End Shusaku is a study in contrasts: one of the most influential and popular writers in postwar Japan, but an author whose major works have focused upon Christian themes foreign to most of his readers; an internationally recognized novelist whose...

(1923–1996), Japanese writer. As a boy, Tokyo-born novelist and playwright Endo Shusaku, was baptized into the Catholic Church. After majoring in French literature at Keio University, in 1950 he was selected as the first Japanese to study...

Shūsaku Endō (遠藤 周作 Endō Shusaku, March 271923–September 291996) was a renowned 20th century Japanese author who wrote from the unique perspective of being both Japanese and Catholic. (The population of Christians in Japan is less than...

In the following essay, Williams explores Endō's use of character and technique in what Williams maintains is “a consistent search for reconciliation of the self.”

In the following excerpt, Gessel—who has translated many of Endo's novels and story collections into English—discusses the “moral idealism” of Endo's fiction, as exemplified in the stories: “Despicable Bastard,” “My Belongings,” “The Day Before,” and “Mothers.”

In the following essay, Durfee addresses the question of whether or not it is possible to be both fully Japanese and fully Christian, and examines the ways in which Endō handles the seeming paradox in his writing.