APPARENT EXTIRPATION OF CHRISTIANITY 1616-1715
IEYASU died June 1, 1616. This brought no relief to the Christians, for Hidetada was more violent against them than his father had ever been. Will Adams wrote:
“Now this yeear, 1616, the old Emperour died. His son raigneth in his place, and hee is more hot agaynste the romish relligion then his ffather wass: for he hath forbidden thorough all his domynions, on paine of death, none of his subjects to be romish christiane; which romish seckt to prevent everi wayes that he maye, he hath forbidden that no stranger merchant shall abid in any of the great citties.”
On the death of Ieyasu, Richard Cocks, the English agent, thought it best to visit Yedo in order to pay his respects to the Shogun and to request a continuance of the commercial privileges hitherto enjoyed by the English. In a letter to the East India Company he wrote:
“The 5th day after I arrived at court our present was deliverd, and had audience with many favourable words, but could not get my dispach in above a month after; so that once I thought we should have lost all our pirivelegese, for the Councell sent unto us I think above twenty times to know whether the English nation were Christian or no. I answered we were and that they knew that before by our Kinges Maties. letter sent to the Emperour his father (and hym selfe), wherein it appeared he was defender of the Christian faith. ‘But, ’ said they, ‘are not the Jesuists and fryres Christians two?’ Unto which I answered they were, but not such as we were, for all Jesuists and fryres were banished out of England before I was borne, the English nations not houlding with the pope nor his doctryne, whose followers these padres (as they cald them) weare. Yt is Strang to see how often they sent to me about this matter, and in the end gave us wayning that we did not comenecate, confesse, nor baptiz with them, for then they should hold us to be all of one sect. Unto which I replied that their Honours needed not to stand in doubt of any such matter, for that was not the custom of our nation.”
Having at last obtained, as be supposed, documents giving the desired privileges, Cocks set out on his return to Hirado, when a letter from Kyoto led him to suspect that all might not be as he wished:
“Whereupon I sought one to read over our privelegese, which with much a do at last I found a bos (or pagon prist) which did it, and was that we were restrayned to have our shiping to goe to no other place in Japan but Firando, and there to make sales.”
This meant a great restriction of English trade. Cocks turned back to Yedo and asked that the fuller rights granted by Ieyasu might be renewed. He “could get nothing but words.” In fact, by that time the Shogun’s Council had issued the following decree:
“Be it strictly instructed that according to the command of the Premier issued some years ago to the effect that the conversion of the Japanese to Christianity is strictly prohibited, the lords of all the provinces shall take special care to keep all people, down to farmers, from joining that religion. Also, as the black ships, namely the English ships, belong to that religion, the provincial lords should send any of those ships to Nagasaki or Hirado, in case they happen to put in to the ports of their dominions, and no trade shall be carried on therein.”
Pagés speaks of an edict issued by the Shogun that forbade the Japanese, under the penalty of being burned alive, from having any relations with the teachers of Christianity or their servants. The same penalty was to be visited on the wives and children of offenders and on their five nearest neighbours upon each side, unless these gave information. Daimyos were forbidden to keep Christians in their service.
Cocks thought that his troubles were partly owing to a Spaniard who was then in Yedo. Two great ships full of soldiers and treasure on the way from New Spain to the Philippines had been driven by contrary winds to Satsuma, and this man had been sent to pay his respects to the Shogun. An audience was not given him and in his vexation at being refused what was granted to the English he commenced to bring accusations against them and the Hollanders, saying that they had robbed all the Chinese junks sailing towards Japan, which was the reason why few had come that year. It may well be believed that Cocks would not hesitate to requite the ill turn done by the Spaniard. He himself wrote, saying:
“Yf they lookt out well about these 2 Spanish shipps arrived in Xaxtna full of men and treasure, they would find that they were sent of purpose by the King of Spaine, haveing knowledge of the death of the ould Emperour, thinking som papisticall tono [lord] might rise and rebell and so draw all the papistes to flock to them and take part, by which meanes they might on a sudden seaz upon som strong place and keepe it till more succors came, they not wanting money nor men for thackom-plishing such a strattigim. Which speeches of myne wrought so far that the Emperour sent to stay them, and, had not the great ship cut her cable in the howse so to escape, she had byn arrested, yet with her hast she left som of her men behind; and the other shipp being of some three hundred tons was cast away in a storme and driven on shore, but all (he people saved. So in this sort I crid quittance with the Spaniardes for geveing out falce reportes of us, yet since verely thought to be true which I reported of them.”
Cocks soon went so far as to suggest to the “Amerall of the sea” that he “put it into the Emperour’s mynd to make a conquest of the Manillias and drive those small cre of Spaniards from thence, it being so neare unto Japon.”
With such accusations and counter-accusations made by the merchants, it is not strange that Hidetada became more suspicious of foreigners. It did not help matters when commissioners sent in search of one of Hideyori’s captains who was thought to be concealed in Nagasaki reported that many missionaries were living there and in other places. In 1617, when the daimyos went on New Year’s Day to pay their respects to the Shogun, he took the occasion to administer a severe rebuke to the Daimyo of Omura. This young man, who had been baptised in infancy, still regarded Christianity with considerable favour, and his sister was an earnest believer. He was one of those that had been ordered, in 1614, to take charge of the deportation of the missionaries. Notwithstanding his report that he had done what was commanded, there was good reason to think he knew that some of the missionaries remained in his territories or had afterwards returned thither. He was now told that he must atone for his negligence by seeing that all were driven out. Pagés says that he received secret orders to put them to death. Only the first command was known by the Christian officials in Nagasaki, who decided it would be better to send away a few persons in order to make it safer for the others. Accordingly, some of the missionaries were sent in March to Macao, a part of whom very soon found means for returning.
Omura, though he had little liking for persecution, was afraid to disobey the Shogun. He thought that by putting one missionary to death he could frighten the others so that they would flee of their own accord. To his chagrin, the officials, instead of being satisfied with making one arrest, took into custody two of the missionaries, Fathers De l’Assumpcion and Machado, belonging respectively to the Franciscan and Jesuit orders. Omura still hoped he would be permitted to spare their lives. He sent a report of their arrest to Yedo and asked for further orders. The reply soon came that both men must be beheaded.
The letters written by these missionaries while in custody show the spirit in which they met their fate. Machado wrote:
“It is now twelve days that I have been a prisoner. I return a thousand thanks to Our Lord that He has deigned to grant me such great peace that there is nothing in the world I would prefer to my present condition of being a captive for the love of God, I return infinite thanks to His Divine Majesty that from the hour when I was made a prisoner I have not ceased to behold myself stretched upon the cross or bending beneath the edge of the sword. Blessed be the Lord who thus comforts those who for the love of him suffer even the lightest pains. I have never understood the deep meaning of the words of Scripture and the spiritual power they communicate as I have since I found myself in this condition.”
The sentence was carried into effect May 21, 1617. Though guards were put about the place where the bodies were buried, the Christians went there in crowds to do honour to the martyrs.
Omura’s hope that this execution would terrify the other missionaries was not realised. When Fathers Navarette and Saint-Joseph, Vicars Provincial respectively of the Dominicans and Augustinians, heard of the martyrdoms, they judged that the time had come when they ought to conceal themselves no longer, but go openly to Omura for the sake of strengthening the faith of the Christians and calling apostates to repentance. Their purpose soon became known to the people of Nagasaki. More than three thousand persons followed them out of the city to bid them farewell and to seek their blessing. Spending the first night in the suburbs of Nagasaki, the two missionaries then went slowly on their way, stopping at several places to preach, say mass, and administer the sacraments. In one place they erected an altar in the open air. Crowds gathered about them, listening eagerly to their words and coming afterwards to kneel at their feet for a blessing. Many that had apostatised professed repentance and sought forgiveness.
The two missionaries sent a letter to the Daimyo of Omura, saying that compassion for him and his people led them to come out from their concealment in order that they might urge him to repent of his great sin, and might do all in their power for the conversion of his subjects. This appeal was ineffective. The brave men were at once thrown into prison, whence in a few days they were taken to a small island and beheaded. A catechist who had accompanied Machado suffered with them. To put an end to the honours shown by the Christians to those that died for their faith, Omura had the bodies of the former martyrs disinterred so that, with those of the new victims, they might be weighted with stones and sunk in the sea. The Christian fraternities for a long time tried in vain to find the bodies, but some months afterwards two of them were washed ashore. These were taken to Nagasaki, whence at a later date some of the bones were sent to Manila and Macao as sacred relics.
These events made a great impression upon the believers. Many of those who had shown weakness became ashamed of their cowardice. In Nagasaki the Christians began to engage openly in religious services. The officials hesitated about taking action that would involve so many persons, and they also feared that in the existing state of excitement any attempts at suppression would lead to a riot. Father Moralez, who had become the Superior of the Dominicans, sent two monks to work secretly in Omura; also one of the Franciscans, clad in the dress of his order, went to the city in which the Daimyo lived and there preached openly. After having the joy of converting one of the executioners of De l’Assumpcion, he was thrown into prison, as was also one of the missionaries sent by Moralez.
By the order of the Shogun, Hasegawa Sahioe sent a violent letter to the officials at Nagasaki, giving directions that those persons who had furnished an asylum to Fathers Navarette and Saint-Joseph should be punished. These persons were arrested and soon after were put to death secretly so that there might be no danger of disturbance.
Another martyr that suffered at this time was a high officer of Omura, who had governed the territory during the absence of the Daimyo. It was he who had arrested De l’Assumpcion and presided at the execution of the first martyrs. The contemplation of their bravery led him to accept their religion. He became zealous in seeking to convert others, and especially to lead back those that had apostatised. The Buddhist priests soon procured his arrest and execution. The Daimyo, who wished to terrify the Christians, took pains to have it made known that he had not hesitated to condemn even his favourite officer for becoming an adherent of the proscribed religion.
From time to time missionaries were arrested in different provinces; but with a single exception none were executed between May, 1617, and August, 1622. This one exception was Father Sainte-Marthe, an aged Franciscan. For three years he was a prisoner in Kyoto. Itakura, the Shogun’s representative, was little inclined to put him to death, and offered to send him to Mexico. The old man said he did not wish to be set free unless at the same time he was allowed to remain in Japan. He was finally beheaded in August, 1618.
There were many executions of Japanese Christians. The records from this time were crowded with accounts of their sufferings. Nagasaki furnished many of the victims. In that city Hasegawa Gonroku, a nephew of Sahioe, had become Governor. He had a number of persons arrested for sheltering the missionaries and native priests. Their wives and children were taken from them, November 25, 1618, fourteen persons were burned at the stake, among them being children aged ten, seven, and four years, as well as a babe only two months old. The next year another step was taken, and the Portuguese merchants saw among those being burned at the stake one of their own number, Domingo Jorge, who had sheltered two Jesuits. This merchant may have been under suspicion for other reasons. Japanese accounts say that in 1617, a foreign ship was captured by the Dutch. “It belonged to Jorchin [Domingo Jorge]* and brought letters from the Portuguese. When these had been translated by the interpreters in Hirado, it was found that the Southern Barbarians [Spaniards and Portuguese] instigated the Japanese Christians to make a revolt.” The sense of one letter was: “As soon as the news arrives that the number of Japanese Christians is sufficient, men-of-war will be sent.” Kaempfer mentions two other letters alleged to have been found, one by the Dutch and the other by a Japanese ship, in which the Christians of Japan wrote to the King of Spain the details of a plot for overthrowing the Shogun’s government. Most European writers have been inclined to consider these letters, especially the last two, either as never having existed or as having been forged by the Dutch.
Gonroku employed many spies who, under the pretence of becoming converts to Christianity, tried to discover the hiding-places of the missionaries. Bars of silver had hitherto been exposed to view in the public square with a notice that they were for the reward of any one who gave information leading to the arrest of a thief. To the placard making this promise were now added the words, “or of a Christian teacher.” The difficulties of concealment became so great that most of the missionaries left the city to hide in the mountains or to flee to other parts of the country.
A letter written March, 1620, by Richard Cocks refers to the destruction of Christian edifices. He had often wished that the English factory might be removed to Nagasaki, but this, he says,
“Heretofore was not thought fitt, because then a papist Portingale bishopp lived in the towne and ther was 10 or 12 parish churches, besids monestaries, all which are now pulled downe to the grownd this yeare, an end being made thereof; and the places where all such churches and monestaries weare, with the churchyords, are all turned into streetes, and all the dead mens boanes taken out of the ground and cast forth for their frendes and parentes to bury them where they please. I doe not re-joyce herin, but wish all Japon were Christians; yet in the tyme of that bishopp heare were soe many prists and Jesuists with their partakers that one could not parse the streetes without being by them called Lutranos and herejos [Lutherans and heretics], which now we are very quiet and non of them dare open his mouth to speake such a word.”
Nagasaki was not the only place where the Christians were persecuted. In 1619 orders from Yedo, and afterwards a visit of the Shogun himself, led to more active measures in Kyoto. After leaving the city, the Shogun learned that a large number of believers was confined in the prison. Angry at not having been informed of this, he ordered that all be put to death. without distinction of age or sex. October 7, 1619, the people gathered in crowds to watch the victims as they were carried to the place of execution. Preceded by officers to clear the way and by criers to announce their crime, fifty-two martyrs were drawn in carts through the streets. The first and last carts contained only men; but nine others were laden with women and children, the latter carried in their mothers’ arms or clinging to their knees. One child, eight years old, was blind. A woman named Thecla was the mother of five children from three to thirteen years of age. They as well as her husband were to suffer with her that day. From time to time a herald called out: “The Shogun desires and commands that all these persons he put to death because they are Christians;” and then, as though it were the response in an antiphonal service, the martyrs shouted: “It is true; we die for Jesus. Blessed be Jesus!” Crossing one of the bridges over the Kamo River, the procession came to a large open space opposite the temple in which was the great image of Buddha erected by Hideyori in honour of his father. Here had been planted a number of stakes with fagots piled about them in such a way as to leave a little space for the victims, two of whom, placed back to back, were bound to each of the stakes. When Thecla descended from the cart, she was seen to be clothed in a rich garment, as though for a festival.
A great crowd of people had gathered to see the strange sight. The fagots were lighted and through the smoke could be caught glimpses of the mothers trying to quiet the little children held in their arms. One of Thecla’s daughters, who was bound near her, was heard calling out: “Mother, I cannot see any more? and then came the woman’s reply: “Invoke the help of Jesus and of Mary.” These names uttered by many lips mingled with the cries of frightened children and the groans of the dying, until gradually all such sounds ceased and nothing more was heard but the roaring and crackling of the flames.*
Through the first years of the persecution, the number of missionaries in Japan, instead of being lessened, was gradually increasing. Those sent away soon returned, while others, ready for martyrdom and even desiring it came from Macao and the Philippines. In 1619, the Jesuits are said to have baptised one thousand eight hundred converts. The next year four Fathers baptised over a thousand persons in northeastern Hondo. One of them went into the island of Yezo (which had been visited by another missionary two years earlier) and found there many believers from the mainland who were eager for his ministrations. At some mines in the interior were two persons who had formerly served as catechists and were now glad to assist him in teaching their fellow-labourers.
The return of Hashikura, Date Masamune’s ambas-sador to Europe, had been long delayed. In 1617, he and Father Sotelo came to Acapulco, where they found a ship belonging to Date. The Sendai Daimyo had sent a second messenger in 1616, to learn what had become of the first, and this may account for the presence of the ship in Mexico. A new governor who was on his way to the Philippines made arrangements to have the ship take him thither, those in charge being willing to do this because they could obtain there a more profitable cargo than was to be found in Mexico. Manila was reached in June of the next year. Here, as already recorded, Sotelo and his papers were seized. He was afterwards sent back to Mexico. For some unknown reason the Japanese also were delayed so that it was August, 1620, when, after his seven years of absence, Hashikura, with a suite now numbering only eleven persons reached Sendai. According to Pagés he reported to Masamune that the Christian religion was only an empty show. This is in accord with other accounts that represent him as apostatising. A letter written in 1677 by his grandson says that Hashikura, though never a Christian at heart, became one nominally “because otherwise he could not see the Spanish King and get the answer to Masamune’s letter.”
The return of this ambassador may have increased the suspicion that Masamune was planning an alliance with Spain for the purpose of supplanting the Shogun. His desire to clear himself from such charges is thought to be the reason why at about this time he issued three proclamations. In the first, all those who, in opposition to the Shogun’s will, had become Christians were exhorted to return to their former religions. In case of refusal, the goods of the rich were to be confiscated, while the poor were to be put to death. The second proclamation promised honour and rewards to informers. The third ordered the banishment of all Christian teachers who would not renounce their faith. For several years these edicts were not enforced, Masamune turning his blind eye towards the fact that missionaries were residing in Sendai. Indeed, one of his leading vassals was “father of the Christians and the strongest pillar of the church.”
Father Zuñiga, an Augustinian monk, had so won the appreciation of his converts that after he had been driven out of Japan they wrote to the Provincial in Manila, asking that he be sent to them once more and promising that in exchange for the living missionary they would send the body of the martyr Saint-Joseph:*
The ship in which Zuñiga sailed, in company with a Dominican named Flores, was captured off the coast of Formosa by an English vessel that belonged to a combined fleet of English and Dutch. The commander of this latter vessel had once been a prisoner of the Inquisition in Seville, and was doubtless very willing to pay off the debt of vengeance he owed to Spain and Roman Catholicism. The ecclesiastical character of the monks was recognised through the disguises they had assumed, while among their papers were found a letter appointing Zuñiga to be Vicar Provincial, the commission of Flores, and other suspicious documents. The missionaries were therefore sent to Hirado, where they remained in custody of the Dutch. For sixteen months Zuñiga and Flores refused to acknowledge that they were priests. A letter written by Zuñiga says that to the direct questions of a Japanese official, who was sent to examine them. “We replied that we were not Fathers,” and shows that they justified themselves for making this statement by the mental interpretation that they were not fathers in the sense of being parents of children.* He adds: Our reasons for so doing were the necessity common throughout Japan, and the desire not to cause the death of those who had brought us nor to expose a great number of persons to the danger of denying the faith.”
Various tortures were inflicted by the Dutch in the vain attempt to extort confessions. The Diary of Richard Cocks, as well as the letters of the missionaries, gives accounts of several examinations that were held before Hasegawa Gonroku. What is remarkable is that Gonroku had formerly known Zuñiga; yet, although many Japanese and Chinese, besides Portuguese and a native of Manila, insisted on the identity, Gonroku declared the proof insufficient. His unwillingness to pronounce judgment gave rise to the doubts mentioned by Cocks, who wrote: “As some say, Gonroku Dono is suspected to be a Christian.”
Finally three missionaries of as many different orders were brought from their confinement in the Omura prison to see if they recognised the accused persons. With them came Thomas Araki, the apostate priest, who for some reason, perhaps that he might act as a spy, perhaps because the sincerity of his recantation was doubted, had also been imprisoned at Omura. On arriving at Hirado, he took part in some Buddhist ceremonies, and afterwards bore witness that while in Omura he had heard some of his fellow-prisoners assert that one of the captives was a priest named Zuñiga. The missionaries all declared that they had never seen Flores, though all but one of them testified that in former years they had seen the other person at Nagasaki, dressed as a merchant. One of the Japanese officials, an apostate from Christianity, who was doubtless well aware that they knew more than they had told, asked:
“Is it permissible for a monk or a priest to deny being such?”
Father Spinola, one of the Omura prisoners, answered:
“You do not understand the difference between a Christian and a priest. The former ought always to declare himself a Christian; but no one is under obligation to acknowledge that he is a priest.”
Thereupon an Englishman that was present said that in his country the Roman Catholic priests constantly denied that they were such and so saved themselves from being executed, Spinola declared this to be a calumny, saying that he himself while in England had acknowledged that he was a Jesuit priest, and that many of his associates had done the same, though it had cost some of them their lives.
