Japanese Christians after 1600's

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Who were the Japanese Christians and what became of them after the killing of Christians in the 1600’s?

Until the 1500’s, Japan had only two main religions, Shinto and Buddhism. Spanish missionaries traveled across the globe to spread the message of Christianity to the other countries in the world. In 1549, a Spanish Jesuit priest called Francis Xavier arrived in Japan. The Jesuit missionary landed in Kagoshima introducing a new belief, Christianity, to the island of Japan. Francis Xavier’s arrival in Kagoshima would prove to be an important turning point in Japanese history, marking the first meeting between Japan and the West. In the first 100 years, the number of Christians in Japan gradually increased, mainly because the idea of Salvation convinced the Japanese to covert to Christianity. As the number of Christians in Japan increased, the more threatened the Japanese government felt, leading to some shocking outcomes in the future.

At first, the people of Japan welcomed Christianity with open arms. At the time, Oda Nobunaga was the ruling Shogun of Japan. Oda Nobunaga disliked the ideas of Buddhism so he decided to help Christianity spread in Japan. The Christians brought firearms and new waves of technology to the isolated Japan; this impressed the Shogun, who even “served them himself at meal to show his respect” (Miocevich, pg 11). Without any hassle, Francis Xavier was soon allowed to start preaching and converting the people of Japan to Christianity. The Daimyos took interest into Christianity not only for the religion itself. Many of the Daimyos were interested in the European culture and technology. In order to gain more knowledge of this information from the outside world, the Daimyos needed to stay in contact with the foreigners. Converting to Christianity was the simple answer for many of the leading Daimyos in Japan, now they had relations with West. When a Daimyo became a Christian, all the people living on his land would also have to convert to Christianity. It is because of this method that Christianity was able to spread greatly in Japan for about a hundred years.

 

After Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi took over as the ruling Shogun. Unlike Nobunaga, Hideyoshi had a totally different perspective on Christianity. Toyotomi Hideyoshi disliked the foreigners coming into Japan and said that Christianity was “hostile to Japanese tradition and law” (Miocevich, pg 11). In reality, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was scared that the Portuguese influence in Japan would threaten the “Bakuhan Taisei” (www.uwosh.edu) or Shogunate-domain system, so he wanted to get rid of the outside influence so that his own empire would continue to rule. In 1587, Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued a startling and unexpected anti-Christian edict. He stated that all Jesuit missionaries must leave Japan by six months but the Jesuits secretly went on with their missionaries and continued to operate in Japan. Hideyoshi turned a blind eye to what was happening with the Jesuits, but his tolerance toward the Christians finally snapped when Spanish Franciscans from the Philippines arrived in Japan. Unlike the Jesuits, The Franciscans liked to show off their religion in public. This attitude shown by the Franciscans pulled the final straw and in February 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had twenty-six Christian believers crucified on the cross on top of a hill in Nagasaki. Even with this action taken against the Christians, people in Japan were still converting to Christianity. By the time Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in 1598, the “number [of Christians] had risen to 300,000” (Kublin, pg 74).

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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 ...

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