The Golden Country

by Shusaku Endo

  * * *

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  * * *

  Officials of the Bureau of Investigation of the Christians:

  INOUE CHIKUGO-NO-KAMI in charge of the bureau

  HIRATA SHUZEN second in charge

  KANO GENNOSUKE a young samurai in the employ of the bureau

  FOUR OFFICIALS

  Christians:

  FATHER CHRISTOPHER FERREIRA Portuguese Jesuit Missionary priest in hiding

  TOMONAGA SAKUEMON landowner of the village

  * * *

  ACT ONE SCENE ONE

  * * *

  The scene is the Bureau of Investigation of the Christians set up by Inoue Chikugo-no-kami. Outside can be heard the voices of children singing the songs of the Buddhist festival of O-Bon.

  INOUE: The night of O-Bon. The children's songs have a melancholy air. We've been in Nagasaki four months already.

  HIRATA (in a flattering tone of voice): A very fruitful four months! Since your arrival the proscription of Christianity has been enforced from Nagasaki to Omura and Hirado, and most of the farmers have given up the foreign religion. Here in Nagasaki alone we've caught ten priests, five Japanese lay brothers, and seven catechists. My heartiest congratulations!

  INOUE: But there's still much to be done. There are still priests in hiding. We capture the Christians one after the other. We force them to renounce their faith. The Christian entrusts himself to his strength of spirit. We assail his flesh. We test to see which is stronger, spirit or flesh.... But I'm tired of watching people. Don't you also find this work distasteful, Hirata?

  HIRATA: No. Watching people is my duty. As an official, I must suspect everyone I meet. That is the only way to find out what others really are.

  INOUE: The only way to find out what others really are! The Christians propose another way. You've got to trust people, they say. Only then do you find out what they really are.

  HIRATA: But supposing there were a Christian spy planted here in the bureau. To all appearances one of us, energetically working with us; but in reality an ally of the Fathers and the Christian farmers.... You see, one cannot trust appearances. To smell out the reality, it takes someone like me.

  INOUE: Then you would carry suspicion even to your fellow workers, even into the bureau itself.... I was once a believer in the Christian teachings, you know. That was when I was a retainer of Lord Gamo. So you must suspect even me. But do you mean to say that there is in fact a Christian here among us?

  HIRATA: I didn't say that. I was only giving an example.

  INOUE: An example? You're very crafty with your implications.... This Christian you speak of—is he someone close to me?

  HIRATA: I leave that to your own observation.

  Inoue drinks his tea, deep in thought. The sound of falling sand in the hourglass. The voices of the singing children are heard outside.

  INOUE (lifting his head): But do you have any proof?

  HIRATA: What kind of proof do you want?

  Inoue shakes his head and points his finger at Hirata. Kano Gennosuke enters.

  GENNOSUKE: Sir, Omura Ietada, one of the head samurai of the Omura clan, is here to see you.

  INOUE: Fine. Show him into the study.

  GENNOSUKE: Yes, sir.

  INOUE: Gennosuke, just a moment.

  GENNOSUKE: Did you call me, sir?

  INOUE: Gennosuke, how old are you?

  GENNOSUKE: I'm twenty, sir.

  INOUE: You're not married yet, are you?

  GENNOSUKE: No, sir. I've been too busy with my work to think of marriage.

  INOUE: On the contrary, if you think so much of your job, you ought to find a good wife as soon as possible. Don't you agree, Hirata?

  HIRATA: You're quite right, sir.

  INOUE: Fine, you may go.

  Gennosuke exits.

  INOUE: Hirata, I'll hear what you have to say later. But if there is really a Christian here among us, it will go very hard with him.

  HIRATA: I haven't said anything about this to anyone else. I'll follow your directions. Perhaps before we pass the word on to Edo, we might make some private investigations of our own.

  Inoue exits. Hirata looks about him, then signals to someone offstage. A guard enters.

  HIRATA: Has the woman come yet? What was her name-Tome?

  GUARD: Yes, she's here.

  HIRATA: Fine. When I give you the signal, bring her in. But only when I signal, mind you.

  Guard exits. Gennosuke enters to clear away the tea things from which Inoue had been drinking. He sees Hirata and greets him.

