Silence

by

Shūsaku Endō

Inoue is the antagonist of the story, the Japanese magistrate over Nagasaki, and the “architect of Christian persecution.” Although Rodrigues hears of Inoue long before meeting him and expects him to be evil incarnate, Inoue is surprisingly personable, kind, and meek, even though he inflicts brutal suffering and torture upon Japanese Christians. Inoue opposes Christianity’s presence in Japan, even though he himself was once baptized a Christian, because he feels it does not offer Japan anything new and in return grants too much of a foothold to England, Holland, Spain, and Portugal. Additionally, like Ferreira—who he drove to apostatize before the story begins—Inoue believes that Christianity is incompatible with the way the Japanese view the world, particularly in its dogmatic defense of universal truths and transcendent deities. The magistrate states his lack of hatred for Christianity, but admits to opposing to it on purely pragmatic grounds. This demonstrates that religious persecution, even when brutal and violent, may be a practical matter rather than an ideological one, and those who enact it may be regular individuals rather than hateful monstrosities. Although Inoue manages to make Rodrigues apostatize, the priest’s maintenance of his personal faith suggests that he is not entirely the victor in their struggle.

Inoue Quotes in Silence

The Silence quotes below are all either spoken by Inoue or refer to Inoue. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Apostasy Theme Icon
).
Chapter 6 Quotes

Stupefied, [Rodrigues] gazed at the old man [Inoue] who, naïve as a child, returned his gaze still rubbing his hands. How could he have recognized one who so utterly betrayed all his expectations? The man whom Valignano had called a devil, who had made the missionaries apostatize one by one—until now he had envisaged the face of this man as pale and crafty. But here before his very eyes sat this understanding, seemingly good, meek man.

Related Characters: Sebastien Rodrigues, Inoue, Valignano
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

“You look upon missionary work as the forcing of love upon someone?”

“Yes, that’s what it is—from our standpoint.”

Related Characters: Sebastien Rodrigues (speaker), Inoue (speaker)
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis:
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Silence PDF

Inoue Quotes in Silence

The Silence quotes below are all either spoken by Inoue or refer to Inoue. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Apostasy Theme Icon
).
Chapter 6 Quotes

Stupefied, [Rodrigues] gazed at the old man [Inoue] who, naïve as a child, returned his gaze still rubbing his hands. How could he have recognized one who so utterly betrayed all his expectations? The man whom Valignano had called a devil, who had made the missionaries apostatize one by one—until now he had envisaged the face of this man as pale and crafty. But here before his very eyes sat this understanding, seemingly good, meek man.

Related Characters: Sebastien Rodrigues, Inoue, Valignano
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

“You look upon missionary work as the forcing of love upon someone?”

“Yes, that’s what it is—from our standpoint.”

Related Characters: Sebastien Rodrigues (speaker), Inoue (speaker)
Page Number: 131
Explanation and Analysis: