kirishitan

Kirishitan (吉利支丹, 切支丹) 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. The propagation activities of Catholicism in Japan were started in 1549 and exclusively performed by Portugal-sponsored Jesuits until Spain-sponsored mendicant orders gained access to Japan. Christianity was prohibited several times by the government and ceased to exist publicly in the 17th century.

The line of demarcations between Spain and Portugal

The propagation activities of Roman Catholicism were sponsored by the Iberian kingdoms of Portugal and Spain. Propagandism was an integral part of expanding their territories or influence. By the permission of the Pope, they divided the non-Christian world between themselves. 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. Portugal-sponsored Jesuits took a lead in propaganda 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 the protection of the Portuguese king. Thus the Portuguese saw Japan as a "province that belonged to the conquest of the Portuguese." In rivalry with Jesuits, Spain-sponsored mendicant orders sneaked 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 Spaniard friars to enter Japan via Portuguese Indies, and Pope Paul V's decree of 1608 that abolished the restriction 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 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 competitions, the Protestant countries engaged in a negative campaign against Catholicism, and it affected shogunate policies toward the Iberian kingdoms. Purtugal and Spain's colonial policies were also challenged by the Roman Catholic Church. 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.

Propaganda strategy

Jesuits believed that it was very effective to fawn upon 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. The degree of their religious sincerity became clear when their rulers gave up the religion or were overthrown. Although some Jesuits focused the spotlight on exceptional rulers like Takayama Ukon and some martyrs, the vast majority of Christians and superficial Christians abandoned Catholicism.

Economic activities

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 an economic activity can be found in Francis Xavier, the pioneer of Catholic propaganda 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 profit and bought land in India. Their officially recognized commercial activity was fixed-amount entry into 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 in Jesuits in Japan. Although trade activities by Jesuits ate into Portuguese trade interests, procurator continued brokerage utilizing the authority of the Christian Church. At the same time, Portuguese merchants required procurators who were familiar with Japanese cutsoms 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 obviously contrary to the idea of honorable poverty priests held. But Jesuits conveniently placed expansion of the society's influence before the ideal. Mendicant orders fiercely accused Jesuits of being corrupted and even considered their activity as the primary reason of Japan's ban on Catholicism. But it does not mean that mendicant orders were completely unrelated to commercial activities although due to low availability of primary sources it is difficult to reveal their economic condition.

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 sent to China two or three thousand Japanese Christian soldiers who were brave and were expected to serve the king with little pay. Jesuits provided various support including military one 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 the effectiveness of military actions and fortified Nagasaki and Mogi. In 1585 Gaspar Coelho asked the Spanish Philipines 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 planned armed resistance. At first they sought help from Kirishitan daimyo but they refused it. Then they called for deployment of reinforcements from their homeland and colonies. But this plan was abolished by Valignano. Like Kirishitan daimyo, he realized that the military campaign against the powerful ruler would bring a catastrophe to Catholicism in Japan. Valignano survived the crisis by laying all the blame on Coelho. In 1590 the Jesuits decided to stop intervening 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 Iberian colonial powers behind it.

Japan's policy toward Catholicism

When the Jesuit priest Francis Xavier arrived, Japan experienced nationwide civil wars. Neither the emperor nor the Ashikaga shogun could exercise power over the nation. At first Xavier planned to gain permission for propaganda from the emperor but was disappointed with the devastation of the imperial residence. The Jesuits made up to daimyo in southwestern Japan and succeeded to convert some of these daimyo. The primary reason of their conversion was to lure into their domains Portuguese trade in which Jesuits acted brokers. Jesuits recognized it and pandered to local rulers with trade and exotic gifts. Jesuits attempted to expand their activity to Kyoto and surrounding regions. In 1559 Gaspar Vilela obtained permission from Ashikaga Yoshiteru to teach Christianity. This license was the same with 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, orders of the emperor and the shogun were not influential. Christians positively referred 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 took no remarkable policy toward Catholicism. Actually, Catholic power in his domain was trivial as he did not conquer western Japan, which Jesuits were based in. The situation was changed when Toyotomi Hideyoshi reunified Japan. He attempted to curb Catholicism while he encouraged and wanted to control trade with Portugal and Spain. In 1587 he banned ruling class from converting to Catholicism as he was concerned that forced conversion by them made peasants dangerous rebels like the ikko ikki sect of earlier years. At the same time he put Nagasaki under his direct control to control Portuguese trade. It seems that he did not really intended to eradicate Catholicism. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death, Tokugawa Ieyasu assumed hegemony over Japan in 1600. Like Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he disfavored 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. The Tokugawa shogunate finally decided to ban Catholicism in 1612. This marked the end of Chistianity in Japan. The immediate cause of the prohibition was a fraud case of Ieyasu's Catholic vavasor but there were various 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 "reason of state" as the key factor; they realized superiority of state politics over religion in Japan.

Christian view of Kirishitan history

Although missionaries who actually worked in Japan left realistic and secular analyses, the Kirishitan history compiled by Catholics is highly based on religious interpretation. They tend to ignore economic and political affairs. They set religious activities against secular affairs and even map them to good and evil. Traditionally, the "purified" church sources were used to study Kirishitan history. The situation has been improved drastically as a lot of primary sources became available to researchers. Non-religious researchers find it difficult to treat martyrdom as history. Instead of giving detailed accounts, they just point out the extremely low rate of martyrdom; there were a thousand martyrs at most whereas the number of Christians at peak is estimated at 500 thousands. In contrast, Christians attach a great importance to martyrdom probably due to the nature of Christianity. The Japanese government used Fumie to identify Catholics. Fumie is a picture of Virgin Mary and Christ and the government officials made everybody step on the picture. People reluctant to step on the picture 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 a part of them still refused to abandon their faith, then they were killed by the government. For execution at Nagasaki's Mount Unzen where many were dumped into the volcano. There was a rebellion by the Shimabara Rebellion lead by a young Christian boy named Amakusa Shiro Tokisada in 1637. About 27,000 people joined the rebellion, but crushed by the shogunate. They were not considered martyrs since they organized armed resistance. Many Japanese deported to Macau or to 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 would move voluntarily to their, supported by the following facts. 10,000 is the number of Macanese, and 3,000 Japanese lived in Manila.