Martyrs, Apostates, and the Modern Japanese Subject
Martyrs, Apostates, and the Modern Japanese Subject
The chapter continues the analysis of Akutagawa’s Kirishitan mono, focusing on stories about martyrdom and apostasy and the technologies of power that underlie them. In particular, it looks at the notion of tenkō (recant) and its role among the Japanese intelligentsia in the interwar years. The chapter ends with a brief survey of similar themes in postwar fiction, with particular emphasis on Endō Shūsaku’s novel Chinmoku (Silence, 1966) and Yamada Futarō’s Gedō ninpochō (Secret books of the ninjia arts, 1962), both centering on the figure of Jesuit apostate Christovão Ferreira.
Keywords: Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, martyrdom, apostasy, technologies of power, Endō Shūsaku, Yamada Futarō
Hawaii Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
