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Shūsaku Endō was a Japanese author who wrote from the perspective of a Japanese Catholic. Internationally, he is known for his 1966 historical fiction novel Silence, adapted into a 2016 film by Martin Scorsese. He was the laureate of several prestigious literary accolades, including the Akutagawa Prize and the Order of Culture, and was inducted into the Roman Catholic Order of St. Sylvester by Po…
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culture · Japanese writer (1923–1996) · writer · novelist · screenwriter · university teacher · playwright · biographer · also Shūsaku Endō, Endō Shūsaku, Shusaku Endo, Endō
Born 27 March 1923 · Died 29 September 1996 · Q316217
35 published statements · 0 followers
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I did pray. I kept on praying. But prayer did nothing to alleviate their suffering. Behind their ears a small incision has been made; the blood drips slowly through this incision and through the nose and mouth. I know it well, because I have experienced that same suffering in my own body. Prayer does nothing to alleviate suffering.
There are neither the strong nor the weak. Can anyone say that the weak do not suffer more than the strong?
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“I did pray. I kept on praying. But prayer did nothing to alleviate their suffering. Behind their ears a small incision has been made; the blood drips slowly through this incision and through the nose and mouth. I know it well, because I have experienced that same suffering in my own body. Prayer does nothing to alleviate suffering.”
“There are neither the strong nor the weak. Can anyone say that the weak do not suffer more than the strong?”
“Even now I am the last priest in this land. But Our Lord was not silent. Even if he had been silent, my life until this day would have spoken of him.”
“When you suffer, I suffer with you. To the end I am close to you.”
“Lord, why are you silent? Why are you always silent...?”
“If we did not believe that truth is universal, why should so many missionaries endure these hardships? It is precisely because truth is common to all countries and all times that we call it truth. If a true doctrine were not true alike in Portugal and Japan we could not call it 'true'.”
JSTOR Daily: Navigating Deep River: New Perspectives on Shūsaku Endō's Final Novel
America Magazine: Shusaku Endo, ‘Silence’ and the challenges of Christian life in Japan
America Magazine: Shusaku Endo, Japanese Catholic novelist
Publishers Weekly: Books by Shusaku Endo and Complete Book Reviews
JSTOR Daily: Vol. 48, No. 2, Winter 1999, Special Issue: Shusaku Endo
ジャパンタイムズ: ‘The Sea and Poison’: Shusaku Endo dissects the human capacity for evil
The Christian Century: Shusaku Endo
And was released in the United States on December 23, 2016
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ジャパンタイムズ: Shusaku Endo’s ‘Wonderful Fool’ is an incisive commentary on the materialism and spiritual emptiness of 1950s Japan
Died 1996-09-29.
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Awarded Order of Culture (1995).
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Awarded Mainichi art award (1994).
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Awarded Person of Cultural Merit (1988).
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Awarded Noma Literary Prize (1980).
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Awarded Japan Art Academy Prize (1979).
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Awarded Yomiuri Prize (1979).
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Awarded Order of St. Sylvester (1971).
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Would later become chief editor of one of these, the prestigious Mita Bungaku
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Awarded Tanizaki Prize (1966).
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Prompted another case of the same disease, and he stayed in hospital (in France and Japan) for the greater part of three years
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Awarded Shinchosha literature award (1958).
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Awarded Mainichi Publication Culture Award (1958).
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Was hired as an instructor at Sophia University, and Seijo University assigned him the role of "Lecturer on the Theory of the Novel" in 1967
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Awarded Akutagawa Prize (1955).
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A year after completing his studies in France, he won the Akutagawa Prize for Shiroi Hito (White Men)
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While studying in France, he came down with pleurisy in Paris
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Endō's mother brought him back to Japan to live with an aunt in Kobe
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Born 1923-03-27.
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His family moved to Dairen, then part of the Kwantung Leased Territory in Manchuria
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If we did not believe that truth is universal, why should so many missionaries endure these hardships? It is precisely because truth is common to all countries and all times that we call it truth. If a true doctrine were not true alike in Portugal and Japan we could not call it 'true'.
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