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Apostasy
A fumie is metal engraving of Jesus Christ’s face fixed onto a plank of wood. The Japanese government makes its own fumies specifically so its citizens and prisoners can step on it to declare their apostasy and renounce Christianity.
Fumie Quotes in Silence
The Silence quotes below are all either spoken by Fumie or refer to Fumie. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8 Quotes
[Rodrigues] will now trample what he has considered the most beautiful thing in his life, on what he has believed most pure, on what is filled with the ideals and the dreams of man. How his foot aches! And then the Christ in bronze speaks to the priest: “Trample! Trample! I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. Trample! It was to be trampled on by men that I was born into this world. It was to share men’s pain that I carried my cross.”
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Rodrigues, broken by the tortured Christians’ moaning, finally agrees to apostatize to put an end to their pain. For Rodrigues, this moment represents a betrayal of everything he has ever believed, every ideal he has ever about serving God. However, Christ speaking from the fumie suggests that even such a betrayal is covered by God’s grace. Although it is certainly a betrayal of the Catholic Church and institutional Christianity, it does not remove one from the reach of Christ’s mercy and power. Although this is something of a radical notion and contradicts the orthodox view of apostasy, the idea that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et
Chapter 9 Quotes
Yet the face was different from that on which the priest had gazed so often in Portugal, in Rome, in Goa and in Macao. It was not a Christ whose face was filled with majesty and glory; neither was it a face made beautiful by endurance of pain; nor was it a face filled with the strength of a will that has repelled temptation. The face of the man who lay at his feet was sunken and utterly exhausted.
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Rodrigues, now living in a house in Nagasaki as an agent of the Japanese government, thinks back to image of Christ’s face on the fumie that he stepped on to symbolize his apostasy. He reflects on how different Christ’s face was in that moment than in any other moment of his life. Throughout the novel, Christ’s face functions to reflect Rodrigues’s perception of Christ as a man, and as his Lord. This perception changes as Rodrigues faces adversity, and in this final reflection the entire scope of Rodrigues’s changing perceptions of Christ’s face is listed. When Rodrigues was naïve, Christ’s Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimo
Chapter 10 Quotes
“Lord, I resented your silence.”
“I was not silent. I suffered beside you.”
“But you told Judas to go away: What thou dost do quickly. What happened to Judas?”
“I did not say that. Just as I told you to step on the plaque, so I told Judas to do what he was going to do. For Judas was in anguish as you are now.”
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While Rodrigues lives in Nagasaki and continues to reflect on his apostasy betrayal of the Church, he remembers Christ speaking to him from the fumie, and imagines that he hears God’s voice yet again and converses with him. That Rodrigues hears God speak at all is a major step in his own journey of faith, since God has seemed silent through so many months of endless suffering. The proposition that God is not silent, but suffering alongside his followers, is a powerful idea—particularly for those who feel they have known nothing but suffering for their entire lives. This concept of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a.
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Fumie Term Timeline in Silence
The timeline below shows where the term Fumie appears in Silence. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4
...they should do if they are told to apostatize and place their foot upon the fumie (a bronze etching of Christ made by the government specifically for Christians to apostatize with)....
(full context)
...has remained silent.” Meanwhile at the magistrate’s office, Kichijiro, Ichizo, and Mokichi stamp on the fumie. However, their interrogator notes that their faces seem pained, so he orders them to also...
(full context)
Chapter 6
“The day of the fumie arrive[s].” All of the prisoners except for Rodrigues—who watches through the barred window of his...
(full context)
...A guard brings Kichijiro, sniveling, out into the yard, and Kichijiro promptly steps on the fumie and is told to leave the camp. Rodrigues is struck by it all, but especially...
(full context)
Chapter 8
...out of the cell and to the interpreter, who is waiting for them with a fumie. Looking down at the metal image, the priest sees “the ugly face of Christ,” and...
(full context)
Chapter 9
...just a justification for shameful weakness. Rodrigues can still clearly see the image of the fumie in his mind. This image of Christ’s face was not beautiful, strong, or clear, but...
(full context)
Chapter 10
...the new year, every household in Japan is visited by a government representative armed with fumie for each member of the household to step on, as a ritual sign of their...
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...purpose (to betray Him as he must), so Christ told the priest to trample the fumie, and that Christ will suffer alongside him regardless.
(full context)
