Kirishitan
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Kirishitan (吉利支丹, 切支丹, キリシタン), from Portuguese cristão meant Christian(s) in Japanese and is today used as a historiographic term for Christians in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. This article overviews Christianity in Japan at the time.
Catholic missionary activities in Japan began in 1549 exclusively performed by Portuguese-sponsored Jesuits until Spanish-sponsored mendicant orders gained access to Japan. Catholicism was repressed in several parts of the country and ceased to exist publicly in the 17th century.
The line of demarcations between Spain and Portugal
The missionary activities of the Catholic orders were initially sponsored by the Iberian kingdoms of Portugal and Spain. Religion was an integral part of the state, and evangelization was seen has having secular benefits in addition to spiritual. Wherever these powers attempted to expand their territories or influence, missionaries would soon follow. By the Treaty of Tordesillas, they divided the world between them into exclusive spheres of influence, trade, and colonization. Although at the time of the demarcation, neither nation had any direct contact with Japan, that nation fell into the sphere of the Portuguese.
Portugal and Spain disputed about the attribution of Japan. Since neither could colonize it, the exclusive right to propagate Christianity in Japan meant the exclusive right to trade with Japan. Portuguese-sponsored Jesuits took a lead in proselytizing in Japan over Spaniards. The fait accompli was approved Pope Gregory XIII's papal bull of 1575, which decided that Japan belonged to the Portuguese diocese of Macao. In 1588 the diocese of Funai (Nagasaki) was founded under Portuguese protection.
In rivalry with Jesuits, Spain-sponsored mendicant orders snuck into Japan via Manila. While criticizing Jesuit activities, they actively lobbied the Pope. Their campaigns resulted in Pope Clement VIII's decree of 1600 that allowed Spanish friars to enter Japan via the Portuguese Indies, and Pope Paul V's decree of 1608 that abolished the restrictions on the route. The Portuguese accused Spanish Jesuits of working for their homeland instead of the patron. The power struggle between Jesuits and mendicant orders caused a schism within the diocese of Funai. Furthermore mendicant orders tried in vain to establish a diocese on the Tohoku region that was to be independent from the Portuguese one.
The Roman Catholic world order was challenged by the Netherlands and England. Theoretically, it was repudiated by Grotius's Mare Liberum. In the early 17th century, Japan built trade relations with the Netherlands and England. Although England withdrew from the operations in ten years under James I due to lack of profitability, the Netherlands continued to trade with Japan and became the only European country that maintained trade relations with Japan until the 19th century. As trade competitors, the Protestant countries engaged in a negative campaign against Catholicism, and it affected shogunate policies toward the Iberian kingdoms.
Portugal and Spain's colonial policies were also challenged by the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican founded the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in 1622 and attempted to separate churches from the influence of the Iberian kingdoms. But it was too late for Japan. The organization failed to establish staging points in Japan.
Propagation strategy
Jesuits believed that it was very effective to seek to influence people in power and to pass the religion down to the commoners. At least they needed to gain permission from local rulers to propagate Catholicism within their domains. It is confirmed that as feudal lords converted to Catholicism, the number of believers in their territories was drastically increased. Thus historians presume forced conversion although Christians would claim that massive conversion resulted from influence of their lords' "exemplary behavior", not from forced conversion. Although some Jesuits focused the spotlight on exceptional rulers like Takayama Ukon and many martyrs, the vast majority of superficial Christians abandoned Catholicism after persecution.
Economic activities
The Jesuits in Japan had to maintain economic self-sufficiency because they could not expect stable and sufficient payment from their patron, the King of Portugal. Alternatively, the king allowed Jesuits to engage in Portuguese trade with Japan. Such economic activity can be found in Francis Xavier, the pioneer of Catholic missions in Japan. He covered the cost of missionary work by selling pepper obtained in Malacca. From 1550s to 70s, Jesuits covered all necessary expense with trade profits and bought land in India.
Their officially recognized commercial activity was a fixed-amount entry into the Portuguese silk trade between Macau and Nagasaki. They financed to a certain amount a trade association of Macau which purchased raw silk in Canton and sold it in Nagasaki. They did not confine their commercial activity to the official one but expanded into unauthorized markets. For the Macau-Nagasaki trade, they dealt silk fabrics, gold, musk and other goods. Sometimes they even got involved in Spanish trade, which was prohibited by the king of Spain and Portugal, and antagonized Portuguese traders.
