This work takes as its motif the Kirishitan edition of The Tale of the Heike, believed to have been published at the Jesuit college in Amakusa in 1591–1592. Kirishitan editions are publications produced using a printing press with metal movable type brought from Europe to Japan by the Jesuits in the late sixteenth century. Most were lost under the policies prohibiting Christianity, and only a small number survive. This book is also a rare example, of which only a portion has been found.

My interest in the history of Christianity in Japan and its publishing culture began during an artist residency in Minamishimabara in the summer of 2022. In the late sixteenth century, Minamishimabara and the surrounding region experienced particularly severe persecution. As the prohibition of Christianity brought increasing danger, believers are said to have continued publishing in secret, moving the printing press from place to place to avoid discovery. During my residency, I also visited Amakusa, where this book was published. Encountering sites and objects associated with the Hidden Christians—including gravestones carved with crosses and statues deep in the mountains—led me to imagine the lives of those who lived through that period.

Connecting the printed pages with the stories of the people and the land, I created this work by hand-printing one layer of ink after another, as though retracing their experiences. The hundreds of accumulated layers and the gradually disintegrating forms evoke the presence of those whose lives were intertwined with this publication, the long duration of their prayers, and the end of that time.