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Apostasy
A fumie is metal engraving of Jesus Christ’s face fixed onto a plank of wood. The Japanese government makes its own fumies specifically so its citizens and prisoners can step on it to declare their apostasy and renounce Christianity.
Fumie Quotes in Silence
The Silence quotes below are all either spoken by Fumie or refer to Fumie. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 8
Quotes
[Rodrigues] will now trample what he has considered the most beautiful thing in his life, on what he has believed most pure, on what is filled with the ideals and the dreams of man. How his foot aches! And then the Christ in bronze speaks to the priest: “Trample! Trample! I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. 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.”
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Chapter 9
Quotes
Yet the face was different from that on which the priest had gazed so often in Portugal, in Rome, in Goa and in Macao. It was not a Christ whose face was filled with majesty and glory; neither was it a face made beautiful by endurance of pain; nor was it a face filled with the strength of a will that has repelled temptation. The face of the man who lay at his feet was sunken and utterly exhausted.
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Chapter 10
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“Lord, I resented your silence.”
“I was not silent. I suffered beside you.”
“But you told Judas to go away: What thou dost do quickly. What happened to Judas?”
“I did not say that. Just as I told you to step on the plaque, so I told Judas to do what he was going to do. For Judas was in anguish as you are now.”
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Fumie Term Timeline in Silence
The timeline below shows where the term Fumie appears in Silence. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4
...they should do if they are told to apostatize and place their foot upon the fumie (a bronze etching of Christ made by the government specifically for Christians to apostatize with)....
(full context)
...has remained silent.” Meanwhile at the magistrate’s office, Kichijiro, Ichizo, and Mokichi stamp on the fumie. However, their interrogator notes that their faces seem pained, so he orders them to also...
(full context)
Chapter 6
“The day of the fumie arrive[s].” All of the prisoners except for Rodrigues—who watches through the barred window of his...
(full context)
...A guard brings Kichijiro, sniveling, out into the yard, and Kichijiro promptly steps on the fumie and is told to leave the camp. Rodrigues is struck by it all, but especially...
(full context)
Chapter 8
...out of the cell and to the interpreter, who is waiting for them with a fumie. Looking down at the metal image, the priest sees “the ugly face of Christ,” and...
(full context)
Chapter 9
...just a justification for shameful weakness. Rodrigues can still clearly see the image of the fumie in his mind. This image of Christ’s face was not beautiful, strong, or clear, but...
(full context)
Chapter 10
...the new year, every household in Japan is visited by a government representative armed with fumie for each member of the household to step on, as a ritual sign of their...
(full context)
...purpose (to betray Him as he must), so Christ told the priest to trample the fumie, and that Christ will suffer alongside him regardless.
(full context)
