User:Individualpersonyes/sandbox

Synopsis
In 17th century Portugal, Jesuit priests Sebastião Rodrigues and Francisco Garrpe receive news that Father Ferreira, their former teacher, has apostatized after being captured by the Japanese government.

Rodrigues and Garrpe journey to Japan in order to verify the news. In Macau, the pair meet Kichijiro, a Japanese man who agrees to smuggle them into the country. After disembarking, Kichijiro introduces the Fathers to a village, where Christians have been forced to practice in secrecy because of a recent ban on Christianity. The two Fathers quickly become absorbed in administering sacraments to these hidden Christians.

Eventually, the government is made aware of the Christian resurgence. Several villagers are executed as punishment, but Kichijiro escapes by apostatizing. Rodrigues and Garrpe split up and hide in the countryside. While on the run, Rodrigues finds Kichijiro, who betrays the Father and hands him over to the authorities.

Rodrigues spends time in a cell. He is told that Garrpe was captured and executed for refusing to apostatize. He also learns that Ferreira is alive, having assimilated into Japanese society following his apostasy.

At the novel's climax, Rodrigues is forced to listen to the suffering of Japanese Christians being tortured by anazuri (穴吊り), the suspension of the body upside down over a pit. Rodrigues is told that if he tramples on a fumi-e and apostatizes, the torture will end. As Rodrigues examines the fumi-e, the voice of Christ breaks his silence: "You may trample. You may trample. I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. You may 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."

The novel concludes with letters from a Dutch merchant, describing a European called Okada San'emon. It is Rodrigues, now a Japanese citizen.