Golden Country. Shusaku Endo

      ACT ONE SCENE ONE

      The scene is the Bureau of Investigation of the Christians set up by Inoue Chikugo-no-kami. Outside can be heard the voices of children singing the songs of the Buddhist festival of O-Bon.

      INOUE: The night of O-Bon. The children's songs have a melancholy air. We've been in Nagasaki four months already.

      HIRATA (in a flattering tone of voice): A very fruitful four months! Since your arrival the proscription of Christianity has been enforced from Nagasaki to Omura and Hirado, and most of the farmers have given up the foreign religion. Here in Nagasaki alone we've caught ten priests, five Japanese lay brothers, and seven catechists. My heartiest congratulations!

      INOUE: But there's still much to be done. There are still priests in hiding. We capture the Christians one after the other. We force them to renounce their faith. The Christian entrusts himself to his strength of spirit. We assail his flesh. We test to see which is stronger, spirit or flesh.... But I'm tired of watching people. Don't you also find this work distasteful, Hirata?

      HIRATA: No. Watching people is my duty. As an official, I must suspect everyone I meet. That is the only way to find out what others really are.

      INOUE: The only way to find out what others really are! The Christians propose another way. You've got to trust people, they say. Only then do you find out what they really are.

      HIRATA: But supposing there were a Christian spy planted here in the bureau. To all appearances one of us, energetically working with us; but in reality an ally of the Fathers and the Christian farmers.... You see, one cannot trust appearances. To smell out the reality, it takes someone like me.

      INOUE: Then you would carry suspicion even to your fellow workers, even into the bureau itself.... I was once a believer in the Christian teachings, you know. That was when I was a retainer of Lord Gamo. So you must suspect even me. But do you mean to say that there is in fact a Christian here among us?

      HIRATA: I didn't say that. I was only giving an example.

      INOUE: An example? You're very crafty with your implications.... This Christian you speak of—is he someone close to me?

      HIRATA: I leave that to your own observation.

      Inoue drinks his tea, deep in thought. The sound of falling sand in the hourglass. The voices of the singing children are heard outside.

      INOUE (lifting his head): But do you have any proof?

      HIRATA: What kind of proof do you want?

      Inoue shakes his head and points his finger at Hirata. Kano Gennosuke enters.

      GENNOSUKE: Sir, Omura Ietada, one of the head samurai of the Omura clan, is here to see you.

      INOUE: Fine. Show him into the study.

      GENNOSUKE: Yes, sir.

      INOUE: Gennosuke, just a moment.

      GENNOSUKE: Did you call me, sir?

      INOUE: Gennosuke, how old are you?

      GENNOSUKE: I'm twenty, sir.

      INOUE: You're not married yet, are you?

      GENNOSUKE: No, sir. I've been too busy with my work to think of marriage.

      INOUE: On the contrary, if you think so much of your job, you ought to find a good wife as soon as possible. Don't you agree, Hirata?

      HIRATA: You're quite right, sir.

      INOUE: Fine, you may go.

      Gennosuke exits.

      INOUE: Hirata, I'll hear what you have to say later. But if there is really a Christian here among us, it will go very hard with him.

      HIRATA: I haven't said anything about this to anyone else. I'll follow your directions. Perhaps before we pass the word on to Edo, we might make some private investigations of our own.

      Inoue exits. Hirata looks about him, then signals to someone offstage. A guard enters.

      HIRATA: Has the woman come yet? What was her name-Tome?

      GUARD: Yes, she's here.

      HIRATA: Fine. When I give you the signal, bring her in. But only when I signal, mind you.

      Guard exits. Gennosuke enters to clear away the tea things from which Inoue had been drinking. He sees Hirata and greets him.

      HIRATA: Twenty years old, you say.

      GENNOSUKE: Excuse me?

      HIRATA: You said twenty, didn't you? That's a fine age to be.

      GENNOSUKE: Do you think so?

      HIRATA: I was twenty once. Like you, I'd just entered the bureau. I still knew how to trust people. But as I was just telling Inoue, fifteen years of suspecting and examining people have had their effect. The grime of the job has seeped into my soul, habit has become nature. And now I'm as you find me. Gennosuke, you'll be like me someday.

      He laughs.

      GENNOSUKE: I don't want to be like you.

      HIRATA: Everyone feels that way in his youth. But it's not so easy. It's not so easy.

      He pauses.

      HIRATA: But to change the subject, I believe Inoue has been urging you to find yourself a wife.

      GENNOSUKE: Yes, he's been so kind as to suggest this.

      HIRATA (sarcastically): Yes, of course. He's very solicitous, even for the young.

      GENNOSUKE: Yes. I appreciate it.

      HIRATA: What kind of bride will you look for?

      GENNOSUKE: What?

      HIRATA: I asked you what kind of bride you wanted. Are you too embarrassed to answer?

      GENNOSUKE: I've never thought about it.

      HIRATA: That's a lie. There's no youth of twenty that doesn't spend most of his time dreaming of the girl he'll possess.

      GENNOSUKE: I'm not that kind of man.

      HIRATA: Is that so? Then close your eyes. Even as we're speaking, the woman you'll spend your life with is somewhere to be found. Perhaps even here in Nagasaki.

      GENNOSUKE: You're making fun of me.

      HIRATA: Not at all. I'm not making fun of you. When I was twenty, that's all I thought about too. This girl who will be your wife—isn't she already in your heart? I can even guess what she is doing at this very