Mai Mitsuyama
February 17, 2015
JAPN 274
Week 1

The first known appearance of Christianity in Japan was with the arrival of Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier in 1549. Before this, the relationship between Japan and Portugal was all about resources. The Japanese barons on Kyushu welcomed foreign trade for Portugal because this gave them access to gunpowder and other new weapons. Therefore, when the Portuguese missionaries began arriving on the shores of Japan along with resources, they were tolerated. The missionaries were successful in converting quite a large number of people in Western Japan but towards the end of the sixteenth century, the Jesuits lost their influential power when Toyotomi Hideyoshi reversed the policy of his predecessor and began persecuting Christianity in 1587. Another Portuguese Jesuit missionary, Christovao Ferreira, was sent to Japan in 1609 and held the highest respect and had been a source of inspiration to priests and other Christians in Japan and abroad. Silence begins in 1637, a time when martyrdoms and apostasies are of daily routine. Hearing of Ferreira’s apostasy, Sebastion Rodrigues, alongside two priest companions, set out to Japan to investigate what happened to Ferreira and to carry on as missionaries. When they arrive in Japan in a small town called Tomogi, Rodrigues meets Kichijiro, a Christian and quickly realizes that Japanese Christians are living under heavy persecution. He is limited to administering their faith from a secret hut high upon a hill. Although conditions are not ideal, they have the necessities in Tomogi to practice Christianity. The Japanese Christians have been practicing their religion for the past six years since any priests have lived along them. As a result, they have devised their own religious order, led by the “jiisama” who baptizes children; next are the “tosama” who teach and lead prayers; and next are the “mideshi” who are the helpers. And when news spreads that two priests have arrived in Japan, many Christians in the surrounding areas come to Tomogi for them to hear their confessions and be guided by a priest. Rodrigues receives this opportunity with passion and determination to restore what Ferreira had devoted to this foreign nation. Rodrigues feels like he is making a big difference in Japan for the Christians who have been so lost without a priest. Although they live in fear of being found by government officials, they still keep to their Christian beliefs. Rodrigues is not showered in praise and isn’t living a luxurious life but he still believes in his duties as a Christian priest—to continue the legacy of Ferreira and spread Christianity to those who want guidance. He meets several Japanese Christians during this exploration including two men by the name of Ichizo and Mokichi. When the government officials search the village for a second time, the guards captured the Jiisama. The guard tells the people of the village to turn over those who are Christians, and until they do, he will take more hostages. When Ichizo, Mokichi and Kichijiro are taken prisoner, Rodrigues advises them that if asked to, to step on the fumie to prove they are not Christians in order to save the rest of the village. One might interpret this as Rodrigues questioning, or going against his religion by telling the men to do something that is unacceptable. On the contrary, Rodrigues gave them an outlet that would save the majority. His choices were limited. If he had exposed himself, his mission would have been a failure and there wouldn’t have been any more priests to help support the minority Christians flourish into a stable religion in Japan. When he finds himself in jail along with several peasants, he questions the impact that he has had on this country. He realizes that he has caused nothing but hardship on the people of Japan even though he is the man who s trying to keep the faith alive in a country that rejects all religions other than Buddhism. After he is moved to a prison closer to Nagasaki, he is for the first time able to be at ease and perform all his Christian duties. When given permission to visit the others prisoners, he preaches to them, offers the sacraments, hears their confessions, and fulfills all other duties of a priest every day. This was his way of giving hope to the Japanese Christians that one-day, they will be able to flourish in Japan without the fear and possibility of martyrdom. After long anticipation, Rodrigues is finally taken to see Inoue. Inoue claims that he does not believe that Christianity is evil, but rather that it is just unsuited for Japan. Rodrigues considers Inoue’s assertion but if it were true, it would have been more than the government who were rejecting the religion. In fact, those who believed in Christianity had chosen to live a life in hiding in order to maintain their belief and practices. If Inoue had believed his own assertion, the goal of their persecutions should have been for all Japanese Christians to apostatize but he killed countless Japanese who had already apostatized. This cruel and unprecedented discrimination would have occurred during the sixteenth and seventeenth century whether Rodrigues had set off on this journey or not. Later on, Ferreira tries to tell Rodrigues that the Christianity that was being practiced by the Japanese was never truly the Christianity of the Church—it was a corrupted form, since the Japanese, according to Ferreira, never had and never will have a concept of God. Even if that may be true, Rodrigues gave the Japanese an opportunity to practice something they believed in and something other than what Toyotomi Hideyoshi allowed.
Although Rodrigues succumbs in the end like Ferreira—apostatizes and takes on a Japanese name—the work that he put into restoration and growth of Christianity in Japan has had a lasting impact. Today, Christianity has managed to stay in Japan despite constant threat and evidence of persecution during the reign of Toyotmi Hideyoshi. Those Japanese who survived the persecutions of the seventeenth century made the decision to continue their faith underground. In secluded villages, they secretly recited prayers that the missionaries had taught them and hid Christian devotional items in their homes at profound risk to their lives. Following the opening of Japan in the mid-nineteenth century, there was silent elation when these communities learned that foreign missionaries had once again set foot in Nagasaki.
In 1873, after the Meiji restoration, freedom of religion was declared, giving all Christian communities the right to legal existence and preaching. And since World War II, the number of Japanese Christians has been slowly increasing again. Today, about one to two million Japanese are Christian. Japan’s Christian heritage is worth celebrating because it contains many moving examples of friendships that were formed between people from very different cultures. When European missionaries first arrived in Japan, they encountered a culture that was, at the time, almost entirely separate from their own. Huge geographical, linguistic and cultural boundaries had to be overcome.