Hidden: The Salt and Light of Silence
Introducing: A mini-comic series exploring the story and making of the film Silence.
I love Japanese culture. Something about the honor of the people and their discipline has always fascinated me. There is a quote from another Japan-based film, "The Last Samurai" that says it well: "From the moment they wake, they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue.” I love that.
To recognize my respect for them, I wanted to make the cover for this story as minimal as possible. Only what matters used in a meaningful way, in this case, the shape of Japan. As a graphic designer, I hate stacking text, but here, it was appropriate, so it was a good chance to do something I never do with type.
- Wade McComas, Illustrator
When rubbed in, salt is invisible but draws out flavor and preserves the meat. The role of the Christian is to be rubbed into the culture (paraphrased from a lecture by John Stott.)
I first met Mako Fujimura in 2001 in relation to the NYC-based arts collective he founded, the International Arts Collective (IAM). He was one of the first New Yorkers I called after 9/11. As a fine artist himself, despite his own trauma he immediately engaged the creative community to be healing agents through their craft.
Mako is many things: an author, public intellectual and speaker, former board member of the National Arts Council and movement builder. But first and foremost, he is a Christian and an artist. Note I did not say he is a “Christian artist.” Mako is very quick to point out that Christian is not an adjective.He embodies C. S. Lewis’ sentiment that "The world does not need more Christian [art]. What it needs is more Christians [creating good art]."
And “good art” is what Mako creates. As a Japanese American, he studied in Tokyo with notable artists such as Takashi Murakami and Hiroshi Senju. Through a fusion between fine art and abstract expressionism, he gave fresh life to Nihonga, a Japanese style of painting that typically uses mineral pigments, and occasionally ink, together with other organic pigments on silk or paper. His work has been displayed in public spaces and museums throughout the world, as well as in high-end collectors’ homes. He often represents biblical themes, although as abstract art they are frequently discernible only to the eyes of the very attentive viewer.
Mako paints light. Mako makes salt.
Mako’s own journey encouraged me to conceptualize and launch (in 2007) Wedgwood Circle, a national network of high-net-worth patrons and artists supporting Christians who felt called to mainstream arts and popular culture. It’s no surprise, therefore, that Mako was the first person I turned to after hearing about Martin Scorsese’s plans to develop the film Silence.
Nace Lanier, who interviewed Mako for this chapter of Salt and Light, was the discipleship pastor in our church, and knowing of my work with the arts, he mentioned Scorsese's project to me. I had just entered into a film development and production deal with Dale Brown, one of Wedgwood’s members, and we agreed to explore the project together. As we walked through the streets of Tribeca over a decade ago, Mako shared invaluable insight into Silence, sending us on a trajectory that resulted in a substantial investment in the film’s production. Due to a number of circumstances, Dale and another investor group we brought to the project ended up funding most of the production.
Wedgwood Circle and Dale Brown support light. They salt society with the good, true and beautiful.
The novel Silence, and subsequently the film, is an example of salt and light, as are the lives of the Christians they feature. They take place in 17th-century Japan and tell the story of a Jesuit missionary sent to serve the indigenous Church under persecution, as well as to make contact with a prominent Jesuit who had apostatized. The novel was written by Endo Shusako, a practicing Catholic, and is considered one of Japan's greatest novels of the 20th century. Our comic details the period of time before the novel begins when Christianity was first embraced in Japan and then outlawed, and is anchored in Nace’s interview with Mako.
Endo’s work as an author, including Silence, is salt and light to Japan and the world.
The making of the film itself is a saga worthy of its own comic. Scorsese was introduced to it by a priest after creating The Last Temptation of Christ, and he had held the rights ever since. No studio was willing to invest in its production, however, and he was up against the clock. We had several concerns with the script and wanted to ensure that the film, when released, had “surround sound” content that could amplify some of the key themes and reach additional audiences. We worked with the publisher on a series of essays that reflected on the story from different perspectives, a new introduction to the book, and a study guide. We also worked with Wheaton College on an exhibit of Mako’s work, organized around actual artifacts from the period of persecution. And we served as Mako’s representative to write and publish a book through InterVarsity Press, Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering, to be released in conjunction with the film.
Making the film was a challenge. Production was marred by a tragic event (an on-set accident that resulted in the death of a production crew member), budget overruns, and legal challenges. The initial edit was too long for commercial release and was not entered in the Globe awards competition. Paramount, not wanting to hold it another year, released it over Christmas in a handful of theatres to qualify for the Oscars and scheduled a wide release a few weeks later, expecting a nomination for Best Picture. It was not nominated (I believe few voting Academy members had been able to see it), other than for best cinematography. The film was a financial loss for the investors. However, those involved with the film and many of those who have seen it were deeply touched, and in 2023 Variety listed Silence as #1 among Scorcese’s 26 feature films. It has a long tail, and Mako believes it has prompted many Japanese to re-examine his/her relationship to Christianity.
The film Silence is salt and light, as it invites viewers into a story that considers what it means to follow Jesus and share truth. It has salted those involved in its making, encouraging Scorsese to make faith explicit content.
Finally, Christians living in cultures that persecute them for their faith are uniquely challenged to live as salt and light. The Japanese Christians who faced persecution in the late 16th century had to either deny their faith, or accept torture and eventually death. Many Christians chose public recantation while still personally holding to their faith, becoming known as Kakure Kirishitan ("hidden Christians"). For hundreds of years, there was no visible institutional church, and believers could not access the Bible or discipleship tools. But this does not mean they were without influence. In his interview with Nace, Mako described the Japanese tea culture and its possible hidden Christian roots. For Mako, the message of Endo’s work is that Christianity in Japan looks different from Westernized cultural Christianity: salt can be invisible, but can draw out flavor.
Christians under persecution for their faith can live as salt and light.
The light of the martyrs shines brightly in both the book and the film. Both address the question of God’s silence in the face of His followers’ suffering. Neither offers an apologetic on the question of why an all-powerful, all-loving God allows evil and persecution, but Jesus’ words at the end of the book give us the answer we all need as we live in a world fundamentally at odds with the Kingdom of God:
“I was not silent. I suffered beside you” (Silence, p. 203).
As the early Christian writer Tertullian wrote in his work Apologeticus around 200 AD, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.”