It was mainly procurators who brokered Portuguese trade. They resided in Macau and Nagasaki, and accepted purchase commitment by Japanese customers such as the shogunate, daimyo and wealthy merchants. By brokerage, Jesuits could expect not only rebates but also favorable treatments from the authorities. For this reason procurator became an important post amongst Jesuits in Japan. Although trade activities by Jesuits ate into Portuguese trade interests, procurators continued brokerage utilizing the authority of the Catholic Church. At the same time, Portuguese merchants required procurators who were familiar with Japanese customs as they established no permanent trading post in Japan. Probably the most notable procurator was Joao Rodrigues, who approached Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu and even participated in the administration of Nagasaki.
Such commercial activities were contrary to the idea of honorable poverty priests held. But some Jesuits at this time placed expansion of the society's influence before the ideal.
Mendicant orders fiercely accused Jesuits of being corrupt and even considered their activity as the primary reason of Japan's ban on Catholicism. Mendicant orders themselves were not necessarily uninvolved in commercial activities although due to the lack of primary sources it is difficult to reveal their economic situation.
Military activities
Missionaries were not reluctant to take a military action if they considered it an effective way to Christianize Japan.
They often associated military action against Japan with the conquest of China. They thought that well-trained Japanese soldiers who had experienced long civil wars would help their countries conquer China. For example, Alessandro Valignano said to the Philippine Governor that it was impossible to conquer Japan because the Japanese were very brave and always received military training but that Japan would benefit them when they would conquer China. Francisco Cabral also reported to the King of Spain that priests were able to send to China two or three thousand Japanese Christian soldiers who were brave and were expected to serve the king with little pay.
The Jesuits provided various kinds of support including military support to Kirishitan daimyo when they were threatened by non-Kirishitan daimyo. Most notable was their support for Omura Sumitada and Arima Harunobu, who fought against the anti-Catholic Ryuzoji clan. In 1580s Valignano believed in the effectiveness of military actions and fortified Nagasaki and Mogi. In 1585 Gaspar Coelho asked the Spanish Philippines to send a fleet but the plan was rejected due to shortness of its military capability.
When Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued the first ban on Catholicism in 1587, the Jesuits in Japan, led by Coelho, planned armed resistance. At first they sought help from Kirishitan daimyo but the daimyo refused. Then they called for a deployment of reinforcements from their homeland and colonies. But this plan was abolished by Valignano. Like Kirishitan daimyo, he realized that a military campaign against the powerful ruler would bring catastrophe to Catholicism in Japan. Valignano survived the crisis by laying all the blame on Coelho. In 1590 the Jesuits decided to stop intervening in struggles between daimyo, and to disarm themselves. They only approved secret food and financial aid for Kirishitan daimyo.
It seems that the Jesuits had no military plan during the Edo period since they realized that the Tokugawa shogunate was much stronger and more stable than Toyotomi Hideyoshi's administration. In contrast, mendicant orders relatively openly discussed military options. In 1615 a Franciscan emissary of the Viceroy of New Spain asked the shogun for land to build a Spanish fortress and deepened Japan's suspicion against Catholicism, and the Iberian colonial powers behind it. It is not, however, beyond suspicion that the Jesuits in fact infiltrated the Franciscans in order to advance the Jesuit agenda against Japan by more innocuous looking means.
Japan's policy toward Catholicism
When the Jesuit priest Francis Xavier arrived, Japan was experiencing a nationwide civil war. Neither the emperor nor the Ashikaga shogun could exercise power over the nation. At first Xavier planned to gain permission for building a mission from the emperor but was disappointed with the devastation of the imperial residence. The Jesuits approached daimyo in southwestern Japan and succeeded in converting some of these daimyo. One reason for their conversion may have been the Portuguese trade in which the Jesuits acted as brokers. The Jesuits recognized this and approached local rulers with trade and exotic gifts.
The Jesuits attempted to expand their activity to Kyoto and the surrounding regions. In 1559 Gaspar Vilela obtained permission from Ashikaga Yoshiteru to teach Christianity. This license was the same as those given to Buddhist temples, so we cannot confirm special treatment to Jesuits. On the other hand, Emperor Ogimachi issued edicts to ban Catholicism in 1565 and 1568. Anyway, the orders of the emperor and the shogun were not influential.
Christians refer positively to Oda Nobunaga, who died in the middle of reunification of Japan. He favored the Jesuit missionary Luis Frois and generally tolerated Christianity. But overall he undertook no remarkable policies toward Catholicism. Actually, Catholic power in his domain was trivial as he did not conquer western Japan, where the Jesuits were based.
