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The Veneration of the Martyrs of Ikitsuki (1609-1645) by the Japanese ‘Hidden Christians’*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Christianity came to Japan in 1549 in the person of the ‘Apostle to the Indies’, St Francis Xavier, yet in spite of initial progress both in making converts and in becoming part of the Japanese religious milieu, within a century it had virtually disappeared, harried to its demise by savage persecutions from a government convinced that Christianity was a threat to its survival. The suppression of Christianity produced many martyrs, of whom the best known are the ‘Twenty-Six Martyrs of Nagasaki’, crucified in 1597 and canonized in 1862. Of the thousands of others who perished, many are known neither by name nor date of martyrdom, but in one unique case the martyrs of a particular island are remembered and honoured by one of the world’s most secretive Christian groups, the Kakure Kirishitan, or ‘Hidden Christians’ of Japan.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1993
Footnotes
*
Research for this paper was supported by a grant from the Great Britain-Sasakawa Foundation, which is gratefully acknowledged.
References
1 For the history of Japan’s ‘Christian Century’, see Boxer, C. R., The Christian Century in Japan, 2nd edn (Berkeley, 1967)Google Scholar; Elison, George, Deus Destroyed: the Image of Christianity in Early Modern Japan (Harvard, 1973).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 See the short work by Yakichi Kataoka, Nagasaki no Junkyōsha (The Martyrs of Nagasaki) (Tokyo, 1957), where the Ikitsuki martyrs are discussed on pp. 29–39; and his more comprehensive Nihon Kirishitan Junkyōshi (A History of Japanese Christian Martyrdom) (Tokyo, 1979), pp. 289–98.
3 Laures, Johannes, in his ‘Die Zahl der Christen und Martyrer im alten Japan’, Monumenta Nipponica, 7 (1951), pp. 84–101 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, estimates the number of martyrs as 4, 045. The sources of numerical information are discussed in J. F. Schütte, S.J., Introductio ad Historiam Societatis Jesu in Japonia 1549–1650 (Rome, 1968), pp. 435–46.
4 The communities also refer to themselves as Kyū Kirishitan, or ‘Old Christians’. Kōyo Tagita (see below, n. 8) preferred the term Sempuku Kirishitan or ‘secret Christians’. Most foreign commentators have tended to refer to them as ‘Crypto-Chrisrians’ or ‘Crypto-Catholics’, e.g., Johannes Laures, The Catholic Church in Japan: a Short History (Rudand, Vt., 1954); Schütte, Introductio, p. 426.
5 Cary, O., Christianity in Japan, a History of Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Missions (Rutland, Vt., 1976), p. 281.Google Scholar
6 The best account of the finding of the Hidden Christians is J. Marnas, La Religion de Jésus, laso Ja-kyō ressuscité au Japan dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle (Paris, 1896), pp. 487–91.
7 During my visit to Ikitsuki I was told that in one of the areas on the island, Ichibu, there has been a decline in numbers of 25 Kakure households in Ichibu between 1974 and 1988.
8 Kōya Tagita, Shōwa jidai no Sempuku Kirishitan (The Secret Christians of the Shōwa Period, i.e., of the present day) (Tokyo, 1954).
9 The best subsequent works are Kiyoto Furuno, Kakure Kirishitan (Tokyo, 1959); and Yakichi Kataoka’s two works, Kakure Kirishitan (Tokyo, 1967), and Kinsei no chika shinkō (Underground beliefs of the present day) (Tokyo, 1974). For works dealing specifically with Ikitsuki, there is a detailed history by a former Mayor of the island, Gizaemon Kondō, Ikitsuki Shikō (Ikitsuki Chronicles) (Sasebo, 1977), which incorporates his short illustrated book, Ikitsuki no Kakure Kirishitan (Ikitsuki, 1973).
10 Tagita, Shōwa, pp. 264–9.
11 Ibid., pp. 360–490.
12 Shintō is the indigenous religion of Japan, and consists of the worship of numerous deities known as kami, many of whom are associated with particular places, such as high mountains or ancient trees, a mode of religious expression perfectly suited to the Kakure Kirishitan. See Ian Reader, Religion in Contemporary Japan (London, 1991).
13 Tagita, Shōwa, p. 281.
14 The best modern account of the place of the pilgrimage in Japanese religious life is Reader, Religion, pp. 134–67. The classic account of a Japanese pilgrimage is Oliver Statler, Japanese Pilgrimage (London, 1984).
15 Kondō, Ikitsuki, p. 353.
16 A typical hokora is about I metre high and 60 cm in cross section. It has a curved or sloping roof, and may well have doors, also of stone.
17 A strong aversion to the pollution associated with death is one of the chief characteristics of Shintō, expressed most commonly in Japan by the universal use of Buddhist rites for funerals: Reader, Religion, pp. 77–106.
