Session: Session 8, 8:30 – 10:00 am, Sunday 10/1

Category: Organized Panel

Location: Illinois Ballroom A

Chair: Robert Tierney (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Paper Presenters: Hanyun Zeng (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Tsutomu Nagata (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Discussant: Yingzhi Lu (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Abstract: This panel explores how the impact of foreign cultures on Early Modern Japan kept resonating within the country and changing its nuances over the following centuries. After Japan was fully opened to the rest of the world in the mid 19th century, the resonance and changes also increasingly involved other countries and cultures as well. Hanyun Zheng presents on Endō Shūsaku’s Silence (Chinmoku, 1966), a historical novel on the suffering and martyrdom of kakure kirishitan, or underground Catolicism communities under the ban of Christianity in 17th century Japan, particularly those who renounce their faith under the persecution of the Tokugawa government. The presentation compares the novel with its two film adaptations by Shinoda Masahiro (1971) and Martin Scorsese (2016) and discusses the different socio historical contexts the films were produced in, focusing on two important characters, the Jesuit priest Ferreira and Kiichiro, a Japanese kirishitan who repeatedly apostatizes and confesses throughout the narrative. Tsutomu Nagata discusses Kōda Rohan’s 1925 short story Kangadan (“The Story of a Chinese Painting”) and its significance in the cultural context of Taisho Japan, where traditional kangaku (study of Chinese classics) and bunjin (literati) culture were being replaced by Shina-shumi, a new, Orientalist approach to Chinese culture and products that became increasingly prevalent after Japan’s military victories against Qing dynasty and Russia. Within the story, a Tokyo college student suffering from neurosis travels to northern Japan and finds a cure and new way of life in an old Chinese picture scroll. Meanwhile, Rohan himself, as one of last survivors of kangaku/bunjin tradition, was being repackaged as a Shina-shumi product and marketed only in such a context after his return to bundan in 1919.

Silence: Two Ways of Adaptations

Speaker: Hanyun Zeng
Role: Paper Presenter
Institution/Affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Abstract: Published in 1966, Endo Shusaku’s “Silence” has achieved worldwide fame, along with controversies, due to its highly controversial content. This historical novel delves into the suffering and martyrdom of the so-called “hidden Christians” (“Kakure Kirishitan”) in 17th-century Japan, particularly those who renounce their faith under the persecution of the Tokugawa government. Subsequently, the novel was adapted into two films: “Chinmoku” (Silence) directed by the Japanese New Wave filmmaker Shinoda Masahiro in 1971, and “Silence” directed by the renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese in 2016. In this presentation, I aim to address two questions regarding these two adaptations: How do the directors interpret the original text and how do they present it? Furthermore, how do they respond to the social context of their respective times and the original novel itself? I will explore these questions by focusing on two significant characters in the films: the Jesuit priest Ferreira, the mentor of the protagonist, and Kichijiro, a Japanese Kirishitan who repeatedly apostatizes and confesses throughout the narrative. While both films extensively explore these characters, the two directors approach them in distinct ways, creating an intriguing dialogue with the author Endo Shusaku in their exploration of Japanese Catholicism.

“Kangadan,” bunjin culture and Shina-shumi

Speaker: Tsutomu Nagata
Role: Paper Presenter
Institution/Affiliation: University of Minnesota
Abstract: This paper examines Kōda Rohan’s 1925 short story “Kangadan” 観画談 (The Story of a Chinese Painting) and its significance in the cultural context of Taishō Japan, where traditional kangaku (study of Chinese classics) and bunjin (literati) culture since the 18th century were being replaced by Tōyōgaku and Shina-shumi, new, Westernized, Orientalist approaches to Chinese culture and products that became increasingly dominant after Japan’s military victories against the Qing Dynasty and Russia. The story follows the quest for cure by a starving college student suffering from neurosis in Tokyo. Leaving the capital behind, the young man backpacks to northern Japan and finally finds a cure and new way of life in an old, Song-dynasty picture scroll held at a half-forgotten mountain temple. The student’s travel follows the pattern of Edo-period young bunjin artists wandering rural regions for inspiration, patronage and opportunities to see masterpieces, and the ending reflects how Chinese culture was increasingly regarded as a sort of therapy by some Taishō intellectuals tired of modernization. Meanwhile, Rohan himself, as one of the last survivors of the kangaku/bunjin tradition, was repackaged by publishers in the 1920s as a sort of Shina-shumi commodity and marketed, along with his works, only in such a context.