The situation was changed when Toyotomi Hideyoshi reunified Japan. Once he became the ruler of Japan, Hideyoshi began to pay attention to external threats, particularly the expansion of European power in East Asia. The turning point for Catholic missions was the San Felipe incident; where in an attempt to recover his cargo, the Spanish captain of a shipwrecked trading vessel claimed the missionaries were there to prepare Japan for conquest. These claims enraged Hideyoshi and made him suspicious of the foreign religion. He attempted to curb Catholicism while maintaining good trading relations with Portugal and Spain who might provide military support to Christian Daimyo in the western Japan. In 1587 he banned the ruling class from converting to Catholicism as he was concerned that divided loyalties might lead to dangerous rebels like the Ikkō-ikki Sect of earlier years. At the same time he put Nagasaki under his direct control to control Portuguese trade. In 1597, 26 Kirishitan followers were executed in Nagasaki at Hideyoshi's order. He also abolished slavery in Japan and substituted with debt bondage.
After Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death, Tokugawa Ieyasu assumed hegemony over Japan in 1600. Like Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he disliked Christian activities in Japan but gave priority to trade with Portugal and Spain. He secured Portuguese trade in 1600. He negotiated with Manila to establish trade with the Philippines. The trade promotion made his policies toward Catholicism inconsistent. At the same time, in an attempt to wrest control of the Japan trade from the Catholic countries, Dutch and British traders advised the Shogunate that Spain did indeed have territorial ambitions, and that Catholicism was Spain's principal means. The Dutch and British promised, in distinction, that they would limit themselves to trading and would not conduct missionary activities in Japan.
The Tokugawa shogunate finally decided to ban Catholicism in 1614. This marked the end of open Christianity in Japan. The immediate cause of the prohibition was a case of fraud involving Ieyasu's Catholic vavasor but there were also other reasons behind it. The shogunate was concerned about possible invasion by Iberian colonial powers as they did in the New World and the Philippines. Domestically, the ban was closely related to measures against the Toyotomi clan. On the other hand some Jesuits cited "reasons of state" as the key factor; they realized superiority of state politics over religion in Japan.
Christian view of Kirishitan history
Non-religious researchers find it difficult to understand the motivations behind martyrdom. Instead of giving detailed accounts, they merely point out the rate of martyrdoms; the number of Christians at their peak is estimated at 500,000 whereas there were likely around 1,000 known martyrs during the missionary period. In contrast, Christians attach a great importance to martyrdom and persecution, noting the countless more people dispossessed of their land and property leading to subsequent death in poverty.
The Japanese government used Fumie to identify Catholics. Fumie were pictures of the Virgin Mary and Christ and the government officials made everybody trample on these pictures. People reluctant to step on the pictures were identified as Catholics and were sent to Nagasaki. The policy of Japanese government (Edo) was to turn them from their faith, Catholic. However, if the Catholics refused to change their religion, they were tortured. But as many of them still refused to abandon their faith, they were killed by the government. Execution took place at Nagasaki's Mount Unzen where many were dumped into the volcano[citation needed].
The Shimabara Rebellion, led by a young Christian boy named Amakusa Shiro Tokisada took place in 1637. The Rebellion broke out over economic desperation and government oppression, but later adopted a religious tone. About 27,000 people joined the uprising, but it was crushed by the shogunate after a long campaign. They are not considered martyrs by the Catholic Church since they took up arms for materialist reasons.
Many Japanese were deported to Macau or to the Spanish Philippines. Many Macanese and Japanese Mestizo are the mixed-race descendants of the deported Japanese Catholics. 400 were officially deported by the government to Macau and Manila, but thousands of Japanese were pressured into moving voluntarily. There were about 10,000 Macanese, and about 3,000 Japanese moved to Manila.
The Catholic Remnant in Japan was driven underground as the "Hidden Christians". As this time corresponds to the Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants in Germany, it is possible that the checking of Catholic power in Europe reduced the flow of funds to the Catholic missions in Japan, which could be why they failed at this time and not before.
See also
- Kakure Kirishitan ("hidden Christian") were the Japanese communities that kept a rest of Christianity in spite of persecution. Their isolation led to drifting from the foreign version of the religion.
- Nanban trade period
- Nippo jisho
- Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan
- Tomas Araki
- Japanese words of Portuguese origin
External links
- History of the Japanese Catholic Church by the Daughters of St. Paul convent; Tokyo, Japan
- Pilgrimage Sites and Churches in Nagasaki by TCA (Think Catholic Asia) Japan located inside Nagasaki Catholic Center
