Shusaku Endo, a writer known for his works such as "Silence," published a short story shortly after his debut, but no record was left.
Experts say, "It's a valuable work that influenced later works."
The work found was titled "Minori and Puppy", and there was no record in the catalog of books, so the existence was not known even among researchers.
Last year, 11 cutouts were found in more than 30,000 materials deposited by relatives at the Endo Shusaku Literary Museum in Nagasaki City. Teams such as were conducting detailed investigations.
As a result, it was found that this work was serialized in the newspaper of a Christian organization for about one year from 1955, the year after Shusaku Endo published his first novel, and there were no cutouts left. 2 It means that we were able to find all 13 doses, including the doses.
The work depicts Minoru, a boy who lost his father in the war and lives a poor life with his mother, deepening his connection with the priests and friends of the church when he picked up a puppy.
Minoru began to regain her brightness, but one day, the jealous bully urged Minoru to shoot a puppy instead of shooting the statue of Mary in the church with an air gun.
The work was suspended after this, and the serialization ended without being resumed.
Shusaku Endo is a masterpiece "Silence" released about 10 years later, depicting the conflict of missionaries who were forced to step on the picture during the Edo period when Christians were suppressed, and Imai, a literary critic who investigated it. Mari says, "It is extremely rare for Shusaku Endo to write a novel with a child as the main character. It accurately depicts the sadness and pain of a young child, and it can be said that it had a great influence on many later works such as" Silence. " It's a work. "
This "Fertility and Puppies" will be published in February next year.
Shusaku Endo 25 years after his death
Shusaku Endo published his first novel "To Aden" in 1954, and the following year, in 1955, he won the Akutagawa Prize for "White People" and attracted attention.
After that, as a Christian, he created works such as "Sea and Poison" and "Samurai" that directly faced themes such as religious issues, guilt, and racial issues between whites and Japanese.
Of these, "Silence" announced in 1966 is a figure in which a Portuguese missionary who visited Japan in the early Edo period when Christians were suppressed was forced to step on a picture to save the suffering people, suffering and struggling. In 2016, the film was made into a movie by Martin Scorsese, a leading American film director, and received high praise including overseas.
He also gained popularity with his humorous essay, which he himself called "Korian".
It has been 25 years since Shusaku Endo died, and his work, which has been asking about religion and ethics under the theme of "Christianity for the Japanese", is still highly evaluated both at home and abroad.
"Fertility and puppies"
今回見つかった「稔と仔犬」は、遠藤周作が芥川賞を受賞した直後の1955年からおよそ1年間、13回にわたってキリスト教系の団体の機関紙「新世界」に連載した短編です。
この作品は、父親を戦争で亡くし、仕事に追われる母親とともに貧しい暮らしを送る主人公の少年「稔」と1匹の子犬との出会いを描いた物語です。
自分の家で子犬を飼うことを許してもらえなかった稔でしたが、偶然出会った神父さんが教会で飼ってくれることになり、次第に稔の心にも明るさが戻りはじめます。
しかし、そんなやさき、楽しそうな稔を妬ましく思ったいじめっ子から、空気銃で教会のマリア像を撃たないと代わりに子犬を撃つと迫られる場面で、作品は終わっています。
当時の連載では、このあと休載のお知らせが掲載され、その後、再開されることはなかったということで、調査チームによりますと、連載が終わった経緯など詳しいことは分かっていないということです。
調査にあたった文芸評論家の今井真理さんによりますと、遠藤周作が子どもを主人公に小説を書くのは珍しく、子どもの苦しみや悲しみが独特の表現で克明に描写され、また、主人公の稔がマリア像を撃つかどうかで選択を迫られる場面など「沈黙」をはじめとしたその後の作品につながる描写が複数見られるということです。
今井さんは「遠藤周作にとって、多くの日本人になじみの薄いイエス・キリストの存在や、キリスト教の信仰を作品を通じて理解してもらうことは生涯のテーマであり、誰もが読みやすい形で描ける新しい手法を求めていたのではないか。この作品では人間の孤独に寄り添う存在の子犬をイエスに重ね合わせているとみられる。少年に選択を迫る場面などは『沈黙』をはじめとするその後の多くの作品に影響を与えたと考えられ、貴重な作品だ」と指摘しています。
Yuriko Kawasaki, curator of the Endo Shusaku Literary Museum in Nagasaki, said, "I think it's an easy-to-read but deep work with a lot of themes that Professor Endo wants to convey. I'm drawing an eye that understands, and I'd like to study how it was deepened in the future. "