At last, the Fathers from Omura, seeing that the proofs were too strong to be resisted, had a private interview with Zuñiga in which they advised him not to deny his identity any longer, for it was improbable that he would be released, and a continuance of the dissimulation was likely to cause scandal. Zuñiga therefore acknowledged before the judge that he was a priest. Flores did not confess until some months later and after an unsuccessful attempt had been made by Father Collado to rescue him from prison. When the Shogun heard of this attempt, he was filled with greater wrath than before against the Christians. His suspicions had been increased by a report that Zuñiga was a natural son of the Spanish King (he was really the son of a former Viceroy of Mexico) and had now come to lead the Christians in delivering over Japan to his father. Gonroku was censured for having been remiss in duty and was ordered to put to death not only Zuñiga, Flores, and the Japanese captain of the boat on which they had been apprehended, but also all the missionaries that were in prison, and the families of those persons who had given them shelter.
The first execution took place in Nagasaki, August 19, 1622. Twelve Japanese, who had been sailors or passengers on the captured ship, were decapitated and their heads were placed before the stakes where Zuñiga, Flores, and the Japanese captain were burned. Three weeks later (September 10, 1622), came what has since been known as the “Great Martyrdom,” when thirty persons were beheaded and twenty-five burned. Among the latter were nine foreign priests. The most famous of the number was Father Spinola, a Jesuit of noble birth, and a man of unusual talents. He had been in Japan since 1602. His scholarship had done much to commend him to the Japanese, and at Kyoto he had founded an academy for scientific studies and original investigation. He had been in captivity for nearly four years.
The Omura prisoners were brought the preceding day by boat to a small village, where they were transferred to horses; Spinola, mounted on a sorry-looking white nag, being placed at the head of the procession. To the neck of each captive was attached a rope, whose other end was held by a guard walking beside the horse. Four hundred soldiers acted as an escort. The night was spent at Urakami, the town whence, two hundred and fifty years later, a new persecution sent into exile three thousand descendants of the Christians who now looked with mingled sorrow and exultation on those that were about to attain the glory of martyrdom.
The next morning the procession went on its way, the confessors singing psalms or occasionally speaking a few words to the Christians, who came as near as possible in order to receive their blessing. It was but a short distance to the hill on the outskirts of Nagasaki where the martyrs of 1597 had given up their lives. Here a large space had been enclosed. Inside the paling had been set twenty-five stakes for those that were to be burned. Instead of having the wood placed as near as was usually done, it was put in two long rows seven or eight feet distant from the line of stakes, the object being to prolong the sufferings of the victims. Within the enclosure was also erected a stand for the use of the Governor’s deputy and other high officials of Nagasaki and Omura. Thousands of spectators crowded about the fences or stood on the neighboring hills. It had been Gonroku’s desire to have the Christians present so that the sufferings of their teachers and fellow-believers might be a warning to them.
The martyrs from Omura had to wait an hour for the arrival of those that came from Nagasaki, While still mounted upon their horses, they confessed one another, sang hymns, and addressed the people that were within hearing. Special mention is made of the discourse of Spinola to the Spaniards and Portuguese. When at last the thirty-three prisoners from Nagasaki arrived, those condemned to be burned were brought to the stakes. Among them was one woman, aged eighty, who had given shelter to a missionary. Those decapitated included several women and children. As before, the severed heads were placed in front of those that were bound to the stakes. Father Spinola chanted the “Laudate Dominum, omnes gentes, “ the other Fathers and Brothers responding, while the children, who were in the crowd outside the enclosure, also joined in the singing. Spinola then addressed a few words to the Governor’s deputy. After the fires were lighted, he and the other martyrs continued to speak to the people so long as it was possible for them to do so. Some remained alive for two or three hours. When the flames burned too briskly, the executioners partially quenched them by throwing on water so that death might not too quickly put an end to the agony of the martyrs.
Three Japanese Brothers, belonging to the order of the Jesuits, “disturbed the joy of that day.” Almost as soon as they felt the heat of the flames, they began by their contortions and struggles to show how weak they were. Their associates tried in vain to inspire them with courage. At last they broke their bonds, and rushing out from the midst of the flames, begged for mercy. Two of them called upon the name of Buddha, while the third, as though ashamed of his cowardice, returned at once to his stake. Some say that he left it only to remonstrate with the others. None, however, were spared; the executioners thrust the cravens back into the fire and held them there by long poles.
For three days the remains of the martyrs were carefully guarded so that they might not be taken as relics by the Christians, who came in crowds to the outside of the enclosure that they might venerate those who had died for the faith. Finally, the charred remains, the heads and bodies of those that had been decapitated, and the various religious objects that had been found in the houses of those arrested, were thrown with wood and charcoal into pits, where they were burned for two days. The ashes and even the ground that had been soaked with blood were then put into straw sacks and carried out to sea. The sailors, before returning to shore, were made to bathe themselves and to give their boats a thorough washing, so that none of the polluted dust should be brought back to land.
Other executions soon followed at Nagasaki, Omura, Hirado, and other places. The number of those burned or beheaded in 1622 was over one hundred and twenty, including sixteen Fathers and twenty Brothers of the different orders.
Alas! how often does the weakness of men stand out in contrast with their displays of strength. It seems strange to read that at the time when community of suffering ought to have united the hearts of all the missionaries, there was a new display of the dissensions between the societies. September 7, an apostolic inquest, relative to the martyrs of 1597, was opened in Nagasaki. Of the three judges originally appointed, one had gone to Manila, another was among those to be martyred three days later, and the third was Father Collado, the Vicar Provincial of the Dominicans. The places of the first two were supplied by others, and the proceedings, after the interruption caused by the Great Martyrdom, were resumed September 14. Pagés says that many of the witnesses that had been summoned declined to appear, those who would have given their life in confession of their faith not fearing the excommunication that might be incurred by their disobedience. Apparently these were the Jesuits, who refused to acknowledge any authority save that of the Prelate of their Society appointed by the Metropolitan of the Indies, and who disregarded the legitimate Bishop, Mgr. Valens, himself a Jesuit, who was then in Macao. Probably their disinclination to witness was in part because, so far as Europeans were concerned, the glory of the martyrdom belonged to members of other orders. Some of the meetings of the inquest were held on board a vessel that was lying in the harbour. Collado, who took the documents to Rome, also carried many accusations against the Jesuit missionaries. He was ably seconded by a letter alleged to have been written by Father Sotelo, who had finally succeeded in reaching Japan, where he arrived just after the martyrdom of Zuñiga and Flores. He had been immediately arrested. Having been granted his request to be brought before the Governor of Nagasaki, he said: “I am Father Louis Sotelo, the same who went to Spain as an ambassador of Date Masamune. I have now returned with the replies to his letters. As no shipmaster would give a priest passage, I assumed a secular dress. Will you kindly announce to the Shogun’s Council that I have returned. If it condemns me to death, I am prepared to submit for the sake of the religion of Jesus Christ, which I have always desired to preach in this country.” The Governor promised to send the desired message, but kept Sotelo confined in the prison at Omura. It is from there that a letter, which has given rise to much controversy, is said to have been written by him in 1624, Charlevoix regards it as a forgery. Pagés thinks it is genuine, but suggests that it may have been somewhat changed when printed by enemies of the Jesuits.* It charges the latter with intriguing against Sotelo, with causing scandal by their evil acts and pernicious doctrines, with annoying the members of other orders, and with being the cause of various evils that hindered the progress of Christianity. Father Cevicos published a reply to this letter and the controversy gave rise to much ill-feeling.
In 1623, Hidetada, following the example set by Ieyasu, had the title of Shogun transferred to his son Iemitsu. The investiture of the new Shogun was made the occasion for re-publishing the laws against Christianity. In that same year between four and five hundred persons were put to death in the immediate possessions of the Tokugawa family. On December 4, a company of fifty persons, including two foreign priests, was led out to a hill near Yedo, where preparation had been made for their execution by burning. One of the number had apostatised while in prison, and though he was led out with the others and bound to the stake, he was set free before the fagots were lighted. It is said that his place was supplied in a way that made a great impression upon all the spectators. After the preparations had been completed, a gentleman of high rank, accompanied by a retinue of servants, came riding up towards the judges. The guards made way for him, supposing that he was the bearer of an official message. Descending from his horse, he went before the chief judge and asked why these men were being put to death in such a cruel way.
“Because they are Christians;” was the answer.
“I, too, am a Christian,” said the man, “and I demand the privilege of sharing their fate.”
The officials were in doubt as to what they ought to do. Finally the Shogun, to whom word was sent, ordered that the man should be added to the number of martyrs. When he was bound to the stake, five of his servants tried to follow him, while from among the spectators, three hundred other persons came to kneel before the judges asking that they, too, be allowed to give up their lives for the sake of Christ. The judges drove them away, and fearing a tumult, hastened to complete the execution. The remains of the victims were left under guard on the place of martyrdom. The third day the Christians gathered in a crowd and took away whatever they could find. This angered Hidetada, who ordered that all the Christians who could be found should be put to death. Twenty-seven persons were executed December 29. Thirteen of the number were not Christians, but had received believers into their houses, or as neighbours were held responsible. Eighteen of the victims were children. These had their brains beaten out, were cut in twain, or were otherwise killed in the sight of their parents, before the latter were put to death.