  HIRATA: Twenty years old, you say.

  GENNOSUKE: Excuse me?

  HIRATA: You said twenty, didn't you? That's a fine age to be.

  GENNOSUKE: Do you think so?

  HIRATA: I was twenty once. Like you, I'd just entered the bureau. I still knew how to trust people. But as I was just telling Inoue, fifteen years of suspecting and examining people have had their effect. The grime of the job has seeped into my soul, habit has become nature. And now I'm as you find me. Gennosuke, you'll be like me someday.

  He laughs.

  GENNOSUKE: I don't want to be like you.

  HIRATA: Everyone feels that way in his youth. But it's not so easy. It's not so easy.

  He pauses.

  HIRATA: But to change the subject, I believe Inoue has been urging you to find yourself a wife.

  GENNOSUKE: Yes, he's been so kind as to suggest this.

  HIRATA (sarcastically): Yes, of course. He's very solicitous, even for the young.

  GENNOSUKE: Yes. I appreciate it.

  HIRATA: What kind of bride will you look for?

  GENNOSUKE: What?

  HIRATA: I asked you what kind of bride you wanted. Are you too embarrassed to answer?

  GENNOSUKE: I've never thought about it.

  HIRATA: That's a lie. There's no youth of twenty that doesn't spend most of his time dreaming of the girl he'll possess.

  GENNOSUKE: I'm not that kind of man.

  HIRATA: Is that so? Then close your eyes. Even as we're speaking, the woman you'll spend your life with is somewhere to be found. Perhaps even here in Nagasaki.

  GENNOSUKE: You're making fun of me.

  HIRATA: Not at all. I'm not making fun of you. When I was twenty, that's all I thought about too. This girl who will be your wife—isn't she already in your heart? I can even guess what she is doing at this very moment.

  GENNOSUKE (led on by Hirata): What is she doing at this moment?

  HIRATA: She's taking a crap. No, no, forgive me. I'm foul-mouthed. When one gets to be my age, one falls into the habit of soiling beautiful things. I'm foul. Don't you agree?

  He laughs.

  HIRATA: But, seriously, tell me, what kind of girl do you want?

  GENNOSUKE: My mother and I are all alone. I would like a good-natured wife that will be good to my mother.

  HIRATA: A very proper answer indeed. This manner of speaking should get you far in the world. Do you mean to say that as long as she's good-natured, it doesn't matter to you if she's pretty or not?

  Gennosuke mutters something inaudible.

  HIRATA: I can't hear you.

  GENNOSUKE: If she's pretty, it's all the better.

  HIRATA: Then why didn't you say so in the first place? Do you have any notion why one of the head samurai of the Omura clan is here today?

  GENNOSUKE: Not the slightest. Do you know why he's here?

  HIRATA: Of course I do. These eyes see through everything that goes on at the bureau. This nose smells out everything that men try to hide. Otherwise I could never get the better of the crafty Christians. Just a moment ago you expressed some very lofty sentiments. But I have a clear picture of what's really in your heart.

  GENNOSUKE: There's nothing there to embarrass me were it known.

  HIRATA: I wonder.

  He sniffs around Gennosuke.

  HIRATA: You have a smell. You have a smell.

  GENNOSUKE: You're carrying your game a
little too far.

  HIRATA (as if speaking to himself): No, the smell is all mine! Even I was once as young as you and reached out to the stars and dreamed great dreams. I can recall a winter morning when I walked aimlessly along the streets of Nagasaki and Maruyama, enraptured by the falling snow that purified the world about me. And an autumn sunset when I stood on Shian Bridge and sighed again and again the name of the girl I loved—which, incidentally, was the same name as the one you hold so tenderly in your heart, Yuki. What's the matter? When I mentioned her name, your face turned as red as autumn leaves.

  Gennosuke hurries offstage as if in flight. Tomonaga Sakuemon enters.

  TOMONAGA: As usual, hard at work, I suppose.

  HIRATA: Oh, it's you. I was just reminiscing with Gennosuke. I was telling him about the days long ago when I'd just entered the bureau. I guess that's a certain sign of age—when you start talking to the young about the past.

