The Samurai

In 1613, with plans to open a trade route between Mexico and Japan, four Samurai and an ambitious Franciscan missionary embark on a journey that takes them to Mexico and Rome and back again to a Japan torn by strife

The Samurai (English and Japanese Edition)

Literature & Fiction

Endō, Shūsaku

Contemporary

Harpercollins

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Genre Fiction

Penguin??Books

Silence

Penguin Uk

 In the 17th century, Hasekura and three other low-level samurai are sent to seek trade with Nueva España (today's Mexico). Accompanied by Father Velasco, a Franciscan missionary and interpreter, they pursue their mission from Nueva España to Spain. Along the way, they endure not only the hardships of the journey but Velasco's incessant proselytizing. The ambitious priest, who believes that their conversion will gain him the appointment as Bishop of Japan, convinces them that they will succeed only if they convert to Christianity, and reluctantly they agree. Failure, however, is their only reward. After years of wandering, they return to Japan, where they face shame and persecution. Basing his novel on the actual voyage of Hasekura, Shusaku Endo masterfully evokes the struggle between the Western individual and the Eastern collective identity and in so doing plumbs the depths of honor, faith, and human endurance. The result is an expansive audio book of astonishing power and insight.

The Samurai (Penguin International Writers)

Penguin Books Canada, Limited

Silence (Penguin International Writers)

Penguin Books, Ltd.

Kiku's Prayer is told through the eyes of Kiku, a self-assured young woman from a rural Japanese village who falls in love with Seikichi, a devoted Catholic man. Practicing a faith still banned by the government, Seikichi is imprisoned but refuses to recant under torture. Kiku's efforts to reconcile her feelings for Seikichi's religion with the sacrifices she makes to free him mirror the painful, conflicting choices Japan faced as a result of exposure to modernity and the West. Seikichi's persecution exemplifies Japan's insecurities, and Kiku's tortured yet determined spirit represents the nation's resilient soul. Set in the turbulent years of the transition from the shogunate to the Meiji Restoration, Kiku's Prayer embodies themes central to Endo Shusaku's work, including religion, modernization, and the endurance of the human spirit. Yet this novel is much more than a historical allegory. It acutely renders one woman's troubled encounter with passion and spirituality at a transitional time in her life and in the history of her people. A renowned twentieth-century Japanese author, Endo wrote from the perspective of being both Japanese and Catholic. His work is often compared with that of Graham Greene, who himself considered Endo one of the century's finest writers.

Kiku's Prayer: A Novel (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

Literary

Columbia University Press

Sachiko: A Novel (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

In novels such as Silence, End&#333; Sh&#363;saku examined the persecution of Japanese Christians in different historical eras. Sachiko, set in Nagasaki in the painful years between 1930 and 1945, is the story of two young people trying to find love during yet another period in which Japanese Christians were accused of disloyalty to their country. In the 1930s, two young Japanese Christians, Sachiko and Sh&#363;hei, are free to play with American children in their neighborhood. But life becomes increasingly difficult for them and other Christians after Japan launches wars of aggression. Meanwhile, a Polish Franciscan priest and former missionary in Nagasaki, Father Maximillian Kolbe, is arrested after returning to his homeland. End&#333; alternates scenes between Nagasaki--where the growing love between Sachiko and Sh&#363;hei is imperiled by mounting persecution--and Auschwitz, where the priest has been sent. Sh&#363;hei's dilemma deepens when he faces conscription into the Japanese military, conflicting with the Christian belief that killing is a sin. With the A-bomb attack on Nagasaki looming in the distance, End&#333; depicts ordinary people trying to live lives of faith in a wartime situation that renders daily life increasingly unbearable. End&#333;'s compassion for his characters, reflecting their struggles to find and share love for others, makes Sachiko one of his most moving novels.

In novels such as Silence, Endō Shūsaku examined the persecution of Japanese Christians in different historical eras. Sachiko, set in Nagasaki in the painful years between 1930 and 1945, is the story of two young people trying to find love during yet another period in which Japanese Christians were accused of disloyalty to their country.\nIn the 1930s, two young Japanese Christians, Sachiko and Shūhei, are free to play with American children in their neighborhood. But life becomes increasingly difficult for them and other Christians after Japan launches wars of aggression. Meanwhile, a Polish Franciscan priest and former missionary in Nagasaki, Father Maximillian Kolbe, is arrested after returning to his homeland. Endō alternates scenes between Nagasaki―where the growing love between Sachiko and Shūhei is imperiled by mounting persecution―and Auschwitz, where the priest has been sent. Shūhei’s dilemma deepens when he faces conscription into the Japanese military, conflicting with the Christian belief that killing is a sin. With the A-bomb attack on Nagasaki looming in the distance, Endō depicts ordinary people trying to live lives of faith in a wartime situation that renders daily life increasingly unbearable. Endō’s compassion for his characters, reflecting their struggles to find and share love for others, makes Sachiko one of his most moving novels.

Kiku's Prayer: A Novel

One of the finest novels, from “a masterly historical writer” (David Mitchell)  In 1613, four low-ranking Japanese samurai, accompanied by a Spanish priest, set sail for Mexico to bargain for trading rights with the West in exchange for a Catholic crusade through Japan. Their arduous journey lasts four years, as they travel onward to Mexico then Rome, where they are persuaded that the success of their mission depends on their conversion to Christianity. In fact, the enterprise seems to have been futile from the start: the mission returns to Japan to find that the political tides have shifted. The authorities are now pursuing an isolationist policy and a ruthless stamping out of Western influences. In the face of disillusionment and death, the samurai can only find solace in a savior they’re not sure they believe in.

The Samurai (Penguin Modern Classics)

Penguin Classics

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Books by Endō, Shūsaku

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Endō, Shūsaku. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Samurai (English and Japanese Edition)

The Samurai

Silence

The Samurai (Penguin International Writers)

Silence (Penguin International Writers)

Kiku's Prayer: A Novel (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

Sachiko: A Novel (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

Sachiko: A Novel (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

Kiku's Prayer: A Novel

The Samurai (Penguin Modern Classics)