Shusaku Endo Der Samurai - Hardcover

Shūsaku Endō

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3795108926 ISBN 13: 9783795108922

Publisher: n/a

Synopsis

Considered one of the late Shusaku Endo's finest works, The Samurai seamlessly combines historical fact with a novelist's imaginings. Set in the period preceding the Christian persecutions in Japan recorded so memorably in Endo's Silence , this book traces the steps of some of the first Japanese to set foot on European soil.Rokuemon Hasekura, a low-ranking warrior, is chosen as one of Japan's envoys to the Viceroy of Mexico and Pope Paul V. The emissaries set sail in 1613, accompanied by an ambitious Franciscan missionary who hopes to bargain trading privileges with the West for the right to head his order in Japan. The arduous journey lasts four years, and the Japanese travel from Mexico to Rome, where they are persuaded that the success of their mission depends on their conversion willy-nilly to Christianity. In fact, the enterprise has been futile from the start and the mission returns to Japan where the political tides have the authorities are pursuing an isolationist policy and a ruthless stamping out of all Western influences. In the face of disillusionment and death, samurai Rokuemon's only support and solace come from the spiritual lord he is not even sure he believes in.

Edition details

• Publisher: n/a
• ISBN 10: 3795108926
• ISBN 13: 9783795108922
• Binding: Hardcover