Following the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1598, Tokugawa Ieyasu, a great leader who defeated all his enemies in the battle of Sekigahara, took over as Shogun. Ieyasu was very much like his predecessor, Hideyoshi. Ieyasu was uncomfortable about the Christians being in Japan and endangering his own country and rule. At first, Tokugawa Ieyasu “issued anti-Christian edicts, but did not enforce them” (Kublin, pg 90). In 1614, two years before his death, Ieyasu came down on the Christians with an iron hammer. The Shogun ordered all priest to leave Japan, he had churches destroyed, and Japanese Christian converts were told to recant their faith.
The period after Ieyasu’s death was labeled the “darkest days for Christianity” (Kublin, pg 90) because there were countless numbers of ruthless persecutions against the Christians. To identify the Christians in Japan from the non-Christians, the Bakufu sent government officials all around the country to have people go under the “fumie” test. The fumie was a picture of the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ engraved on a plate. Everyone had to step on the plate to show that they did not follow Christianity. People who couldn't step on the plate, or hesitated before doing so, were identified as Christians and were sent to Nagasaki, a city that was “legendary for the torments used to force Christians to recant” (). During this time, the Japanese Bakufu used many torturing methods to punish the Japanese Christians who did not renounce their faith. For example, Christians were tied up in a bag and then thrown directly into the sea or volcanoes, or they were dipped numerous times in hot springs and lava so that the Christians would slowly die in pain, and the most horrid way of torturing was called the “the pit”. The method used for “the pit” was when a small cut was engraved on your forehead and you were left hanging upside down in mid-air, with your face in a hole filled with excrement. With blood flooding to the head, the pain on the forehead would have been unbearable especially with the excruciating smell from the excrements. Many Christians barely survived an hour in “the pit” but the odd few “lingered in the pit for weeks before dying” (). To the Christians, this period of agony was called the “Kirishtan Holocaust” because so many Christians had their lives taken away.
In a last ditch effort to try and fight for Christianity, a rebellion took place on the Shimabara peninsula. The Tokugawas angered many of the peasants and farmers who lived in Shimabara because they were “overtaxed and oppressed” (Miocevich, pg 12). Shimabara, which was very close to Nagasaki, the center of Christianity in Japan, had many Christian followers. Fighting for Christianity and justice, these poor peasants fought against the forces of the Shogunate for five long months. Finally, the Christian resistance was put down and 37,000 people were said to have been massacred (Miocevich, pg 12). The mass killings of the Christians in Shimabara lead the Shogun to believe that Christianity had truly disappeared from the sacred lands of Japan.
For two centuries, the Japanese Government thought that they had totally abolished Christianity from Japan. What they didn't know was that many of the Japanese Christians went underground to hide their faith; these people who hid their belief were called “Kakure Kirishtan” or “Hidden Christians” in English. On the outside, these Kakure Kirishtans looked like any ordinary Japanese civilian. They dressed the same, ate the same, and even followed Buddhism and Shinto, just like any other Japanese person. These Japanese Christians had to live like every other Japanese person simply so that they would not get killed. In the bottom of their hearts, these Kakure Kirishtans stayed true to Christianity but they never let it show in public. In order to keep their lives out of danger, many Kakure Kirishtans fled the big towns such as Nagasaki and Edo and ran off to the unpopulated towns to stay out of reach from the government officials. Because the Kakure Kirishtans were so secretive in what they did, each family followed their own type of Christianity. Some people even started to mix Buddhist and Shinto beliefs into Christianity. Tomeichi Oka, a Kakure pastor, told The New York Times in 1997, “I have a Buddhist altar and Shinto shrine in my house… in the old days that was just for camouflage… but now I believe in the other gods as well” (). The Hidden Christians had no tradition in churches so believing in multiple religions became normal.
In 1854, Japan opened for trade and diplomatic relations. Because of this, French priest Bernard Petitjean, a Roman Catholic, built Oura Catholic Church in Nagasaki, 1864. At the time, “Christianity was still banned and no Japanese had publicly expressed their Christian faith” (). But in 1865, a group of Hidden Christians decided to come out of hiding and confess of their faith to Bernard Petitjean. This gave hope to the French priest that their still was Christians secretly hiding in Japan. In 1868, the Meiji Restoration began and the Charter Oath had new rules for Japan. Christianity was officially allowed back in Japan in 1873 and many of the Kakure Kirishtans came out of hiding and followed Bernard Petitjean’s teachings and became Roman Catholics. Still, some of the Hidden Christians decided to stay as Kakure Kirishtans because they had adapted to their own type of Christianity.
