In beginning to read this book written by Shusaku Endo I found myself a little lost. He starts off by telling the stories of different people and you find yourself asking, where and how are all these different stories in any way related? By the end of the book it is evident, all these people are searching for something. But what they are looking for in my mind they are searching the wrong places.
We begin the book by reading of the story of a man named Isobe. Here we have the typical Japanese man who is very distant to his wife and family. Till one day he finds out that his wife has cancer. He learns that she has maybe three to four months to live and visits her at the hospital everyday after work. While in the hospital his wife, Keiko, begins ytalking to the Gingko tree outside of her hospital room window.Here displays aform of animism. I feel that his wife was experiencing true inner peace and that she felt that everything in th world around her contained spirits which in her mind made it acceptable to talk to the tree. During the end of her life she tells Isobe that she will be reborn and that he must look for her.
Next we read about the childhood or at least the college years of Mitsuko. This is the volunteer that helped out and became a confidant to Isobe's wife while she was in the hospital. In college she was what we would call today as the party type. She hung out with the same group of people and would always go out to a local bar and drink. Her classmates would tell her about a boy, Otsu, who they wished to play a practical joke on due to the fact that he was an outcast. After seeing Otsu around campus many of time him and Mitsuko eventually meet. She hears of him being in the church everyday after classes and voices her displeasure to Otsu. She then tells him that if he stops going to the church that she would let him be her boyfriend. He reluctantly agrees.