Shūsaku Endō, Chinmoku [Silence]

Ashish Alexander (Independent Scholar - Asia)

Ed. by Roy Anthony Starrs, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.2.2: Japanese Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Mats Arne Karlsson (University of Sydney), Roy Anthony Starrs (University of Otago)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1966

Places

Japan (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Endo Shusaku’s best-known work, Silence (1969; Chinmoku, 1966) is set in the seventeenth-century Japan, in the period called the Edo era (1603–1867) or the era of the Tokugawa shogunate. This period marked the increasing isolation of Japan; by 1639 the only outside contact was restricted trade with China and the Netherlands. Foreign travel and foreign books were banned. The shogunate grew especially suspicious, and intolerant, of Christian missionaries, who were perceived as destabilizing elements in a country that was beginning to move towards unification after centuries without a central government. The loyalty of the Japanese-Christian population was also questioned, obedient as they were to their foreign Catholic …

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1516 words

Citation: Alexander, Ashish. "Chinmoku". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 July 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23631, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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