Judas in Japan: When the Sacred Must Be Profaned

At the climactic moment of Shusaku Endo's Silence, a captured Portuguese priest sees the face of Jesus, the face he adores above all others, for the first time since he stole into Japan. But it is not in an underground church or hidden chapel that he sees this icon. It is the Japanese authorities, trying to stamp out Christian practice, who present him with a “fumie”: an image of Christ, which has nearly been worn smooth by the tread of apostatizing feet. They tell the priest that he can save Japanese Christians from torture if he sets foot on the fumie. With a soul full of conflict, the priest follows in his mentor's footsteps and stamps on his savior.