The hound, Hachi

In 1924, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor at Imperial U.*, brought an akita pup from the snow country (Yukiguni), of Akita prefecture, to live with him. He would go to Shibuya station, in the morning accompanied by his hound, to travel to work. When the train returned in the afternoon, the dog would be waiting. One day, the next year, the professor was felled with a stroke. He never returned, and soon died. Hachi (*10 November 1923,†8 March 1935), the hound, was taken away, but would return to their old residence, until one day he returned to Shibuya station. This he would do for, more than, nine years.

People noticed. He was acknowledged, greeted and fed. Newspaper articles were written. A song was sung in schools by children. Hachikō was an exemplar of loyalty and faithfulness. These were the qualities the people, of the nation, should have for their country, and emperor.

People donated money for a statue of Hachikō†, while he was still a living model. When he died, a funeral service with many mourners gathered. He was stuffed, and placed as a museum exhibit. His bones were buried near his master.

The war came. The bronze statue, by Ando Teru, was melted in 1944 for armament. The akita breed had declined to a small number in the early twentieth century, after having been a favorite hunting dog of samurai. The furry and muscular hounds took down bears. During the war, dogs were butchered for food and pelt; similar stories were true in other lands too, certain breeds were nearing vanishing. In certain locales, the harboring of hounds became illegal, police would kill the animals. People who kept, and hid, their companions were harassed by their, own, family members.

Recently a book has been published, by Martha Sherrill, that tells the story of Morie Sawataishi’s rôle in saving the akita. From 1944 til he died in 2008, Sawataishi cared for the breed. The akita is a loyal breed of a loyal animal, that, has regular habits.

After the war a new statue‡ came to Shibuya station and it is, again, a landmark. A film, Hachikō Monogatari (1987), was made. This year an american version, set in New England, will be released. The 8th of April an annual remembrance takes place, for Hachikō, at the railway station.
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*now Tokyo U.
†Hachikō, a familiar diminutive form
‡ by the sculptor’s son, Takeshi; other statues have followed

Scorsese and Silence

Now, the path of an item of interest, that appears in a person’s field of interest is not always direct. I, casually looking at a citizen’s internet journal, was directed to an article in a catholic weekly, which further directed me to the AFP, which in mid-February ’09, picked up a story that nipponistas and film enthusiasts took up at the beginning of the month, which confirmed a story that was reported from Cannes in May of ’07--Martin Scorsese is to film, his version of, Shusaku Endo’s 1966 novel, Silence (Chinmoku). In August of ’06, an UK edition of the novel came out, with a foreword by Scorsese. In October ’06, he told reporters, that, he was considering it for fifteen years. I have not read that foreword, but it may tell us how Scorsese would present the story.

Scorsese once wanted to be a priest, and was a seminarian. He may have lost his faith, but is still interested in christian themes, the nature of Christ and belief, and perhaps, imposition and loss of belief. He made an adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. Kazantzakis so bothered the church, that, he was denied a christian burial. The novel is worth reading. It deserved to be put on the Index. It was an heretical portrait of Christ, it was near adoptionism, and near nestorianism. It was not meant to be biographical. Kazantzakis changed several undisputed facts*. Scorcese’s film was protested, and anti-christians heralded it for free speech. I was not going to spend money on it, but I did get a tape from the library. I could not have watched more than twenty minutes of it. Scorsese insulted Kazantzakis, and what he did to Christ, well Jesus suffered more on the cross, but this was not to His benefit either. It was a totally wretched movie, well I admitted, that, I watched only the beginning, but if you start eating a meal and you are gagging, and sickened by the food, would you eat the remainder?

I, later, followed the news and the contrast with Mel Gibson’s, The Passion. News ran a long time before the film was shown. Gibson wants to make a movie. It can be filmed. He will pay for everything. It was to be filmed in Italy where Pasolini’s film, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, had been. No one will market the film. And then there was controversy: radical protestant fundamentalists, activist anti-anti-semites were incensed, Hollywood blackballed the movie, and Gibson. I would be far, far more comfortable with Mister Gibson.

Scorsese has made more excellent movies than disasters. The screen writer, for Silence, is to be Jay Cocks, who was the writer for Gangs of New York, a fabulous, sprawling disaster. Practically every person of note, associated with 19th century New York City was brought onto the screen. Facts and chronology were random. They both worked together on The Age of Innocence, which was a good movie. The two movies, that, I mentioned unfavorably, did receive great praise in certain quarters. Some people gravitate toward certain tastes and projects, based on their proclivities, and, of course, it varies. For those who have affection for Endo, and his subject manner, these are anxious moments.
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*from memory, he changed the number of apostles, and made Judas their chief; and he has a caravan bring the bark of the cinchona that produces quinine, which came from the Andes; these, I surmise, are hints that this is about a Jesus of an alternate universe. 
postscriptum  30 July 2014: [click] Filming may soon begin.