Orders were issued in 1623 and 1624 against the Spaniards in general. All of them were to be sent out of the country. They were forbidden to take with them any Japanese, even their own wives. Moreover, no Japanese Christian was to go abroad for trade, while even unbelievers were not to go to the Philippines, it being feared that they would bring back Christian teachers in their ships. This put an end to all commerce with Manila. In 1622 Hidetada had refused to receive an embassy from the Philippines. A second one that came in 1623, although it was able to report that the Spanish Governor had issued orders forbidding missionaries to go to Japan, and that the Archbishop of Manila had been induced to use his authority to the same end, was sent back with the reply that the Shogun could not consider the embassy as anything more than a device of the missionaries, and that he could never receive the envoys of a country that followed a religion so false and pernicious that he had been compelled to issue a prohibition against it and to exile its teachers. It was added that at first the Spaniards had been welcomed because they came in the name of commerce; but instead of bringing any advantage to the country, they had polluted it with their diabolical religion. While in the harbour of Nagasaki the embassy was closely guarded and subjected to many humiliations. The reason why the prohibitions against the Philippines were more strict than those against Macao, may have been because nine Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians came from the former place in 1623, notwithstanding the Governor’s and Archbishop’s interdiction of such enterprises. The truth was, whether the Japanese knew it or not, that these dignitaries had yielded to the entreaties of the heads of the three orders in the Philippines “under the condition that the departure should take place in the greatest secrecy.” In Macao, the officials were more earnest to keep their commerce from being ruined by the zeal of the missionaries, and this was so well recognised that many Fathers went from there to the Philippines, where they thought the chances for reaching Japan were better.
Further orders of the Shogun declared that any foreign ship coming to Japan must register the names of its crew and passengers. The officers of the ship were to be held responsible for all persons on board. Not only missionaries, but also those that brought them to Japan, were to be burned; the ship and its merchandise to be confiscated.
Date Masamune now began to take a prominent place among the persecuting daimyos. His subordinates were told to make out a list of the Christians. Many of these were imprisoned and some were put to death. Among those arrested was Father Diego de Carvalho, a Jesuit. In February, 1624, he and his companions were led to the bank of a river, stripped of their clothing, and bound to stakes that were placed in a pool of icy-cold water. They were kept there for three hours and then left to sit or lie upon the frozen ground. Two of the Christians soon died, and their bodies, after being cut into small pieces, were thrown into the river. The others were taken back to prison, only to be led forth four days later to the same pool. They were made alternately to stand in the water, which reached to their knees, and to kneel down in it. A cold wind was blowing and ere long a snowstorm set in. As evening approached, the surface of the pool began to freeze over. One by one the sufferers became insensible. Father Carvalho was the last to die. Their bodies were treated as those of their companions had been, though the Christians managed to get possession of the heads of five of the martyrs, including that of Father Carvalho.
In that section of the country known as Dewa, in the northwestern part of Hondo, one hundred and nine Christians were put to death. Other parts of the country added to the number of the martyrs. Three foreign priests who had been confined in Omura were burned at the stake in August, 1624. One of them was Sotelo, Date’s former ambassador.
In 1625 there were still in Japan twenty Jesuit Fathers and four Brothers, besides some members of other orders. Nagasaki was regarded as the safest place in the country. Two of the four Sub-prefects were Christians, as were many of the citizens. There were, however, many defections, and those that remained faithful were subjected to much annoyance. Hasegawa Gonroku ordered that none of the Christians should be allowed to travel by land or sea more than a league from the city. It is evident that this must have caused much hardship to those engaged in trade. When foreign ships came, the citizens were to have no direct communication with them. The persons and goods of all strangers entering the city were to be searched so as to make sure that no Christian books, rosaries, or medals were brought. Portuguese merchants were permitted to lodge only in the houses of non-Christians.
The next year (1626) Hasegawa was replaced by Mizuno Kawachi no Kami. While the former had taken little pleasure in the persecutions that his office compelled him to superintend, his successor was a bitter opponent of Christianity. Almost immediately after his arrival, three foreign priests and six Japanese Christians were burned. Thirteen stakes had been erected, but at the last moment four Portuguese who had been arrested purchased their lives by the denial of their faith. A few days afterwards nine Japanese, who had given the missionaries shelter, were executed.
Near the close of 1626, when Portuguese and Chinese ships came as usual to Nagasaki, the Christians were not allowed to lodge the merchants, to trade with them, to become their servants, or even to converse with them. The Portuguese merchants themselves were treated with much insolence. Their chests were searched, their papers read, and their religious medals thrown into the sea. Two vessels that came from the Philippines were immediately turned back.
Mizuno, who held his office for three years, did his best in that time to exterminate the religion he so hated. Christian artisans were not permitted to ply their trades. Many new forms of torture were introduced. In this, however, Mizuno’s powers of invention were not equal to those of Matsukura, the new Lord of Arima. In the latter’s territories Christians were made to kneel on hot coals, were suspended by different parts of the body to trees, were branded on cheeks and forehead with the three ideographs that were pronounced Kirishitan (Christian), or were plunged into the sea until nearly drowned, when they were drawn out only to have the operation repeated at short intervals. But what was regarded as the most terrible of all torments was to plunge the victim again and again into the sulphur springs of Onsen, whose corrosive waters gave rise to horrible sores. The frightful sounds, the heat, the sulphurous vapours, and the dismal surroundings of these springs have led to their being named “Jigoku,” the Buddhist word for Hell. One spring has a temperature of over 200° Fahr.
The missionaries that were in hiding suffered many privations. A letter written in 1626 by Father Couros says:
“The Christians that had me under their care lost courage and earnestly urged me to take ship at once and hasten to secure my safety. In order to calm them I promised to depart the following night. Meanwhile my host, unknown to the others had arranged a pit or subterranean cavity twelve palms long by four broad. Neither the rays of the sun nor any other light entered it. That night I, together with my catechist and a servant, crept into it without the knowledge of any person except our host. The nights and days passed by in darkness, the only light I obtained was a little for eating, for reciting the divine office, and for writing certain letters connected with my ministry. Food was passed to us through a concealed opening that was reached by pulling away the straw in an adjoining hut where an old man was at work, and this was opened only for so long a time as was necessary for introducing the food. Every three days the door of the pit was opened for the removal of ordure. The food was very scanty and very poor, for our host feared to make purchases lest he should excite suspicion. I remained thirty-five days in this dungeon, going out only on Holy Saturday, Easter, and the days of the octave, in order to celebrate mass. Afterwards I moved to another pit of the same size that my host’s charity had prepared for me, I am still there at this time, namely, the last of September. I have with me the necessary outfit for celebrating mass. Above the pit is a shed where my host keeps his tools. Here there is a small door covered with straw and heaps of matting in such a way as to avert suspicion. I go out at night, arrange my altar, and say mass. Before daybreak I return to the pit with the vestments and other sacred objects.”*
A Franciscan missionary arrested in 1627 was unable to destroy a paper that contained a list of the members of his order who remained in Japan. This was forwarded to the Shogun and became the occasion for his ordering a more stringent enforcement of the laws, Mizuno was replaced by Takenaka Uneme, whose reputation for cruelty was so great that many of the Christians, on hearing of the appointment, hastened to escape from Nagasaki before he should arrive. His acts did not belie his reputation. The chronicles of the next few years are largely occupied with details of the methods taken by him and others to exterminate Christianity. The stories of suffering are so terrible that modern readers will prefer to be spared the details of what was endured by those subjected to torture. Very many persons who had been numbered among the believers were unable to stand the test, and promised to give up Christianity. Ere we condemn their weakness, let us think how hard it is for us to endure some comparatively trifling pain, and ask whether we could bear up under the most excruciating tortures that human ingenuity could invent. Let us remember, too, that many of the sufferers had for years been shut off from their religious teachers, that some of them were new converts, and that behind none of them was that kind of strength and training that comes to those whose ancestors for generations have known the Christian religion. Yes, thousands did fall away; but there were others whose faithfulness unto death proved their sincerity and has won for them the admiration of all Christendom.
The missionaries by their words and example helped to sustain the constancy of the believers and even inspired in many a desire for martyrdom like that seen in the early church when Rome tried to crush out Christianity. Of what avail were threats uttered against those that longed to die for their Lord, believing that the more severe the tortures they endured the greater reason was there to rejoice in thought of the reward that awaited them?
The first arrests made by Takenaka were those of thirty-seven men and twenty-seven women, whom he sent to Onsen with directions that they were not to be put to death, but to be tortured until they apostatised, even though years might be required to bring this about. By day and night the corrosive water was poured at intervals upon their bodies. This plan was so successful that sixty of the sufferers yielded. To avoid the inconvenience of sending other persons to so distant a place as Onsen, artificial baths, which proved as efficient as the natural springs, were about this time made in the suburbs of Nagasaki. Takenaka was not satisfied with persecuting the living. Saying that he could not tolerate even dead Christians, he caused their bodies to be dug up from the cemeteries and burned.
After a few months there was a lull in the persecution as though all had been done that the Shogun had ordered. It was afterwards thought that Takenaka’s purpose was to make the missionaries less cautious so that he might discover where they were. However this may have been, he was soon able to secure the arrest of three and also of a Japanese Jesuit Father, Ichida Pinto, These were confined in the Omura jail and active persecution was resumed.
The Christians in other parts of Japan were suffering in much the same ways as their brethren in Nagasaki, The missionaries that remained in the country were obliged to keep closely concealed. Not much information concerning their movements has been preserved, as it was difficult for them to send letters. The little knowledge we have of this period is chiefly concerning the sufferings to which the Christians were subjected. The list of martyrs constantly grew longer. How many lost their lives in these persecutions cannot be known. Many authors have written as though the martyrs were to be reckoned by tens of thousands or even by hundreds of thousands. One writer has given the number as over two millions. Father Cardim’s Catalogue, printed in 1646, gives the names of the martyrs from 1557 to 1640; and Murdoch, after carefully checking the list, says that, apart from those perishing in the Shimabara Revolt and those put to death in connection with the Portuguese embassy of 1640, Cardim records only 1420 victims. Father Steichen in “The Christian Daimyo” reckons that, allowing for omissions and adding those suffering after 1640, the whole number of martyrs may have been about 2000. It may be questioned, however, whether there may not have been many more who lost their lives on account of their faith. Little account was made in those days of the common people, and such officials as were bitterly opposed to Christianity would not hesitate to brush aside its followers in the humble ranks of life. Moreover, outside of the persons officially executed, there would be many deaths indirectly caused by the privations of those that were driven from their homes, who were as truly martyrs as if they had perished at the stake or by the sword.
