According to ancient history and legends, Padre Organtino told Oda Nobunaga himself that he had seen the devil in Kyōto.2 The devil took a mostly human shape, but was much smaller in scale. It had black wings like a bat’s and the hooved feet of a smaller animal. Padre Organtino witnessed this devil on the roof of a tower, dancing its hands and feet along the tiles. Sunlight seemed to shun it; the sunlight that fell on it was dimmed by the devil’s proximity.
And that wasn’t all. Padre Organtino saw this same devil clinging to the back of a Buddhist priest from the mountains, and again when the devil chose to hang from the hair of a lady’s maid in service to the Imperial Court. Perhaps the most intriguing sighting of the devil was when it found its way atop a noble lady’s litter as she traveled through the city. It was sitting cross-legged and looking down.
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One evening, Padre Organtino was passing under the gate of the Nanban Church3 when he saw the devil sitting atop the noblewoman’s litter. At first be believed it to be the same devil he’d seen before, but this one’s face was uncommonly beautiful. The devil’s arms were folded as well as its legs, and its face was cast down, as if it were deeply lost in thought.
Padre Organtino gave a thought to the noblewoman. Both her parents were devotees of Christian teachings. For their daughter to have the devil following after her was no laughing matter for such a devout family. He came up close to the noblewoman’s litter and plucked down the devil from the top of it with ease. Such was the power that the crucifix and the belief in his god granted him. He held the writhing creature by the collar and brought it through the gate into the Nanban Church.
Once inside, Padre Organtino set down the devil before a portrait of Christ lit by smoking candles. He didn’t release his grip on the devil, however. He asked the devil many stern questions about why the devil had chosen to attach itself to the noblewoman.
“I was thinking to corrupt her,” the devil said. “But I didn’t really want to do it. She has such a pure soul. It wouldn’t be right to let the flames of hell to harm it so profoundly. And so for a while I wanted to protect her soul. But even as I wanted to protect it, I also wanted to corrupt it. I was trapped between opposing objectives. That’s why I was sitting on top of her litter; I was trying to decide what to do. I was also thinking about the role of devils--what our destiny is.
“I let myself be dragged in here because I still don’t know. I could have vanished into the earth when I saw you--all devils can do that. All of us--all devils--have two natures. The desire to corrupt, and the desire to protect what is pure. The problem is that the more we try not to give into the urge to corrupt, the more we want to. The contradiction there fills me with a sadness that is difficult to describe. Whenever I feel that sadness, I think of the bright light of heaven that I saw once, at a distance, and of the darkness of hell, where I dwell now. When I suffer that sadness, my two natures unify, and I feel whole.
“Can’t you have any sympathy for me at all, sir? I am so lonely, and I have no choice but to be what I am.”
The devil with the beautiful face broke into tears.
Neither ancient history nor legend chronicles what became of the devil after that. What remains of the story is what we have. If we, as readers, have sympathy for the devil, then perhaps Padre Organtino did, too.
Padre Organtino, have mercy. Even now, at far remove from these events, we feel the echo of the devil’s misery.
1 Gnecchi-Soldo Organtino (1530 – April 22, 1609) was an Italian missionary with the Society of Jesus, of Nanban period (1543–1650). With a motive to promote Christianity in East Asia, Organtino was sent to Japan in 1570 via Portuguese India and Portuguese Malacca. Earning the respect of Oda Nobunaga, Organtino built a Nanban Church (see the note below) in Kyoto in 1576, and a monastery and church in Azuchi by Lake Biwa in 1580. He also opened religious school. In sum, he made a great contribution to missionary work in Japan. He is also the protagonist of another Akutagawa story translated on this blog, "The Gods Smile." ↩
2 Oda Nobunaga (織田 信長, listen; 23 June 1534 – 21 June 1582) was a Japanese lord and one of the leading figures of the Warring States period. Nobunaga was an influential figure in Japanese history and is regarded as one of the three great unifiers of Japan, along with his retainers Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. ↩
3 Nanban Church (南蛮寺) is a name applied to spaces or structures used by Christian missionaries and Japanese Christian converts in the early history of the Catholic Church in Japan.The kanji literally mean "of/for the southern barbarians"; such churches were present in Kyōto, Nagasaki, Hirado, Azuchi, Osaka, Kanazawa, Sunpu, and Edo. ↩
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