Nagasaki Martyrs

Twenty-six men and boys were martyred, on account of the christian faith, in a spectacular fashion, in Nagasaki on the 5th of February 1597. Most were japanese, but there were spaniards, a mexican and an asian indian. Nagasaki is, and has been, the center of christianity in Japan. Nagasaki has become inseparable from martyrdom. It is the entrance gate of christianity.

In the generation after Francis Xavier, christianity became a significant factor in the country. Many converts were made, the feudal aristocrats often had their populace convert. There was fervor and zeal in the new faith, but not without bad behavior and impolitic action.

The shogun, and the power behind the emperor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi turned against christianity. Several reasons gave him cause: the destruction of buddhist and shinto art and architecture, which was japanese cultural patrimony, criminal behavior of certain christian merchants, possible imperial desires of Spain and other europeans, the dissension between spainards and portuguese, the franciscans and the jesuits, and the greater dissension between these former and the dutch and english heretics, and in contradiction, a possible christian hegemony. Hideyoshi was a champion commander, and there had been generations of internecine war; he wanted a centralisation of power in his own hands. With the buddhist monks, the bonzes, also having political, military and economic power, which, had become, weakened; he did not want a greater threat in the christians. In Hideyoshi’s childhood there were no christians (catholics), now there were, perhaps many more than, 300,000.

These early japanese christians were romanced with the Cross. They were evangelised with the Passion, and knew well of the early martyrs, and the rewards of heaven. With understanding of buddhist resignation and samurai honor and toughness, they had a stoic appreciation. Cruel irony found crucifixion (haritsuke) a novel and effectively, vicious form of torture and execution. They were to be paraded from Kyoto (literally, the capital then), after mutilation and constant abuse, over a thousand kilometers to their deaths. They were to be tied to a cross and speared by lances. If they renounced christianity, they would live. All the countryside would know of their degradation and fate. Yet, this did not end the faith in Japan. These martyrs engaged their deaths so bravely, that, they caused others to be ardently steadfast.

One of the martyrs, Paul Miki had been a jesuit for eleven years. He was an enthusiastic preacher, but not yet ordained. He exhorted crowds along the way and on the cross. Hideyoshi, as the english, feared and hated the jesuits. Miki made the appeal, that, the accusations against him (and the others) were false. They had no ulterior motives, they were merely faithful christians, and he, Miki, was not a foreign agent from the Philippines, but a nipponese as they were. His and all their deaths were unflinching and unwavering. This did not end christianity. It would be along time before the first man would either betray, or, disgrace himself and, the faith under pressure.

These martyrs are not well known in english speaking america, but in latin america, where there was contemporaneous evangelisation, and where one was born, their story, and their images were known. In 1862 they were placed on the universal calendar, first as Sts. Peter Baptist and Twenty-Five Companions on the 5th of February, and later as Sts. Paul Miki and his Companions on the 6th.

Nagasaki remained a center of both the faith and of martyrdom throughout the centuries. The last spectacular execution of innocents occurred on the 9th of August 1945. One dirty atomic bomb detonated over the cathedral, its radiation is still killing, far beyond the initial incineration. There is a memorial building, attached to a church dedicated to St. Philip of Jesus, the martyr from Mexico, and the first to die. It commemorates the 100th year of the canonisations. On the outside of the building there is a bronze, by Angelico Funakoshi, of the 26 in line. There is a Peace Park in Nagasaki to beg for the end of nuclear terror.

Saint Francis Xavier

Francis Xavier *1506, †1552. Italian holy card.

Francisco de Jaso y Azpilicueta was one of the first seven Jesuits. He joined Ignatius at the University of Paris, and went on to Italy. A trip to Palestine did not materialise. He was sent to Portugal; and that opened up the Indies. The places that Christopher Columbus wanted to get to, and thought that he did some, were the places that Francis did get to.

In his missionary career, Francis converted more people to christianity than anyone. This means, more than Paul in his journeys. Paul needed to know greek, for greek was the common language in the eastern Mediterranean. Francis was basque, he had to know french, spanish and latin in his upbringing and schooling; yet he was not facile in languages. He had to, repeatedly, rely on interpreters. Some sort of charisma had to be in effect, he did convert hundreds of thousands of souls.

