In the introduction to this novel, it seems as if Endo had a Western audience in mind for this novel (though he wrote in Japanese) because he writes an introduction introduces some historical context for the reader who wouldn’t be familiar with Japanese history. That context is in the years of first contact with Europe by way of Catholics missionaries (Dominicans in this novel if I recall correctly), and prior to the full on cultural invasion of those same missionaries in that next two centuries. […]