Travel to Nagasaki Along With the Movie Silence | Guidable - Your Guide to a Sustainable, Wellbeing-centred Life in Japan

Travel to Nagasaki Along With the Movie Silence

By Guidable Writers Apr 24, 2017

Have you watched the movie Silence which was directed by Martin Scorsese? Silence  was released early this year, and it raises a dilemma of life and religion. In the movie, Catholic Missionaries, the leading role, came from Rome and was involved in a religious suppression in Japan. It is a really heartache movie but it makes us to start thinking what is religion and what to believe in. We are now living in a world with wars happening everyday, and those wars often relate to religious disputes. So it is a really good movie for non-Christian people as well.

 

 
The story is based on the novel by Shusaku Endo. Although he passed away more than 20 years ago, he is still one of the most famous novelists in Japan. He was also a Christian. The novel has been criticized by some people, but yet most of the people regard it as a noble one, and so does Martin Scorsese.

 

 
The suppression is not fictional. It really happened in Japan during the Edo-period. At that time, most Japanese Christians lived in Kyushu area, especially in Nagasaki. And many people were killed or compelled to abandon their beliefs. This is a really sad history of Japan, but all of us should get to know the truth and think about how to make our societies better.So for those who had watched this movie, I strongly recommend them to take a trip to Nagasaki prefecture. There are a lot of beautiful sights, you can feel the history with your own eyes.


Nagasaki City

There are a lot of sightseeing spots around Nagasaki cities. The picture above is the model of the Christian town in the movie in which Rodrigues concealed himself. And in Higashitsu area there is a museum in memory of Shusaku Endo, Scorsese also visited there when he was making the movie.

Unzen hot spring and Amakusa area

This area is famous for its volcanic landscape. You can see a lot of hell like ponds filled with boiling thermal water near Unzen hot spring. If you want to go there, you may take a JR train to Isahaya station, then take a bus to Unzen in about 70 minutes, or you may get there by taxi in about 80 minutes from the downtown Nagasaki.

 


Goto Islands
Goto Islands are the place where Kichijiro was born. The islands are very beautiful, but it takes around 3 hours to get there from Nagasaki. If you would like to know more details, write a comment below and Iʼll write more about the traveling tips.

 

 

Reiya
Japanese