Endochosac Museum of Literature and Art

About

An hour or so by bus from central Nagasaki, the coast of Sotome opens onto the waters of Sumo-nada, visible through the museum's windows. Once known as a village of "hidden Christians," this stretch of coastline became the setting for Silence, novelist Shusaku Endo's best-known novel. Opened in May 2000 by the former town of Sotome and absorbed into Nagasaki City in 2005, the museum holds roughly 30,000 items from Endo's life — books, handwritten manuscripts, notebooks, personal effects — a portion of which are on permanent display. His study has been reconstructed using the actual desk and chair he worked at. A short distance away in Shitsu Culture Village stands the Monument of Silence, erected in November 1987 with help from Endo's friends while he was still alive. Carved into the stone are his own words: "Though man is so sorrowful, Lord, the sea is so blue."