18 Tagita, Shōwa, p. 267.
19 The term ‘-sama’ is an honorific form of address.
20 Tagita, Shōwa, p. 283.
21 The Osejo-matsuri is held every two years during the Easter period.
22 Kondō, Ikitsuki, p. 354; Kataoka, Kakure, p. 266.
23 The nandogami of Sakaime, which include the gozensama, are displayed on the altar for the New Year Festival and other events during the year such as the Osejo-matsuri (see above, n. 21).
24 The most complete account of the martyrdom of the Nishi family is Hubert Cieslik, ‘Junkyōsha ichizoku: Ikitsuki no Nishi-ke’ (A family of martyrs: the Nishi family of Ikitsuki), Kirishitan Kenkyū, 21 (1982), pp. 89–184, and his short booklet, Ikitsuki no Junkyōsha: Gasuparu Nishi Genka (A Martyr of Ikitsuki: Caspar Nishi Genka) (Tokyo, 1988). Along with the martyrs of Nakae no shima, the Nishi family receive a full account in Leon Pagés, Histoire Chrétienne du Japon depuis 1598 jusqu’à 1651, 1 (Charles Douniol, Paris, 1869–7), pp. 178–80. Pagés’s work, which was based on original Japanese documents, is regarded as being so authoritative that many Japanese works on the Christian martyrs cite references from him. The Nishi family are also covered in Kondō;, Ikitsuki, pp. 207–11, 356; Kondō, Kakure, pp. 49–50; Kataoka, Nihon, p. 289; Kataoka, Kakure, p. 261.
25 Ursula was the mother of martyrs. She had been a widow, and had a son by her late husband, who took the name of Caspar Nishi Toi and became a Jesuit. He died in 1612, and is noted in Schütte, Introductio, p. 236. Thomas, the second son spared in 1609, became a Dominican Father, and was martyred in 1634, the same year that a grandson of Caspar and Ursula was martyred. See the family tree in Cieslik, ‘Junkyōsha ichizoku’, p. 121.
26 Wood from the tree of Gasuparu-sama was used to make a crucifix on display in the Museum of the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Nagasaki.
27 Kondō, Ikilsuki, p. 214; Tagita, Shōwa, p. 347. In Pagés, Histoire, 1, p. 492, there is some confusion over the names of his companions.
28 Pagés, Histoire, p. 493; Kondō, Kakure, p. 16.
29 Pagés, Histoire, p. 494; Tagita, Shōwa, p. 348; Kondō, Ikitsuki, pp. 217–20.
30 Tagita, Shōwa, pp. 349–52; Kondō, Kakure, p. 16.
31 Tagita, Shōwa, p. 350.
32 My translation from Tagita, Shōwa, p. 346.
33 From my own observations in April 1992.
34 Pagés, Histoire, p. 590; Kondō, Kakure, p. 52.
35 As recorded by Pagés, Histoire, pp. 590–1; Kondō, Kakure, pp. 53–4; Tagita, Shōwa, p. 348. There is, however, some confusion within our sources over the two families. Elsewhere Kondō, Kakure, p. 16, has the names of the families of John and Damian interchanged, which is in accordance with Kataoka’s works: Nagasaki, p. 30; Kakure, p. 259, and Nihon, p. 294.
36 Pagés, Histoire, p. 591.
37 Ibid., p. 592.
38 Kondō, Ikitsuki, p. 353; Kondō, Kakure, p. 45, adds the observation that the graves are of children. Kataoka, Nihon, p. 298, notes that die date of martyrdom is unknown.
39 Tagita, Shōwa, p. 341.
40 Kondō, Ikitsuki, p. 356; Kondō, Kakure, pp. 47–8; Tagita, Shōwa, p. 340.
41 Tagita, Shōwa, p. 267.
42 Tagita, Shōwa, pp. 267, 343–5.
43 Kondō, Ikitsuki, p. 236.
44 Kataoka, Nagasaki, p. 39; Kondō, Ikitsuki, pp. 236, 354; Kondō, Kakure, pp. 46–7.
45 Tagita, Shōwa, p. 252.
46 The reference is obscure, because there is no mountain called Shibatayama anywhere on Ikitsuki.
47 For the fumi-e see Yakichi Kataoka, Fumi-e (Tokyo, 1969).
48 For discussion of the degree of acculturation of Christianity as represented by the Kakure Kirishitan see Kōya Tagita, Study of Acculturation among the Secret Christians of Japan (privately printed, n.p., n.d.) and Ann M. Harrington’s two works, ‘Japan’s Kakure Kirishitan’ (Claremont College Ph.D. thesis, 1978) and The Kakure Kirishitan and their place in Japan’s religious tradition’, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 7 (1980), pp. 318–36.