Shūsaku Endō

Japanese novelist

• Born: March 27, 1923
• Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
• Died: September 29, 1996
• Place of death: Tokyo, Japan

Endō is widely regarded as one of the finest novelists of postwar Japan. He is also Japan’s most important Christian author and has won an international following through his major novels, which explore the relevance of Christianity and the struggles of Christians in Japan.

Early Life

Shūsaku Endō (shoo-sa-koo ehn-doh) was born in Tokyo. When he was three years old, his father was transferred to the city of Dalian in Manchuria, then a de facto Japanese colony. Endō studied at home until entering formal schooling at the age of six, but because he was a shy child he initially was uncomfortable in school. His father frequently compared his academic performance with that of his older brother, Masasuke. In his later writings, Endō would return to his childhood feelings of inadequacy and the idea of the self-interested and arbitrary nature of parental authority.

Endō’s family life was largely unhappy. His parents divorced in 1933 and he returned to Japan along with his mother to live in the city of Kobe. In this period, Endō’s mother became a devout Roman Catholic. The young Endō was baptized in 1935 at the age of twelve, taking the Christian name Paul. Endō, however, initially felt little connection with his new faith. In his later career, he frequently reexamined his memories of having been forced against his will into Catholic belief. In the nationalist 1930’s, Christianity was considered a foreign imposition and by some, an affront to Japan’s imperial system. As a result, Endō was bullied at school, exacerbating his feelings of religious and cultural confusion.

In his teenage years, Endō showed promise as a scholar, but he felt like an outsider. He became passionately interested in film and his grades suffered, but in 1943, at the height of World War II in the Pacific, Endō was able to enter the prestigious Keio University, where he went on to study French literature. Endō survived the disastrous March, 1945, air raids on Tokyo and avoided military service because of ill health.

Life’s Work

After graduating from Keio University in 1948, Endō became one of the first wave of Japanese citizens to study abroad after the conclusion of World War II. He conducted research at the University of Lyon in France from 1950 to 1953. Endō went to France partly to deepen his engagement with European Catholic culture but was shocked when he was discriminated against at the university because of his race. Endō believed that in France, he would find acceptance as a Catholic believer, but this time he found himself an outsider because of race. Endō spent much of his time in France depressed and ill. However, he still was able to pen a number of essays on religious and social issues that were published in important Japanese literary digests.

Upon returning to Japan, Endō became a noted critic and essayist. He decided, however, to pursue a career as a novelist, in part to come to terms with the alienation that he felt in Japan as a schoolboy and also in France as a Japanese person at a predominantly white university. The place of Christianity in Japan and in his own life, the discrimination suffered by Christians in Japan, and the difficulty of building understanding between East and West all became major themes in his writing.

Endō came to prominence in Japan when his first major novel Shiroi Hito (1955; white man) won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in July of 1955. Two months later, Endō married Okada Junko. His first child, Ryunosuke, was born the following year, and despite his literary success, Endō was forced to take a position as a lecturer at Tokyo’s Sophia University to ensure the family had enough money.

In 1958, Endō again grabbed the attention of Japan’s literary community with the novel Umi to dokuyaku (1958; The Sea and Poison , 1972), which tells the story of a series of medical experiments carried out on American prisoners of war in Fukuoka in the last months of World War II. The novel became a sensation, and Endō was awarded the Shinchōsha Literary Prize and the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award, two of Japan’s most significant literary laurels. Enjoying his newfound fame, Endō traveled to the Soviet Union, France, England, and other European countries in 1959 and 1960. Soon after returning home, however, he was stricken with tuberculosis, bedridden for more than a year, and had surgery three times in 1961. He recovered, though, and was discharged from the hospital in May of 1962.

Endō continued to publish, and in 1965 he toured the areas of Nagasaki prefecture, which were majority Christian areas before persecution in the seventeenth century forced followers to practice their faith underground. His experience in Nagasaki further deepened his interest in the often tragic and bloody history of Christianity in Japan and inspired him to write the novel Chinmoku (1966; Silence , 1972), which tells the story of a Portuguese missionary facing a crisis of faith in the face of anti-Christian violence in seventeenth century Japan. This novel further enhanced Endō’s literary reputation as one of the finest active Japanese novelists. It was awarded the Jun’ichirō Tanizaki Prize in 1966.

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Endō continued to publish novels while dabbling with stage and screen acting. At this time he also garnered a significant overseas readership. In 1969 he accepted an invitation from the United States government and went on a monthlong tour of the United States. He also traveled widely in Europe in the early 1970’s, visiting Rome on a number of occasions, and eventually traveled to Israel. His trip to the Middle East inspired him to look more deeply at the Bible and, especially, the life of Jesus. In 1973, he published Iesu no shōgai (A Life of Jesus , 1978) a novelization of Christ’s life combined with reflection on the contemporary relevance of Christian belief.

Endō returned to examining Japan’s feudal past with his 1980 novel Samurai (The Samurai , 1982). The work is concerned with the fate of a group of samurai who converted to Christianity in the seventeenth century. Accolades continued, and throughout the 1980’s, Endō served on the Akutagawa Prize committee, making him one of the arbiters of literary quality in Japan and allowing him to help launch the careers of young novelists. In 1990, Endō traveled to India to carry out research for his last major novel, Fukai kawa (1993; Deep River , 1994), the story of a Japanese tourist’s search for truth in India. The novel was also made into an acclaimed Japanese-language film in 1995.

From 1993, Endō was in and out of the hospital with a number of ailments. He suffered an aneurism in 1995 and died following a lung infection in 1996.

Significance

During his lifetime, Endō was reputed as one of the finest Japanese novelists. Since his death, he frequently has been appraised as one of the most important Japanese novelists of the twentieth century. His major works continue to be widely read in his home country. Endō is also one of a number of writers, including contemporaries Mishima Yukio and ōe Kenzaburō, whose writings increased the popularity of Japanese literature abroad. Endō’s works have been translated into dozens of languages, giving him a truly international readership.

As a Japanese literary figure, Endō’s writings on Christian subjects have helped to broaden understanding of the religion in Japan and have inspired debates among scholars and in the religious community about how Japanese believers understand Christian teachings. Endō’s works are far reaching, helping to spark debate on a number of important subjects, including the persecution of Christians at several points in Japanese history and atrocities against Allied prisoners of war during World War II. Endō’s influence remains strong. Famed American film director Martin Scorsese planned a screen adaptation of Endō’s Silence.

Bibliography

Hagiwara, Takeo. “Return to Japan: The Case of Endō Shūsaku.” Comparative Literature Studies 37, no. 2 (2000). An article that touches on a wide variety of themes including Endō’s study in France and his engagement with European culture in his novels. Also provides details about several of Endō’s essays that are not available in English translation.

Netland, John T. “From Resistance to Kenosis: Reconciling Cultural Differences in the Fiction of Endō Shūsaku” in Christianity and Literature 48, no. 2 (1999). This article examines one of the major themes of Endō’s writings the difference between Asian and European societies and patterns of belief. Discusses the importance of this theme to the novels Silence, The Samurai, and others.

Williams, Mark B. Endō Shūsaku: A Literature of Reconciliation. New York: Routledge, 1999. The only critical biography of Endō available in English. The work presents a thorough introduction to the author’s life and works focusing on Endō’s understanding of European culture and the Christian themes that appear in his works.