Broken Beauty

​God experiences pain through His children, works through weakness rather than strength, communicates by dependence rather than independence, and introduces a voice of Christ that flows out of the fumi-e*, an icon of failure and betrayal.

-Makoto Fujimura, Silence & Beauty

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   (Broken Beauty, detail)









​*fumi-e: In 1633, after Catholics were expelled from Japan, the Tokugawa government initiated a ceremony using fumi-e (literally "foot-treading picture"). Small bronze and brass plaques were placed on the ground and citizens were forced to walk upon them as a symbol of their rejection of Christianity. If they refused, they were tortured or killed. See Christies for real-life example of a fumi-e. 

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