Takenaka, as we have seen, was ready to have a long time spent in securing apostasy. It would have been particularly pleasing to him if some of the foreign missionaries could have been induced to renounce their faith. Those arrested in 1629 were kept for two years in the jail at Omura.* In December, 1631, they were taken to Onsen, together with a Spanish Brother and two women of mixed Portuguese and Japanese blood. All remained firm and were brought to the prison in Nagasaki. The women were sent to Macao and the men were burned at the stake in September, 1632.
Hidetada died in 1632. His son, lemitsu, carried out to its completion the policy his father had adopted concerning the Christians. Under his rule the land was finally rid of the foreign missionaries and most of their native helpers. Thirty-three Jesuits, six Dominicans, two Franciscans, and two secular priests were put to death. In the first year of his rule (1632) the number of missionaries had been increased by the arrival of eleven. One of these was Father Sebastian Vieyra, who had been appointed Vice-Provincial of the Jesuits and the deputy of the Bishop. The latter still remained in Macao, his failure ever to come to Japan being the cause of much adverse criticism. The account of Vieyra’s voyage will serve as an example to show how much some of the missionaries were willing to endure in order to reach a land where they knew that almost certain death awaited them.
Vieyra, who had formerly spent several years in Japan, had been sent in 1623 to Macao, and from there to Rome, that he might plead the cause of the Jesuits against their accusers and create a deeper interest in their work. Desiring to return to Japan, he went to Manila, where, by paying an enormous price, he hired a Chinese captain to give him passage. Disguised in Chinese costume, he went on board the junk to find that, instead of being allowed to remain in what might by courtesy be called the cabin, he was forced to conceal himself in the hold, where there was not sufficient light for reading, and the air was made almost unbearable by the stench of deerskins that formed a large part of the cargo. He remained ten days shut up in this place. Then he learned that, contrary to the agreement made with the captain, there were a Dominican and two Franciscan missionaries on board. There were also eleven Japanese from Arima, who had interest in the cargo. When the sailors discovered that there were missionaries on the ship, they wished to return to the Philippines, or to leave on some island the passengers whose presence might be a source of danger to all. The Japanese merchants also desired this, though when Vieyra, recognising in the most hostile of them a man whom he had formerly known and whose confessor he had been, called him by name and reminded him of their former relations, the whole eleven, all of whom were apostate Christians, respectfully saluted the Father and showed a more favourable disposition. Notwithstanding this change, the missionaries would probably have been set ashore on Formosa had not a severe tempest driven them past that island. There are few things like a storm at sea for making men mindful of religious duties, and the frightened apostates, as well as many of the crew, confessed their sins to the priests and sought pardon, promising that if their lives were spared they would take the missionaries to Japan. Both Japanese and Chinese signed a written agreement not to give information against them. As the vessel neared the Goto Islands, the Fathers were concealed in various places so that they might not be discovered by the officials. Vieyra was hidden in a water-tank where he almost died for want of air. The others suffered in similar ways, but felt repaid by their success in getting into Japan undiscovered.
The next year Vieyra was captured, and after spending some time in the prison at Omura, was sent by the Shogun’s orders to Yedo. There he was closely questioned by the officials. One of his letters says that they, and a large number of the people who gathered to see him, expressed their conviction that the doctrines as he explained them were true, but the Shogun’s dislike of Christianity prevented them from becoming its adherents. Vieyra was asked to write out a synopsis of his belief. He spent nearly fourteen hours in preparing this statement, which was sent to the Shogun. June 6, 1634, he and Father Gomez, with several Japanese, were sent to the fosse, as French writers have denominated a form of torture that had recently been invented. By the side of a pit about six feet deep was erected a post with a projecting arm from which the victim was suspended head downwards after he had been bound with cords in such a way as to retard the circulation of the blood. He was lowered into the pit, whose air was sometimes made stiflingly offensive by the presence of offal. In some cases the sufferer was tied up in a sack, one hand being left outside so that it might be used in making a sign of recantation’ Alter a person had hung for a short time, blood would begin to ooze from his mouth, nose, and ears It was customary to bleed the temples, so as to prevent too great congestion. It is said that death would not come for two or three days, and in some cases might be delayed for six days. Father Vieyra was alive at the end of three days, though his companions were all dead. The impatience of the executioners to be done with the affair then led them to commit him to the flames.
Less happy was Father Ferreyra, a Jesuit, who the previous year (1633) was sent to the fosse in Nagasaki with three other Europeans and four Japanese, Among them was Father Julian Nakaura, one of the four Japanese who went to Rome in the embassy of 1582. All the sufferers remained faithful to the end except Ferreyra who, after five hours, yielded to the terrible torture and made the sign that showed his readiness to renounce Christianity. Great was the joy of Takenaka. At last he had gamed the desired victory over one of the foreign teachers of the hated religion. To the Jesuits this was a sad blow, and it doubtless had much influence, as Takenaka had hoped, in making it easier to secure the apostasy of Japanese Christians. The Roman Catholic historians state that twenty years later Ferreyra repented of his weakness, openly professed his belief in Christianity, and at the age of seventy-four endured, without faltering the torments of the fosse from which he had once shrunk, the proofs of this statement, however, are not so strong as could be desired.
In June, 1635, new orders were sent to all the daimyos that they should completely extirpate Christianity from their domains. Directions a year later to the Governors of Nagasaki included among other specifications the following;
“The sending of Japanese ships to foreign countries is strictly forbidden,”
“Japanese must not be sent to other countries. If any try to go secretly, they shall be punished by death, while the ship and crew must be kept in custody, and the matter reported.”
“If any Japanese who has resided abroad returns to Japan, he shall be punished by death.”
“Rewards to those informing against Christians shall be as follows:—For religious teachers, three hundred or two hundred pieces of silver according to their rank. In other cases, as previously provided.”
“Foreigners who propagate the religion of the Fathers, and likewise persons of evil reputation, shall as before be sent to prison in Omura.”
“Descendants of the Portuguese* must not be allowed to remain in the country. Any who retain them contrary to the law shall be put to death, and their relatives shall be punished according to the degree of the offence.”
The next year the Japanese prepared a small artificial island that was connected with Nagasaki by a bridge. To the narrow limits of this island, which was called Deshima, the Portuguese merchants that came from Macao were confined during their stay in Japan. Kaempfer tells us that by his own measuring he “found the breadth of the island to be of eighty-two common paces, and the main length of two hundred and thirty-six.”
The last two survivors of the Dominicans in Japan had been martyred in 1634. The members of the order in the Philippines were earnest in the desire to resume the work for which their brethren had given up their fives. In 1636 four Fathers, one of whom was a Japanese, were selected to make the attempt. The Governor of Manila, on receiving information that a ship had been prepared to take them to Loochoo, had the vessel burned. A second was procured and despatched without attracting the attention of the sentinels that had been put along the coast to guard against such attempts. The Fathers, accompanied by two secular priests, one a Japanese and the other of mixed Spanish and Chinese parentage, reached Loochoo in safety, and after remaining there about a year, were sent as prisoners to Nagasaki, where they were executed. The next year Father Mastrilli, a Jesuit who had managed to enter Japan, met with the same fate.
We now come to what has been known by the Japanese as the “Christian Rebellion.” It has also been named the “Shimabara Revolt” from the place where its principal events occurred. Though it may be doubted whether religious considerations held the chief place in causing this outbreak, many of the leaders were Christians, and, as the movement went on, it became more closely associated with Christianity, so that its suppression gave what at the time seemed the deathblow to that religion in Japan.
The peninsula of Shimabara formed a part of the daimiate of Arima, which has held so important a place in our history. It will be remembered that under its Christian daimyos the Buddhist temples were destroyed, many churches were erected, and most of the inhabitants professed the new faith. For a long time Arima was a stronghold of Christianity, and in its schools were educated not only those that became evangelists but also those who painted the pictures, carved the images, and made the various utensils used in the churches.
The apostasy of a later daimyo was followed by that of many of his subjects. Others stood unmoved, and even among those that conformed to the new order of things there must have been many who sympathised with the Christians. When persecutions broke out in different parts of Japan, Nagasaki was for a long time the asylum where believers sought shelter; and when that city became dangerous, the proximity of Arima, together with the fact that a large proportion of its inhabitants was ready to give them succour, caused it to be chosen as a refuge.
Near the peninsula of Shimabara was the island of Amakusa, This, which had at one time been another stronghold of Christianity, was now under the rule of Terasawa, the son of the man by the same name whose defection from Christianity has been previously recorded. He also held Karatsu, in the northern part of Kyushu, and made it his chief residence. The elder Terasawa, who died in 1633, had, after his own defection from Christianity, dealt for the most part leniently with his believing subjects, but in 1629 he had sent to Amakusa as his lieutenant another apostate, with orders to suppress the Christian religion. Among the inhabitants of the island were some of the former retainers of Konishi, who, under the persecutions instituted after the fall of their lord, had left their old homes rather than give up their faith.
The insurrection is often described as an uprising of “farmers.” It needs to be remembered, however, that the distinction between the agricultural and the military classes was not then so marked as it afterwards became, and also that some of these farmers were men who had once fought under Konishi and other generals in Korea, but who, having lost employment because of the misfortunes of their lords or on account of their own faith, had been forced to earn a living by the labour of their hands. Such persons would not entirely lose the martial spirit, and, though age had now enfeebled their powers, it is probable that they had taught their children how to use military arms. The number of those in Arima who had formerly been warriors was increased by the fact that when, in 1614, the apostate daimyo was removed to Hyuga, very few of his retainers cared to follow him, even though the failure to do so involved the loss of the revenues they had once enjoyed. On the other hand, three years later, when Matsukura Shigemasu came to take possession of the fief, he, according to the usual custom, brought his vassals with him and so had no occasion to employ those left by his predecessor. Koeckebacker, the Superintendent of the Dutch trading factory at Hirado, wrote of these things as follows:
“The servants of the departed prince were then deprived of their income and obliged by poverty to become farmers in order to procure for their wives and children the necessaries of life Although thus becoming peasants in name, they were in reality soldiers well acquainted with the use of weapons. The newly arrived Lord, not content herewith, imposed upon them and upon the other farmers more taxes and forced them to raise such a quantity of rice as was impossible for them to do. Those who could not pay the fixed taxes were dressed by his order in a rough straw coat made of a kind of grass with large and broad leaves and called mino by the Japanese, such as is used by boatmen and other peasantry as a rain-coat. These mantles were tied round the neck and body, the hands being tightly bound behind their backs with ropes, after which the straw coats were set on fire. They not only received burns, but some were burnt to death; others killed themselves by bumping violently against the ground or drowning themselves. This tragedy is called the ‘Mino dance.’ This revengeful tyrant, not content with his cruelty, ordered women to be suspended quite naked by the legs, and caused them to be scoffed at in various other ways.”