Today, it is estimated that there are one to two million Christians in Japan. That might sound like a lot of people, but it only accounts for 1% of Japan’s population of 127,417,000 people (http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Japan.aspx). Most of these Christians live in Western Japan because that is where the first missionaries came, back in 1549. The Hidden Christian population is slowly decreasing because many of them have trailed off from Christianity. With Shinto and Buddhism influencing their daily lives for so long, a lot of the Hidden Christians now believe in a mixture of the three religions. Estimated figures of around 300 to 400 families are still following the traditional customs of the Kakure Kirishtans. Even though Christianity is a minor religion in Japan, it still influences the country in some ways. For example, many non-Christians in Japan now celebrate Christmas, setting up decorations and putting presents under the Christmas tree. The Western style wedding of wearing white clothes has become just as popular as the traditional Japanese style wedding of wearing kimonos. Lastly, almost all Japanese celebrate Valentine’s Day. Exchanging chocolates and cards, people have parties to celebrate a day that is commemorated to Saint Valentine, a Roman Catholic martyr.
The Japanese Christians are a minority group in Japan who have suffered greatly. When Christianity was banned from Japan, the Japanese Christians were forced to renounce their faith or face certain death. But the brave few who continued to follow Christianity had to do so in hiding. Not being able to freely express your religion for two centuries is hard enough, but hiding it to save your own life just adds to the misery that these Hidden Christians had. After Christianity was officially allowed back in Japan, many people came back from hiding and expressed their love for their own faith. These Christians who had survived all the killings are now a group of normal Japanese people who openly follow their own faith without any fear of being persecuted. The Japanese Christians may seem as an unimportant part of Japanese history because of the low population, but it was the encounter between Christianity and Japan that started the whole Meiji Era in Japan.
Annotated Bibliography
1. Scheiner, Irwin. Christian Converts and Social Protest in Meiji Japan. California: University of California Press, 1970.
In Christian Converts and Social Protest in Meiji Japan, Irwin Scheiner distinguishes the difference between Christianity before the Meiji and after the start of the Meiji. It is a secondary source, meaning that lots of data has been collected in order to compile the book. Irwin Scheiner is an American professor who works at UC Berkeley, he has written 5 other books on Japanese History/Asian History and they have all known to be books that can demonstrate the historical side with clear illustrations of writing. The book was written so that University students could use it get a solid background of how Japan was back in the 19th century. Christian Converts and Social Protest in Meiji Japan is a reliable source because someone who is not Japanese wrote it. This gives the reader a sense of looking at the Meiji from an outside view, which is good since it is not biased toward the Japanese. A limitation for this source is that the author tends to concentrate on “why” things happened when you want to know more about “how” things went down. Overall, the source is a reliable source, which will let me analyze Christian lives in the Meiji period.
2. Miyazaki, Kentaro. “Hidden Christians in Contemporary Nagasaki.” Crossroads: A Journal of Nagasaki History and Culture. 2003. Crossroads Inc.
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The Article Hidden Christians in Contemporary Nagasaki, analyses the movement of the Christians in Japan, especially around Nagasaki. This source is a reliable source because it is written in Crossroads magazine. This magazine is published annually and it had articles on topics to do with Japanese culture and history. Written by Miyazaki Kentaro, a senior researcher at Tsukuba-Dai, the article has a fair reflection on the events of what happened in Nagasaki back in the 16th century. He writes in a style so that he states a lot of facts, which is easy for a student to understand. This article is not biased toward any side in particular because Brian Burke-Gaffney, an American professor at the Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science, edited it. Because Brian Burke-Gaffney is not Japanese, he can give the reader a sense of looking at Nagasaki from an outside view, which will be useful because no biased information will be included. Hidden Christians in Contemporary Nagasaki was written in 2003, which means that a long period of time had passed after the killings of the Japanese Christians. This makes the source even more reliable because more information about the events was exposed and all the strong feelings of hatred of any sort against the Japanese Bakufu at the time are non-existent. Compared to the book Christian Converts and Social Protest in Meiji Japan, Hidden Christians in Contemporary Nagasaki is more of a factual account unlike the other book, which tells more of a story of the Meiji Era. The audience for Hidden Christians in Contemporary Nagasaki is intended for high school and university students so it was easy to take a detailed look at the events of Japanese Christians in Nagasaki before the Meiji Era.
Bibliography
Books:
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Kublin, Michael, and Hyman Kublin. World Regional Studies – Japan. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990.
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Miocevich, Grant. Investigating Japan: Prehistory to Post-War Reconstruction. Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 1999.
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Scheiner, Irwin. Christian Converts and Social Protest in Meiji Japan. California: University of California Press, 1970.
Internet:
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Kristof, Nicholas. "Unpersecuted, an Old Faith Withers in Japan - The New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 1997. <http://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/03/world/unpersecuted-an-old-faith-withers-in-japan.html>.
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McFarland, Neill. "Religion in Contemporary Japanese Society." Philosophy and Religion. 1991. <http://philosophy-religion.net/world/japanese-society.htm>.
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Miyazaki, Kentaro. “Hidden Christians in Contemporary Nagasaki.” Crossroads: A Journal of Nagasaki History and Culture. 2003. Crossroads Inc. < >.
Encyclopedia:
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"Japan Facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Japan." Encyclopedia - Online Dictionary | Encyclopedia.com: Get facts, articles, pictures, video. Web. 08 Dec. 2009. <http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Japan.aspx>.