John Dougill - In Search of Japans Hidden Christians: A Story of Suppression, Secrecy and Survival

IN SEARCH OF JAPANS HIDDEN CHRISTIANS

Also by John Dougill:

Gentlemen and Hooligans: The British in Film, 19211971

Kyoto: A Cultural History

Oxford in English Literature

IN SEARCH OF JAPANS HIDDEN CHRISTIANS

A STORY OF SUPPRESSION, SECRECY AND SURVIVAL

JOHN DOUGILL

TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore

The Tuttle Story: Books to Span the East and West

Most people are very surprised to learn that the worlds largest publisher of books on Asia had its beginnings in the tiny American state of Vermont. The companys founder, Charles E. Tuttle, belonged to a New England family steeped in publishing. And his first love was naturally booksespecially old and rare editions.

Immediately after WW II, serving in Tokyo under General Douglas MacArthur, Tuttle was tasked with reviving the Japanese publishing industry, and founded the Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, which still thrives today as one of the worlds leading independent publishers.

Though a westerner, Charles was hugely instrumental in bringing a knowledge of Japan and Asia to a world hungry for information about the East. By the time of his death in 1993, Tuttle had published over 6,000 titles on Asian culture, history and arta legacy honored by the Japanese emperor with the Order of the Sacred Treasure, the highest tribute Japan can bestow upon a non-Japanese.

With a backlist of 1,500 books, Tuttle Publishing is as active today as at any time in its pastinspired by Charles core mission to publish fine books to span the East and West and provide a greater understanding of each.

Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

www.tuttlepublishing.com

Copyright 2012 by John Dougill

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dougill, John.

In search of Japans hidden Christians : a story of suppression, secrecy, and survival / John Dougill. 1st ed. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 978-1-4629-0579-9 (ebook) 1. Crypto-ChristiansJapan. 2. JapanChurch history. 3.

ChristianityJapan. 4. Catholic Church JapanHistory. I. Title.

BX1668.D68 2012

282.5209dc23

2011027419

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Japan
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Asia Pacific
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First edition 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1110RP

Printed in China

TUTTLE PUBLISHING is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

For the late Hal Gold, who first gave me the idea

In Japanese history there is no more attractive or interesting period than that of the Kirishitan, especially as it makes us think about what it is to be a human being.

Endo Shusaku (translated by Peter Milward)

Contents

Preface

In 1549 the first Christian missionaries arrived in Japan. Over the next sixty years the mission managed to convert more than 300,000 Japanese to their belief, including some of the most powerful people in the country. But in the process they made enemies too, and in 1614 a nationwide ban was issued, followed by a vicious campaign of persecution. A religion that preached against the workings of evil was itself denounced as evil. Because it threatened the power of the shogun, torture and executions were used against believers as the authorities grew increasingly determined to make them recant. Over 4,000 people are known to have died for their faith, and thousands of others suffered misery and ruination. In 1639 the country was sealed to prevent contagion from the outside, and by the end of the next decade it seemed the religion had been eradicated from the country.

For over two hundred years Japan remained a closed society, except for Chinese traders and a handful of Dutch at Nagasaki. Only in 1854 was it prised open again. Eleven years later came an astonishing revelation: groups of villagers, mostly illiterate, had continued to practice Christianity in secret despite all the preventative measures put in place. For seven generations they had passed the religion down to their children despite having no Bible, no priests, and no sacraments except for baptism. Isolated and imperiled, they clung to their faith, and the result was often unorthodox. Remarkably, even after the toleration of Christianity, about half refused to rejoin the Catholic Church and carried on with the rituals and prayers taught to them as children. Some of their descendants still do.

On the other side of the world, a curious parallel to the Hidden Christians could be found in the secret Jews of the Iberian Peninsula. Ironically, Christians were doing the persecuting rather than being persecuted, and it was happening in the very countries from which the missionaries had left for Japan. When the Jews were ordered to convert to Catholicism or be expelled in 1492, its thought that up to 200,000 subsequently became MarranosChristian converts who were secret practitioners of Judaism. Some of the families continued the practice into modern times, and a documentary entitled The Last Marranos was made as late as 1997.

Like the Marranos, the Hidden Christians are bound up with issues that extend beyond religion to race and identity. In Japans case, it had much to do with the clash of East and West, for the Confucian and Socratic traditions had produced different ways of thinking that were compounded by the contrast between East Asian polytheism and Christian monotheism. What happened when representatives of the two cultures first met? Having spent the greater part of my adult life in Japan, I was naturally intrigued by the question, and my interest was fueled by reading Endo Shusakus compelling novel, Silence (1966). When I learned of the tenacity with which Japanese peasants had clung to the European faith, I couldnt help wondering what had motivated them to risk death and the ruination of their loved ones. In unpacking the answer to that question, I had the feeling that I would be picking at the very essence of the culture.

The coming of the missionaries to Japan has much in common with the spread of early Christianity. When Paul arrived in Corinth, there were well-established pagan deities and a huge temple to Apollo, the Sun God. When Francis Xavier arrived in Japan, there was not only a well-established religion in Buddhism but an array of native deities headed by Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. Paul traveled around the Aegean, setting up groups that met in private houses and to whom he addressed long letters. Xavier and his fellow missionaries did much the same thing, writing long reports on their activities back to Rome. In both cases the religion won a following by offering dignity to the dispossessed and salvation in a world to come. For societies in which most of the population was downtrodden and desperate, the message of spiritual equality proved liberating.