The new Lord of Arima exhibited like cruelty towards those whose only offence was a belief in Christianity. He soon gained the reputation of being the most successful extorter of recantations that Japan had yet seen. His son, Matsukura Shigetsugu, who succeeded him in 1630, imitated his father’s virulence against the Christians, but was not so skilful a ruler. He was dissolute and luxurious, so that he exacted from the people heavier taxes than had before been known. It is said that even his own soldiers were so financially burdened that they had to engage in menial labour in order to provide themselves with the necessities of life. Koeckebacker in the letter already quoted said:
“As the present Lord, who resides in Yedo, feels also inclined to follow in the footsteps of his father and forces the farmers to pay more taxes than they are able to do, in such a manner that they [anguish from hunger, taking only some roots and vegetables for nourishment, the people resolved not to bear any longer the vexations, and to die one single death instead of the many slow deaths to which they were subjected. Some of the principal amongst them have killed with their own hands their wives and children in order not to view any longer the disdain and infamy to which their relatives were subjected.”
Evidently everything was ready for revolt if leaders could be found. There is said to have been preserved among the Christians the following prophecy left by one of the missionaries who had been driven from Amakusa about 1612.
“When five times five years have passed, a remarkable youth will appear. Without study he shall of himself know all things, and he shall be famous throughout the land. Then shall the clouds of the east and west shine with a ruddy glow, wistaria flowers shall blossom from the trunks of dead trees. Multitudes shall bear the cross on their helmets, white flags shall float over sea and river, mountain and plain. Then shall come the time for Jesus to be honoured.”
In 1637, strange appearances in the sky and unusual blossoms in the gardens seemed to coincide with the signs foretold by this prophecy. Neither was there lacking a person that was thought to answer to the description of the promised deliverer. His name was Masuda Shiro, the son of one of the Christian warriors that had left the province of Higo at the time of the persecution under Kato Kiyomasa. The boy had been brought up in Nagasaki, and it is probable that what he learned there from the missionaries and other foreigners enabled him to astonish the people of Amakusa by a display of wisdom. It was asserted that he could walk upon the sea, make birds fly down from the sky to light on his hand, cause stags to issue from a sea-shell, and perform many other miracles.
Five of the former retainers of Konishi are mentioned as leaders of the movement in Amakusa. They began by holding meetings in which they spoke to the peasants-concerning this young man who had come to inaugurate a movement that would result in the firm establishment of Christianity in Japan, China, and India. They promised that those who became his first followers would be given high honour and office in the new kingdom soon to be set up, while all who opposed him would miserably perish.
In the months of November and December, 1637, the agitation gradually assumed a more violent character. In several villages the peasants attacked the public granaries and took possession of the rice that had been collected by the tax-gatherers. By the end of the year five or six thousand men were in arms, the larger part of them besieging the castle of Tomeoka. Terasawa’s lieutenant, Miyake Tobei, who had received early warning of the danger, sent to Kusatsu asking for reinforcements. Fifteen hundred men, who attempted to come to his aid, were intercepted by the insurgents and defeated in three successive engagements. A portion of them, however, managed to enter the castle, where they also succeeded in repelling an assault made January 7, 1638, by the insurgents.
In this assault the rebels of Amakusa were assisted by some from Shimabara, for Shiro and his advisers had extended their agitation to that peninsula. News that the peasants were holding meetings reached the officials, who surprised a company of farmers and arrested two of their leaders. As it was supposed that these last would be immediately put to death, their associates came together to perform funeral rites. When an officer attempted to interfere with them, he was torn to pieces by the angry people. This was on the eleventh of December. Word of what had happened was at once sent to other villages. In these, too, the people arose, killing officers and destroying temples. On the twelfth of December, a part of the city of Shimabara was burned, and the insurgents then laid siege to its castle.
When intelligence of these events reached the central government, there was great fear lest the insurrction might become general throughout the land. The Shogun’s brother was sent to Sendai that he might be on the watch for any indications of trouble in that region. Other officials were sent to Nagasaki, while Itakura Shigemasa was ordered to put down the insurrection in Amakusa and Shimabara by the help of troops collected from neighbouring daimiates.
As there was little reason to hope that in the absence of artillery the castles of Tomeoka and Shimabara could be taken, Masuda decided to occupy and repair an old deserted castle at Hara, twenty miles from the city of Shimabara. This was situated on a high bluff whose cliffs on three sides descended for a hundred feet perpendicularly to the sea, while the fourth side was partly protected by a swamp. Two deep moats across the narrow ridge of land that led to the bluff formed an important part of its defence, Japanese accounts of the struggle say that twenty thousand men, together with seventeen thousand women and children, gathered in the castle. Dr. Reiss thinks that the whole number could hardly have reached twenty thousand. He supposes that thirty-seven thousand included all that in Shimabara and Amakusa took part in the uprising. All in the castle worked vigorously at strengthening its defences. The movement was now professedly Christian. On the battlements were placed wooden crosses, while flags were marked with the same symbol. The warriors encouraged one another by shouting out the names of Jesus, Mary, and St. James. A letter that at a later date was shot into the camp of the besiegers said:
“For the sake of our people we have now resorted to this castle. No doubt you will think that we have done this for the sake of seizing lands and acquiring houses; but such is by no means the case. It is simply because, as you know, Christianity is not tolerated as a distinct sect. Frequent prohibitions have been published by the Shogun that have greatly distressed us. Some there are among us that consider the hope of future life as of the highest importance. For these there is no escape. Since they will not change their religion, they incur various kinds of severe punishments, being cruelly subjected to shame and extreme suffering until at last, for their devotion to the Lord of Heaven, they are tortured to death. Others, and among them some men of strong will, have been moved by solicitude for their sensitive bodies and through dread of torture have, while hiding their grief, obeyed the will of the Shogun and recanted. While things were in this state, all the people have been moved in an unaccountable and miraculous manner to unite in an uprising. Should we continue to live as hitherto with these laws unrepealed, we must suffer all sorts of fearful punishments. As our bodies are weak and sensitive to pain, we might be led to sin against the infinite Lord of Heaven, and from solicitude for our brief lives incur the loss of what we most value. These things fill us with unbearable grief. Hence we have taken this action. It is not the result of a corrupt doctrine.”
Itakura, who had at his disposal a force of over twenty-six thousand men, made an attack upon the castle. The result was a complete failure. None of the insurgents were slain, while Itakura lost six hundred men. A second assault made on the fourteenth of the month was even more disastrous. Though only ninety of the defenders were injured, the attacking force suffered a loss of about five thousand. As Itakura himself was among the slain, Matsudaira lzu no Kami was sent to take his place. It was now seen that these so-called “farmers” possessed much military skill as well as bravery. To overcome them an army of over one hundred thousand warriors was collected, Matsudaira received orders not to allow a single Christian, whether man, woman, or child, to escape. At the same tune he was told not to waste unnecessarily the lives of his own soldiers. He therefore determined that for a while he would make no assault on the castle, but would guard its approaches so as to keep the rebels from escaping or obtaining supplies of food. Artificial hills were constructed from which cannon sent frequent shot into the castle, while other cannon were placed on junks that they might fire upon it from the sea. These last accomplished so little that Koeckebacker, the head of the Dutch factory, was “advised” and afterwards commanded to send ships with heavy artillery for taking part in the bombardment, A few years before this, Koeckebacker had made such engagements with the Japanese that he now thought he could not avoid compliance with these orders. He had already sent six cannon, as well as some powder, and, after managing to hurry off two of his three vessels to Formosa, he went with the other, a ship with twenty guns, to help in the reduction of Hara. In fifteen days the Dutch fired four hundred and twenty-six shot. Though Koeckebacker says that the conditions were such as prevented his guns from accomplishing very much, the Japanese were surprised at the accuracy of aim, and the insurgents were compelled to dig cellars in which to take refuge from the cannon-balls. Suddenly the Dutch were told that they might withdraw, the reason given to Koeckebacker being that Matsudaira had pity for them on account of the inconvenience they were occasioned by having their homeward voyage delayed. A more probable reason is that some of the daimyos considered it derogatory to their honour that the aid of foreigners should be thought necessary for suppressing the revolt of a few farmers. Koeckebacker says that the insurgents had shot a letter into the camp of the besiegers asking why, when there were so many brave soldiers in Japan, they had to seek help from the Hollanders.
The rebels had reason to fear treachery. After Itakura’s first attack, one of their number, named Yamada, sent word to the besiegers that he and eight hundred others were not real Christians, but had been compelled by popular opinion to take part in the uprising. He therefore proposed a plan by which the besiegers could gain entrance to the castle, promising that in the resulting confusion he would either assassinate Masuda or deliver him into their hands. This plot was discovered, the family of Yamada was put to death, and he was placed in confinement to await the time when the leaders should inflict upon him such punishment as his treachery deserved. When the castle was finally taken, he was found and set free, he being the only person within the fort whose life was spared.
Matsudaira hoped that as the sufferings of hunger began to be felt by those in the castle, others would be found to desert a cause whose helplessness was every day becoming more evident. Notwithstanding that he had been ordered to slay all the Christians, he had a letter shot into the castle promising to those who would surrender themselves that they should have full pardon, if they were not Christians or if they were willing to recant. The letter fell into the hands of the leaders, who at once sent back a reply, saying that, since all in the castle were ready to die for the sake of God, nothing would induce them to give up their faith or to surrender.
