Shuma

The Message of Deep River

I read the book called “Deep River,” which is written by Shusaku Endo, first published by Tuttle Pubishing in Great Britain, 1994. The book is translated by Van C. Gessel and is published in Boston, Rutland, Vermont, and Tokyo now. I chose this book to read because I was curious knowing more about the value of religion and spiritual ideas which I have not noticed closely before in reading. The theme of this book is the interaction between Chritianity and Japanese people, and I was sure I would learn new ideas out from it. Although it was originally written in Japanese, I thought reading in English would be interesting as long as it would give me an opportunity to better understand the delicate content of this story including religious thoughts without having fixed ideas from Japanese words. The one I was suggested to read, “Griftopia,” was about political journalist investigating financial crisis, but since I had no basic knowledge of economics and historical background of America, I predicted I would not be able to finish this book to understand the content thoroughly unless taking more time than provided days, researching on my lack of social, political, and financial knowledge as well as making my English level of reading comprehension suitable enough. “Deep River” mainly focuses on each character’s background from their individual point of views, including the reasons why they decided to visit India. Strictly speaking, three characters among them, Isobe, Otsu, and Mitsuko take roles as main characters. Isobe’s position seemed to be the viewer of this story, and he visits India in order to find his lost wife, who told him to find her after she died. At first he did not believe in spiritual ideas such as reincarnation, but he later finds a girl who possessed his wife’s memory partly and realized the possibility of god. In Otsu’s case, he tried to become a priest at first but his idea toward God did not match with the European Christianity. As a heretic, he was sent to India later, not being able to accept dividing what is right and wrong. On the other hand, Mitsuko did not believe in God and lived the way she want, but gradually feels affectionate toward Otsu and knows the caring heart to others. Otsu’s and Mitsuko’s characters both are mirrors that show opposite of each other. While each character could be shown as a lost symbol of “love,” “wife,” and so on, Otsu has given me the most impact. The part at Ganges River, when Otsu carries an almost dead, old woman to the funeral pyres, especially was one of the scenes that I clearly remember. He says in his heart that he says that he is imitating the God who “carried the sorrows of all men on your back and climbed the hill to Golgotha” (page 193). His strong belief in Christ and the doubt to the unreasonable act of not believing in other religion, was striking. His idea and the sense of value toward religion seemed to make the reader reconsider about every God having each faces and that there is freedom to take different ways of choice, since man-made religion all contains imperfection and truth which should be indicating that our goal is the same. Thus, I thought that this idea of religion symbolizes Ganges River. Different people who possess various ways of background are accepted here, even though they are poor, guilty, having disease, or dead.
In consequence, the topic of this book seemed to be the tolerant existence of the God, and the religion being meant to grasp such image in God. In the first place, this certain message from the topic is not limited to the religion, but can be connected to the real life nowadays. I learned the difficulty in accepting what we cannot understand about, while unconsciously having biased view. Admitting the fact and admitting its value and justification is a different story and it needs to be distinguished. It is more constructive than denying something but first accepting instead, so that solution could likely be a better one. I recommend this book to the people who have hesitation of deepening understanding toward religion and spiritual mind. The setting in India makes this story’s topic of Christianity more familiar and understandable. For instance, in Buddhism, there is an idea that Buddha shares sameness with humans and the universe, which imply the intermixed idea of Otsu; God exists in every person. This kind of every other religious thought scattered in the story contribute to the readers’ wider understanding toward different ideas regardless of what we believe in. Thus, after reading this book, I think readers could recognize religion and God with diverse points of views without avoiding facing the essential parts of unscientific power.