Iyertsu In The Deep River

In Deep River, Ōtsu has a belief that God is omnipotent enough to encompass all religions; thus, he calls Him as an Onion because an onion symbolizes several layers of mystery. In the conservative sense of the noun “Christian,” Ōtsu is too radical and open-minded. Of course, identifying oneself as a Christian is more about what you do, and less what one preaches. In that sense, Ōtsu dies as a Christian. He goes to India and helps find the dead and dying in order to carry the bodies to the River Ganges. Not to mention the fact that he helped a woman that collapsed at the side of the road, or even that probably as one of his final acts in his lifetime. Ōtsu sacrifices himself to save another.
While Ōtsu resides in India, he holds a private mass. At a particular morning, he notices an old woman collapsed on the side of the road. Just like Jesus and the Good Samaritan story, he only helps because that’s what he believes people should do. I would not matter if this woman were Muslim, catholic, or pagan: she is still a human being with a soul, and in God’s eyes she is important whether or not she affiliates herself as Christian.
"Revenge and hatred were not limited to the world of politics, but were the same in the realm of religion," (Endo 188). It’s always interesting to see those that are so close-minded to turn away people from God. Ōtsu does in fact leave the church and travels to India where he stays with Hindu holy men and help finish peoples’ final wishes: to spread their ashes in the River Ganges. In a way, Ōtsu is like Jesus. One could compare the fact that he’s carrying the dead to the river as Jesus carried the cross; the cross is a symbol of the sin of humanity, and Ōtsu’s is a symbol of peoples’