Francis was the Apostle of the Indies. He missioned in the Portuguese colony of Goa. He went on to South India and Ceylon, Malacca and the Moluccas (parts of to-day’s Malaysia and Indonesia), perhaps the Philippines. He was the first christian missionary in Japan. He came to Kagoshima first, and he attempted to see the emperor in Kyoto. He had success, and he had opposition, in all the places he went. There are many miracles, that, are associated with his missioning.

He learned of China’s influence on Japan. He wanted to go to the chinese. He went back to Goa. Francis went east again. While waiting on the chinese island of Sanchón, he died waiting for permission to come to the mainland. His incorrupt body was taken back to Goa.
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postscriptum: It is not always possible to find everything, on the internet, all the time. Some time ago, I noted to myself this site/page: http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/asian-studies/projects/kakurekirishitan/index.html. I was given some no such page available rubbish. I tried again and found some great stuff, with many fine photographs, but only after getting a page with “The site you're looking for is unavailable.” Trying a bit about the site, I got to: http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/asian-studies/projects/kakurekirishitan/nagasakipics.html. There was this picture taken, by Brendan Eagan, of an exhibit item in Nagasaki’s 26 Martyrs Museum. Once traveling through the Mollucan islands, near Ceram, Francis calmed the waters with a crucifix, which was then lost. Next day ashore, a crab came out of the sea, with it in his pincers, as Francis and his companions were walking the beach. This is quite striking, and this story ought be more familiar, and the image more common.

Survival of Catholic Japan

Oura Tenshudo. Site of meeting, discovery and reunion.
Father Bernard Thadée Petitjean was in the newly constructed church in Oura, dedicated to the 26 recently canonised japanese martyrs, on the 17th of March 1865, in Nagasaki (yes, the same Nagasaki that suffered atomic destruction), Japan. A group of fifteen peasants from the Urakami district to the north came to him, and said they believed as he believed, and had been waiting, over two hundred years, for him to come. Their leader and catechist, Peter, spoke and questioned Petitjean to ascertain his genuineness. The christians of Japan found their absent priest. They stood firm in secret faith, the same faith of the original apostles, which they tried to maintain and persevere in the direst of bloody persecutions, tortures and martyrdoms. They had survived wave after wave of persecution and martyrdom. They had been isolated and hidden. They lived secretly. They had only the availability of two sacraments, baptism and marriage. Yet, they believed as Peter in Galilee, Antioch and Rome, and as Peter in Urakami.

The first to speak, to Petitjean, was Yuri Isabelina Sugimoto. She said softly to him, “The hearts of all of us are the same as yours.” Petitjean and other frenchmen had wondered if the faith had still survived. Now they would know. He was asked if he was observing kanashimi no setsu (season of sorrow). Yes, it was Lent. They had kept the calendar.

The seeds of their faith were planted by Saint Francis Xavier in 1549 and their keeping of the faith was highly perilous since 1614, when the last public celebration was allowed for Easter, and most deadly dangerous after the closing of Japan in 1639. They had sometimes drifted into admixture of other beliefs, in order to mask and camouflage, and through loss of contact with the rest of the church had some confused practices, yet they were Catholic christians still and wanted communion.

At one time, the figures tell us, that 300,000 japanese were of the faith, 10% of the country. Over the years, tens of thousands were murdered, yearly tests were given to apostatize and detect the remaining catholics. The nobles and warriors left, the peasants clung to their beliefs. When the french built the first church, in Japan in 250 years, which was permitted only for foreigners, it is estimated that 50,000 natives still believed. Roughly half were reunited. Some would not recognise the newcomers as genuine. These cryptic believers were separatists, hanare.

Father Petitjean, recognised that they were the descendants of the 16th and 17th centuries, and he encouraged the Kakure Kirishitan to come out in the open. They suffered continued persecution and martyrdom. Christianity was not free till 1873. After a time Petitjean went to Osaka, but eventually saw that Nagasaki was the center of christianity in Japan. The largest church in the orient was completed in 1925, and was the cathedral dedicated to Mary in Urakami. It was ground zero for the second atomic attack.

Would the faith survive such conditions in America? The faith was mostly suppressed in England from 1533 to 1829, a longer time, but less thoroughly and less severely than for the nipponese, the communists from 1917 or 1945 to 1989 in eastern europe, the 1790s in France and different times for other lands, and from the early 7th century and ongoing under the mohammedans. Father Faber wrote the hymn, Faith of our Fathers, to describe the english situation, is it not more à propos for our japanese brothers? But now, though free the rest of the japanese nation seems not very interested.
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A good place to begin reading, is with Shusaku Endo’s, Silence, and Neil Fujita’s, Japan’s Encounter with Christianity.