Start of a Journey: Nagasaki’s Literature Museum by the Sea

The Endō Shūsaku Literary Museum is located near the setting of the author’s novel Silence. It boasts one of Nagasaki’s best views of the setting sun. (© Amano Hisaki)

The museum’s entrance hall is reminiscent of a church interior. (© Amano Hisaki)

Endō Shūsaku in September 1994. (© Jiji)

The fumie that inspired Endō Shūsaku to write Silence, an Important Cultural Property, in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum. (Courtesy ColBase)

Endō Shūsaku’s favorite spot in Nagasaki: Kinenzaka, alongside the Ōura Church. He is said to have sat on the stone steps here contemplating his novel Silence. (© Amano Hisaki)

The village that was the setting for Silence in Sotome, now part of Nagasaki. (© Amano Hisaki)

American director Martin Scorsese (left) with Murakami Shigenori, a descendant of hidden Christians, at a January 2017 press conference held in Tokyo for the Japan launch of the film Silence. (© Jiji)

The sun sets over Sumōnada, viewed from the lounge room of the Endō Shūsaku Literary Museum. Endō once said, “This sea stretches all the way to Portugal.” (© Amano Hisaki)