  He laughs.

  HIRATA: I'm not so young any more.

  TOMONAGA: You still have a long way to go. I'm the one that's getting old. And the work too has gradually become unpleasant. I've just returned from Hirado where I tried to settle a dispute between the Dutch and the English traders. Since there is something to be said for both sides, I came to consult Inoue.

  HIRATA: Men have come in their ships across vast oceans to this far end of the earth. Men from the southern barbarian nations of Portugal and Spain, men from the northern barbarian countries of England and Holland.

  They have come to us in pursuit of a vision, in search of a golden country. It occurs to me that our country is something like a man of good fortune chased after by a number of women. All four ladies, Spain, Portugal, England, and Holland, are energetically in pursuit.

  TOMONAGA: Ho, ho. That's not a bad comparison. Of all these women, which will Japan take to wife? Which would you take to wife?

  During the above conversation Inoue has entered and has been silently watching Tomonaga.

  HIRATA (seeing Inoue, but pretending not to): If I were a Christian, I'd have to follow the law of one husband-one wife. So I'd have to do as you urge—choose one from the four. But since I've never been a Christian, there's no need to make a choice.

  TOMONAGA: No need to make a choice?

  HIRATA: I'll make love to all of them.

  TOMONAGA (laughing): No, no, my friend. If you wish to lead a life that is in any way human, you can't very well make love to a number of women at the same time.

  HIRATA (sarcastically): Hear, hear! You're very strait-laced aren't you? A human life, you say? You must know, I'm sure, that a long time ago several daimyo of Kyushu who wanted Portuguese and Spanish trade gave up the whole project when they heard from the Fathers that a man wasn't permitted to keep another woman besides his legal wife. The Fathers must have told them what you're telling me now.

  INOUE: Hirata, Hirata. Tomonaga Sakuemon is of quite a different stamp from you. He is a true samurai, who after death separated him from his wife never remarried but has remained continent to this day. Tomonaga, I'm afraid your work in Hirado has been fatiguing.

  Tomonaga is flustered and turning to Inoue, greets him.

  TOMONAGA: I've just now returned.

  INOUE: But, Tomonaga, there is something after all to what Hirata says. I also feel, as Hirata has put it, that our country is like a man set upon by four females. But to my mind, all of the four are nothing but harlots. People often speak of the whore with the heart of gold, as if only a whore really knew how to love. All the same, if one is chased by a pack of gold-hearted whores, there is no reason to pick one of them to be his wife. Long ago when I was a retainer in the Gamo clan, Lord Gamo maintained four households in addition to that of his legal wife. But his four concubines were extremely jealous of one another, and were constantly quarreling among themselves. So what do you think he did? He kicked all four out of his castle. The four barbarian nations, Spain and Portugal, England and Holland, have come to Japan obsessed by the dream of finding here a golden country. It seems to me that they are exactly like the four concubines I mentioned. They are jealous of one another and always backbiting. To Japan the unwanted attentions of these whores are a troublesome nuisance. That's what I think.

  HIRATA: In that case, will you follow the example of the Lord of Gamo and throw all four out of the castle?

  INOUE: No. I should say that that too would show lack of foresight. The concubines that were thrown out revealed to Nobunaga the inner affairs of the Gamo clan, and this was one of the causes for its downfall. But, Tomonaga, tell me the news from Hirado.

  TOMONAGA: I agree with what you've just said. The traders from England and Holland are quarreling among themselves and making all kinds of accusations against one another. I've just returned here troubled.

  INOUE: You shouldn't be troubled, you should rejoice. Just as at a horsemarket, the price of a horse goes up when there's more than one bidder.

  TOMONAGA: You're right. I hadn't thought of that.

  INOUE: We'll have ample time to hear your report later on. But just now there's something weightier on my mind. Hirata has just made a most startling statement.

  HIRATA: Sir, it was not a statement—just a conjecture.

  INOUE: You may have meant it as a mere conjecture, but when it is implied that there may be someone in the employ of the bureau—whether it be Hirata himself or Gennosuke or anyone else—someone here that still secretly follows the Christian teachings, then, conjecture or not...

