"The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice." - John 10:2-5 (NIV). And, apparently, they really do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e45dVgWgV64
A homage to Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam", in which Christ, the second Adam, emptied himself of His divine stature, and took the form of a lowly servant, enduring the shame of the cross (Philippians 2:6-8), so that He may redeem His bride, the church.
Further references: Ezekiel 16:8, Isaiah 6:10, 1 John 4:10
Konishi Mansho (1600 - 1644), the last ordained priest to serve in Japan during the prohibition era of the Tokugawa Shogunate (think of the Shusaku Endo novel, "Silence", which was adapted to film by Martin Scorsese in 2016). Exiled from his homeland in 1614, he eventually made his way to Rome and enter a convent to be ordained as a priest. He would later to his home country to minister to the persecuted Christians there, only to be arrested and martyred in 1644. I tried to mimic a traditional ink painting style to invoke the melancholic feel of this homecoming journey.
Julia Ota, a Korean girl who was brought back to Japan during the Imjin Wars (1592-1598). She was adopted by one of the Japanese commanders, Konishi Yukinaga, and was baptized as a Christian in 1596. She eventually became a lady-in-waiting to Tokugawa Ieyasu, but was later exiled to Izu Islands for refusing to recant her faith. Wherever she went, she became admired for her charity and evangelism, and she was revered as divinity on the islands up after her death up to the 20th century.
