiar scene beneath the warm spring sun. Many hours passed.

  Near nightfall, the gate opened once again, and the twenty-four Kirishitans, with Sen’emon at their head, emerged with triumphant, joyful smiles on their faces.

  “Not one of us apostatized! We told the officials there was no way we would abandon our Kirishitan faith. Absolutely never abandon it!” Seikichi puffed out his chest and explained to the crowd.

  Another summons came from the government office a month later. Unlike the previous summons of twenty-four individuals, this time the heads of every household were ordered to surrender to the police.

  As a result, 180 Kirishitan peasants from Nakano, Ieno, and Motohara set out for Nagasaki, once again in the early morning. Nearly four hundred family members followed behind, but on this day it was rainy and muggy.

&
nbsp; The interrogating and admonishing dragged on for many hours in the presence of Governor-General Sawa Nobuyoshi. Rain beat mercilessly down on the faces and bodies of the peasants as they sat on white gravel in the courtyard listening to the remonstrations. The rain reminded them of the night of the downpour when they all had been viciously beaten.

  One by one, each of the officials—ōkuma Hachitarō, Matsukata Masayoshi, Machida Minbu, and Inoue Monta—took turns questioning and warning the prisoners to abandon their faith. They alternated between reproaching the prisoners for violating the laws of the land and insisting that they had been deceived by the missionaries, or else they would let their anger get the best of them and begin threatening the Kirishitans with violence in their voices.

  However—

  The peasants of Urakami stubbornly refused to give in. On this occasion they did not employ the silent resistance typical of farmers; instead they became defiant, openly contesting and arguing with their interrogators. If you’re going to threaten us, go ahead and kill us, they responded. Even if you get all worked up, our way of life is just different from yours, they retorted.

  One of the interrogators, Ōkuma Hachitarō—later known as Count Ōkuma Shigenobu7—would later report on these events as follows:

  “The firmness of their faith was like gold and iron. One young woman of a weak and mild countenance responded to the inspector’s questions, his threats, and his admonitions with calm presence of mind and not a hint of fear.” He went on to admit, “Of the interrogators, Inoue Kaoru was the one who was most zealously participating in the inquiry, but he was at a loss for how to deal with the young woman’s manner: he grew impatient with her, thundered at her, and was almost beside himself, but the more impassioned he became, the more serene she appeared. The logic of her responses was beyond dispute, and he couldn’t do anything to attack her cogent rationality. He had quite a rough time of it!”

  Thanks to their experiences in prison and then the interrogation in the third month, the Kirishitan peasants of Urakami had a clear notion of the kinds of logic the officials would try to use to persuade them. They had probably already discussed among themselves how to answer when questioned in a particular manner and how to argue back when they were threatened in a certain way, and they had thought carefully through every single response they would give.