  TOMONAGA: Did Hirata really imply this? Everyone knows how zealous Hirata is in his work. I think that this implication too is a product of his zeal. But (laughing) it's hardly possible that an official here at the bureau could secretly be a Christian.

  INOUE: That's what I think too. But, as I believe you well know, long ago I also was a Christian. So was Uchida Shuba. Ishii Hikojiro also was taught by Christians in his youth. Unless I am mistaken, Tomonaga, you too received baptism while Omura Sumitada was still alive. So you too have a guilty conscience.

  He laughs.

  INOUE: No, Hirata's so-called conjecture cannot simply be dismissed.

  TOMONAGA: Please be reassured. You may have been a Christian long ago, but you are now the chief official in charge of investigating the Christians. And as for Uchida and Ishii, wasn't it precisely because they'd once been Christians that you brought them into the bureau?

  INOUE: It's as you say. Both Uchida and Ishii, having been Christians in their youth, best understand the movement of the Christian heart. They know where the Christian is weak and where he is strong, what kind of lies he will tell to his interrogator, how best to press him. A Christian who has given up his faith knows best how to make another give up his. So Uchida and Ishii are both of use to me.

  TOMONAGA: Yes, that's true.

  INOUE: It's the same with you. You are useful to us because you gave up your faith. You are able to see through the Christians' thinking. Isn't that so?

  TOMONAGA: When you put it that way, I feel very much as if I were one of the objects of Hirata's suspicion.

  INOUE: Don't be ridiculous. I don't quite know how to put it, but you are quite a different sort from Hirata. Why, you even blushed at Hirata's little example of the women. You're not the kind of man to conceal craftily his true self and act out a part. Isn't that true, Hirata?

  HIRATA: Quite true. If I even so much as suspected that Lord Tomonaga was a Christian, I'd have to change my whole method of investigating the Christians.

  INOUE: And you, Hirata, must not be overzealous in your work, to the point of losing perspective. By the way, Tomonaga, do you happen to have heard of a priest by the name of Ferreira?

  TOMONAGA: Ferreira? Why, of course. Everyone's heard of Ferreira. He's hiding out somewhere in Japan and carrying on his work undetected by us. He's a Portuguese Jesuit, isn't he? I know that he came to this country in 1600 and for twenty-five years has been Superior of the Jesuits.

  INOUE: You have quite a detailed knowledge of him.<
br />
  HIRATA: He certainly ought to have. You see, when he was still a retainer of the Omuras, he was one of those baptized by Ferreira. Tomonaga, please don't take this amiss. I have the custom of investigating thoroughly those who are working for the bureau. I know too that when you were a retainer of the Gamos, you let the Fathers use your house as a church.

  INOUE: You seem to have been born to distrust people.

  TOMONAGA: No, no, it's as he says. Ferreira is a mistake of my youth. I listened to his talks and even let him give me the Christian name of Joseph. I'm very much ashamed of this.

  INOUE: Don't trouble yourself about it. I have a Christian name too—Paul. There were many Johns and Pauls in those days.

  HIRATA: Besides, the mistakes of one's youth are hardly to be avoided. But when even someone like Tomonaga can go so far astray as to become a Christian, someone like me ...

  TOMONAGA: Oh, is it possible that even someone like you could go astray?

  HIRATA: Of course it's possible. I once went so far astray as to fall in love with a girl of the Maruyama pleasure quarters named Yuki. Oh, forgive me. I had forgotten that your own daughter is named Yuki. I always seem to say the wrong things. I've heard that your daughter is eighteen years old. The young men working here with us told me. The man who gets her will be very lucky.

  TOMONAGA: She's still only a child.

  INOUE: You too will have a blessed future for having such a daughter.

  TOMONAGA: Thank you for saying so, but she's only an ignorant country girl.

  INOUE: You must be tired after your journey from Hirado. Take a good rest.

  Tomonaga Sakuemon bows and leaves the room.

  HIRATA: You once told me, didn't you, that if you see a man with a totally unsuspicious face clapping his hands before the Buddha, he should be suspected of being a Christian. The same with a man pretending to be a fool. Or one who purposely makes fun of Christianity before others. All these, you said, are to be suspected of being Christians.