Some great dialogue b/w the 17th century Japanese & a Jesuit missionary from Martin Scorsese’s film “Silence”
The Japanese tell the missionary that a tree that flourishes in one soil dies in another: the tree of Christianity might flower in Portugal, but it rots in Japan.
“We have studied your doctrine and find it is of no value and no use in Japan. We have concluded that it is a danger.”
[spoilers]
There is a scene where one of the Jesuits finds his own master has apostatized & become a Buddhist, he asks him why, to which his master says the people of Japan never believed in the Christian God, then points to the sun & says “that is the Son of God for them”
The movie shows the pride and arrogance of the Christian missionary, who is hellbent on the dream of a Christian Japan and wants to eliminate Japanese religion rather than work with it. The missionary thinks any suffering he or others suffer makes him like Jesus.
The movie is based on a book that is based on a real life story. Also, the movie shows how the Tokugawa Shogunate carried out their systematic policy to eradicate Christianity from Japan completely.
Secret Christians were forced to trample on pictures of Jesus & Mary.
Aryāṃśa@arya_amsha
Sep 30 21
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Under the Shogunate of Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651), a systematic 6-step plan to eradicate Christianity from Japan was hatched.
1) Financial compensation to those who left Christianity
Torture, crucification, financial compensation, registering with Buddhist Shinto temples etc were all part of the plan by which Christianity was wiped out of Japan.
Aryāṃśa@arya_amsha
Sep 30 21
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The Japanese tortured catholic missionaries with a technique called anatsurushi (穴吊るし) or "hole hanging" in which christian priests were hung upside down in a pit of faeces. This was done to prolong suffering & make the priest give up Christianity. This had a lot of success.
Lot of Japanese Kokugaku scholars have written against Christianity and the West, Aizawa Seishisai is one of them and @Spatel has written a lot about that, so one might be interested to check that out.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aizawa_Se
Lol what? The movie was made by a Catholic American, of course it shows Christianity triumphing in the end. That doesn't mean we cannot use parts of the film that show the other side's perspective, take what we like, discard the rest.
twitter.com/Basement_2022/
Punished Basement Wizard@Basement_2022
Oct 08 22
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Hindu RWer fails to understand the movie. Thinks its a triumph against, not for, Christianity.
Also, Scorsese is too mature a filmmaker to ever make an entirely one-sided film of that sort. Silence gives us the Japanese perspective, the Jesuit perspective, the violence the Japanese inflicted, and in the end we can take it as history happened and pick our own side.
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