The insurgents sustained their courage by religious exercises and by songs of faith or defiance. One of the latter has been preserved:
“While powder and shot remain, continue to chase the besieging army that is blown away before us like the drifting sand. Hear the dull thud of the enemy’s guns: ’ Don! Don! ’ Our arms give back the reply: ’ By the blessing of God the Father, I will cut off your heads!’”
A vigorous sortie failed to obtain the provisions that were so much needed. Evidently there could be but one end to such an unequal conflict. The final assault began at noon, April 11, 1638. The insurgents fought desperately until the last. In the absence of ammunition they used stones, billets of wood, kitchen utensils, anything and everything that could be shot from their rude cannon or otherwise employed as a weapon. It was not until the next morning that the besiegers succeeded in taking the castle. They did their best to carry out the grim order for the destruction of old and young. Only one hundred and nine were taken prisoners and they were put to death a few days later. The bodies of the slain were thrown into the sea, but previously the heads had been severed in order that they might be exposed in Nagasaki as a ghastly spectacle to warn all men of the punishment due to rebels. A journal kept by the Dutch in Hirado says that they numbered seventeen thousand. The insurgents were not the only ones punished for the outbreak, Matsukura, whose tyranny had been one of its causes, was ordered to commit harakiri. From Terasawa were taken away parts of his territory and revenues. He soon after became insane and took his own life.
This revolt led the Government to put forth all its efforts for the suppression of Christianity. The feudal lords sought more energetically than before to apprehend any believers that might be in their territories. The news of the extermination of those who had fought at Hara in the names of Christ and Mary so disheartened others who had before been numbered among the Christians that they had little courage to meet the new trial to which they were exposed. Nearly all who remained in the country made at least a pretence of returning to the old religions.* Yet from time to time, believers were discovered. In 1639, Father Pedro Cassoui, a Japanese Jesuit, was put to death in the fosse; and Father Porro, an Italian Jesuit, was burned alive with all the inhabitants of the village where he was found, A Japanese manuscript says that in Nagasaki ten per cent, of the Christians detected were retained in prison to be utilised as witnesses in future trials, ten per cent, were assigned (probably as slaves) to informers, and the rest were executed.
Special officers called Kirishitan bugyo were appointed to seek out Christians, and various plans were adopted for the detection of those that concealed their faith. One of the most effective devices was that known as efumi (picture-trampling). It is not certain when this was introduced. References to it are found as early as 1658. Suspected persons were ordered to tread upon a cross or upon a picture of Christ. Those shrinking from the act of irreverence were recognised as followers of the proscribed religion. In 1669, a copper tablet with a representation of Christ was substituted in Nagasaki for the picture. Similar ones were afterwards used in other places. Thunberg, who came to Japan in 1775, says that once a year in Nagasaki, the inspectors assembled the inhabitants of each ward, calling them by name and making them step on the image. Infant children were brought by their mothers and held in such a way that their feet touched the tablet. Thus they were taught from their earliest days to despise and hate the religion that it symbolised. Four days were occupied in this ceremony, and then the plate was carried to the neighbouring villages, Thunberg denies, as others have done, the assertion that the Dutch merchants were obliged to trample on the picture and that they were willing to do it rather than lose their trade.*
In time the Christians adopted various subterfuges for avoiding the tests or for reconciling their consciences to an outward observance of the ceremonies. It is said that in some places the Christians, after trampling on the picture, would wash their feet and then drink the water, returning thanks that they had been permitted to touch the sacred emblem.
One result of the Shimabara Revolt was that the Portuguese, being suspected of having encouraged it, were forbidden to come any more to Japan. In 1639, orders were given that, if a Portuguese ship should come, it must be destroyed and all persons on board be immediately beheaded. Notice was given to the Dutch and Chinese that their ships would be confiscated if any Christian teachers were found upon them. The Dutch were also ordered to give information if they knew of missionaries being brought by the vessels of any other nation.
The Portuguese merchants of Macao, greatly disturbed at the loss of such a profitable trade, finally decided to send to Japan four of the most honourable men of the colony, who should bear rich presents, declare that the Portuguese had no connection with the revolt, and ask that commerce be renewed. It was recognised that those taking part in this expedition were running great risks. In all the churches of the city special religious services were held in their behalf. The envoys, their attendants, and the sailors received the sacraments before starting. No one was permitted on the ship who did not have a certificate showing that he had been to the confessional.
The vessel reached Nagasaki July 16, 1640. The Japanese at once surrounded it with guard-boats; removed rudder, sails, and ammunition; and placed the Portuguese under a guard of soldiers until an answer could be received from the report of the affair that was sent to Yedo. When the answer came, it was as follows:
“The crimes committed for many years by these men while promulgating Christianity in disregard of the Shogun’s decrees are very numerous and exceedingly grave. Last year the Shogun forbade under the severest penalties that any one should come from Macao to Japan, and he decreed that, in case any vessel should come in disregard of the prohibition, it should be burned, while all the sailors and passengers, without any exception, should be put to death. All these points have been provided for, drawn up in articles, and published in due form. Nevertheless, by coming in this ship, these men have disregarded the decree and have also greatly prevaricated. Moreover, however much they may assert in words that henceforth they will send no teacher of the Christian religion, it is certain that the letters from Macao do not promise this. Since it is solely because of the Christian religion that the Shogun has rigorously forbidden this navigation, and since in the despatches from the Portuguese city the aforesaid promise is not given, it is proved that the whole embassy is only an out-and-out lie. Consequently all persons coming in the ship have merited death, and none ought to be left to report the catastrophe. It is ordered that the ship be burned and that the chiefs of the embassy with all their attendants be put to death, so that the report of this example may reach even to Macao and Europe, and that the whole world may learn to respect the majesty of the Shogun. Nevertheless, we wish that the lowest persons of the crew shall be spared and sent back to Macao. If by any chance or by accident at sea any ship of the Portuguese should come to Japan, let it he known that, no matter at what port a landing is made, all on board to the very last man shall be put to death.”
In accordance with this sentence, the four envoys and fifty-seven other persons were beheaded August 3, 1640. The thirteen whose lives were spared witnessed the execution and also the burning of the ship. The next day they were taken to identify the heads of the slain. Near the places where these were exposed tablets had been erected, on one of which was an account of the embassy and the reason for the execution of those connected with it. The second had this inscription:
“Thus is it that hereafter shall be punished with death all those coming to this Empire from Portugal, whether they be ambassadors or common sailors, and even though it be through mistaking the way or because of a tempest that they come; yea, every such person shall perish, even though he be the King of Portugal, or Buddha, or a Japanese God, or the Christians’ God Himself; yea, all shall die.”*
The survivors were given an opportunity of going back to Macao on a Dutch ship, but not wishing “to be under obligations to those infidels,” they preferred to take passage on a fragile craft that after a perilous voyage reached Macao September 20, 1640.
“The whole city,” says Pagés, “received their message with the most admirable sentiments, and rendered solemn thanks to God for having made the ambassadors of earth ambassadors to heaven. The families of the slain occupied the places of honour at the festivals. To the sound of church-bells and artillery, the hymn of glory broke forth on the air and carried to the feet of the Almighty the Christian joy of the people together with their resigned and grateful adoration”
Not yet would the Portuguese give up all hope of resuming trade. In December, 1640, their country, having become independent of Spain, installed a king of its own. The envoy sent from Macao to congratulate him on his accession urged him to send an ambassador to Japan. This was done in 1647. As the two vessels that accompanied him refused to give up rudder and arms, a large force of Japanese gathered to guard them. The ships were finally permitted to depart without injury, hut nothing was accomplished by the embassy.
As the English factory had been discontinued, the Dutch were now the only Europeans remaining in Japan. They did not escape suspicion, notwithstanding their attempts to make it plain that their religion was very different from that of the Spanish and Portuguese. In 1040, they came very near getting into serious trouble through having inscribed the Christian date on a new warehouse they erected in Hirado. It may he, as suggested by Kaempfer, that this edifice, being unusually high and built of stone, was suspected of being made as much for a fortress as for a warehouse. Some of the enemies of the Dutch took this occasion for having an official inspection of the factory, turning over all the goods in hope that some religious wares might be found that would serve as an excuse for making an armed attack upon the merchants. Nothing of the kind was discovered, but orders were given that the warehouse bearing the obnoxious inscription should be torn down. The Dutch director had the good sense to comply, and thus a conflict was avoided. The next year the factory was removed to Nagasaki. The Dutch had long desired to gain entrance to this port, but they soon found that, instead of the comparative freedom they had enjoyed in Hirado, they were to be hardly better than prisoners on the little island of Deshima, almost entirely cut off from communication with the Japanese, and hampered by many annoying regulations. Though these varied from time to time, they were in general for the next two centuries very much the same that are described by such writers as Thunberg, Kaempfer, and Siebold, When a Dutch ship arrived, it had to give over its rudder and armament to the Japanese. A list of all persons on board was required, and frequent inspections were made to see that none were absent. Bibles, prayer books, and other objects having connection with the Christian religion were enclosed in a chest to be put in the care of the Japanese, or else hidden where it would escape their notice. All persons who went on shore were carefully searched to see that they carried no contraband goods. At one time the captains of ships were exempt from such inspection. It is said that they became noted for their corpulency; cloaks and trousers being made of such immense proportions that they afforded room for a good-sized cargo to be taken to and from shore in the three visits that were made each day. Thunberg says that sometimes the captains went so heavily loaded that they had to be supported under the arms by sailors who walked at their side. The commander of the vessel in which he came to Japan had made due preparation to avail himself of this custom; but to his disgust he found, on reaching Nagasaki, that new regulations made this convenient method of smuggling impossible. Japanese officials held the keys of the warehouses at Deshima. The gate leading to the bridge that connected the island with Nagasaki was closely guarded. No one could pass it without the Governor’s permission. Once or twice a year the prisoners were allowed to take a walk on shore, and embassies were sent annually to Yedo. No Japanese (except public women) were allowed to live in the houses of the foreigners, or even to visit them. For a long time the Dutch were not allowed to bury their dead on land, but the bodies were sunk at sea. Shortly before Kaempfer came in 1690, this rule was relaxed and a burial place on land granted, though the ground was kept level so that there was nothing to distinguish the location of the graves. The Hollanders were very careful to make it evident that their religion was not that of the Spanish and Portuguese. Kaempfer says that they had “to leave off praying and singing of psalms in public, entirely to avoid the sign of the cross, the calling upon Christ in the presence of the natives, and all the outward marks of Christianity.”
The Jesuits in Macao were as desirous as the merchants to re-enter Japan. In 1642, ten of their number decided that the time had come for making an attempt. Their leader, Father Anthony Rubin, had been appointed “Visitor of China and Japan.” He resolved to go to the latter of these countries. When his friends protested against such a dangerous and almost hopeless undertaking, he replied that the duties of his office left him no choice, for he ought to visit in person the places for which he had been made responsible. He felt under a special obligation to seek out Ferreyra, the Jesuit who had apostatised and who might perhaps be led to repentance.
It was decided that those joining in the enterprise should divide into two bands. The first was composed of Fathers Rubin, Moralez, Capece, Mecinske, and Francesco Marquez. They were accompanied by three persons not belonging to the Society, who volunteered to share the dangers of the expedition. One of these, De Souza, was a Portuguese; one named Thomas was a Korean; while the third, named Juan, was a native of India, The party set out July 5, 1642. All the priests were disguised as Chinese. Though the pretended destination of their boat was Formosa, it took its passengers to a small island belonging to the province of Satsuma, On landing, they knelt down and kissed the ground. It was not long before they were discovered and taken to Nagasaki. When brought before the Governor of the city, they found that the interpreter was the apostate priest whose recovery had been one object of their coming. Father Rubin, who acted as spokesman, replied to all questions and also reproved Ferreyra so severely for his conduct that the apostate was too much ashamed to remain in the room. The captives were subjected to various tortures intended to make them give up their faith.
Several months of imprisonment and torture did not avail to shake the steadfastness of these brave men. Finally, in March, 1643, sentence of death was pronounced against them. They were then placed on horseback, with their hands tied behind them and their mouths so gagged that they could not speak to one another nor to the people on the street. On their backs was placed the inscription, “The Shogun condemns these persons to death for propagating the Christian religion, which has long been condemned.” Led to the place of execution, they were subjected to the punishment of the fosse. It is said that several days elapsed ere death ended their sufferings.
After the news of this martyrdom reached Macao, the second group of Jesuits set out under the leadership of father Peter Marquez, who had been appointed Father Rubin’s successor. His companions were Fathers Arroyo, Cassola, and Chiara, besides a Japanese Brother named Vieyra. According to Roman Catholic histories, they first went to Loochoo and thence were taken to Yedo, where three of them were put to death, while the others were remanded to a prison in which they soon after died. Japanese accounts, whose general accuracy is undoubted, tell a far different story. According to these, the Jesuits were arrested in 1643, in Chi-kuzen, the northeastern province of Kyushu. With them were five Japanese catechists. All were sent to Nagasaki and in the following year to Yedo. The six Japanese soon consented to abandon Christianity. The foreigners also, after being put to torture, recanted, repeated an invocation to Buddha, and signed a declaration that there was no deception in their professed apostasy. They were thereafter kept in a prison that was constructed for them in the mansion of Inoue Chikugo no Kami, who was the chief of a commission for the suppression of Christianity. This prison was beside a steep lane that about that time received the name Kirishitan-zaka (Christian Slope) by which it is still known. One of the priests (Arroyo) after a while retracted his denial of Christianity, and soon after this he died. Peter Marquez died in 1657. Cassola and Chiara married Japanese women. To Chiara were transferred the name and swords of a criminal who had suffered capital punishment. Chiara died in 1685, at the age of eighty-four, and was buried at Muryoin, a temple near Kirishitan-zaka, where is still to be seen his grave-stone, the top of which is shaped like the hat worn by a Jesuit missionary. Vieyra died in 1678, aged seventy-nine, and was buried at the same temple. The Japanese records mention the arrest on an island near Chikuzen of a Sicilian priest, who was induced to apostatise. He was confined in the same place with the others, dying there in 1700.*
Five Dominican friars are said to have set forth in 1647 from Manila in the attempt to get into Japan. Little is known about this enterprise, except that it was unsuccessful.
Some attempts were made to reach the Japanese by way of China. Christian books printed in that country were mingled with others carried by the Chinese merchants. These could be read by well-educated Japanese. In 1687, the Shogun’s Government published a list of thirty-eight books whose importation was forbidden. Some of them were simply almanacs, which were objectionable because of casual references to Christianity. It is said that the Chinese also sent porcelain decorated with cryptic designs that could be recognised by the initiated as having Christian significance.
The most daring and romantic attempt to enter the country, so far as we have any record, was that made by Father Sidotti, a native of Palermo. He had, even as a boy, become so deeply interested in the history of the missions to Japan that he determined to carry Christianity again to the land where it had once been so prosperous. While preparing for the priesthood he found some books that enabled him to gain a slight knowledge of the language. Better opportunities for study came during a sojourn that he made in the Philippine Islands, where some shipwrecked sailors from Japan were kindly treated by the colonial government and through the rest of their lives were supported at public expense. They entered the Roman Catholic Church.*
In August, 1708, through the favour of the Governor, who fitted out a ship for Sidotti’s use, he left Manila, and after a long and tedious voyage drew near the shores of Kyushu, where, on the night of October 12, he had himself put on shore. The ship at once returned to Manila, leaving Sidotti alone, one man against a nation. He had dressed himself in the garb of a Japanese of the military class, even to the two swords thrust into his girdle.
The next morning a charcoal-burner on the way to his work heard some one calling to him. On turning around he saw a tall man who was talking and making signs. The peasant was unable to understand the stranger’s words, but thought the gestures signified a desire for water. After bringing some, he hurried away to tell the villagers about the strange man he had seen. He soon returned with two companions and took Sidotti to his house, there giving him food but refusing to accept the gold that was offered in payment. It was not long before the matter became known to the officials, who sent the stranger to Nagasaki.
Sidotti’s study of Japanese had not given him ability to speak intelligibly. None of the official interpreters were able to communicate with him. Recourse was then had to the Dutch traders, among whom was found one who knew a little Latin. Through him Sidotti was questioned concerning his country and his reasons for coming to Japan. After being kept for nearly a year in Nagasaki, he was sent to Kirishitan-zaka in do. Arai Hakuseki, an officer in the Shogun’s Government, has left an interesting account of several interviews that he had with Sidotti. Though the latter’s Japanese was a medley of badly pronounced provincialisms, Hakuseki says that he gradually became able to understand what the stranger wished to say.
It was December when Sidotti reached Yedo, He was so thinly dressed that warmer clothing was offered to him, a kindness that he refused to accept because, as he was understood to say, his religion did not allow him to receive gifts from unbelievers. At the close of the first interview he said that it gave him sorrow to think he was causing much trouble to the guards, who remained day and night in the cold prison to prevent his escape.
“Surely, there is no need of this,” he said, “for it is not likely that, after voluntarily coming thousands of miles in order to reach Japan, I shall now try to run away. Indeed, where could I go? If an attempt to escape is feared, why cannot you securely chain me every night so that the guards will be free to sleep in comfort?”
The other officials were much moved by this thought-fulness, but Hakuseki said: “This fellow is a liar. In this respect I am much disappointed in him.”
Sidotti understood what was said and warmly remonstrated: “There is no more insulting charge than to call a man a liar. Falsehood is forbidden by my religion. From childhood I have never said what is not true. Why do you accuse me of such a sin?”
“Did you not profess sympathy for the guards, who on your account are compelled to endure the severe cold of these winter nights?”
“I did.”
“Therefore did I accuse you of deceit. You profess to have sympathy for the guards, and yet you do not hesitate to cause them great anxiety by your refusal to accept warmer clothing. You pain them by this rejection of their kindness.”
“I acknowledge,” said the priest, “that I made a mistake. I will accept the clothes; only, I pray yon, let them be of cotton and not of silk.”
Hakuseki was evidently greatly impressed by Sidotti’s character, and enjoyed having long interviews with him, especially since he was thus able to satisfy his curiosity concerning foreign lands. He presented to the Government a report in which he gave the main points of their conversation. An account of what he learned from Sidotti about foreign customs has been preserved. Among other things it contains an outline of Christian doctrine.
In a memorial that Hakuseki sent to the Government he said: “According to my humble opinion, there are but three ways of dealing with the prisoner. These I shall describe as the best, the intermediate, and the worst. The first and best way is to release him and send him home. The intermediate plan is to imprison him for life. The third and worst of all is to kill him at once. “In recommending mercy, he said: “The stranger was born in a country where that odious religion prevails. The education that he received has become a second nature to him, and he cannot be blamed for not discerning that his religion is unreasonable and false. He is not personally blameworthy if, at the command of a superior authority, he left his old mother, sixty-eight years of age, and a brother also well advanced in life, that he might come to this land where he was in danger of being put to death and where he has lived for six years among the perils and distresses that have come upon him. The steadfastness of his determination is to be admired, I cannot but wonder at his resoluteness and the persistency of his purpose. To put him to death under these circumstances would be like shedding innocent blood.”
He further asserted that humane hearts could not endure to think of having Sidotti confined for the rest of his life in a narrow prison. If those who sent him should learn that he was alive, they would think the prohibitions against foreigners were being relaxed, and so others would be encouraged to come; and on the other hand, if no information concerning his fate reached them, they would send messengers to inquire about him. Hence, the best plan would be to deport him to the Philippines or to China, with a warning that the laws would be rigorously enforced against any others that ventured to come to Japan.
In disregard of Hakuseki’s advice, Sidotti was kept a prisoner. In the house where he was confined lived a man named Chosuke and his wife Haru, both of whom had once been employed as Chiara’s servants.* Though they were not believers in the forbidden religion, their employment by such a person was considered a sufficient reason for not permitting them to leave the place. When Sidotti had been four or five years in Yedo, these persons confessed to the officials that through his influence they had been converted and that he had baptised them. They said: “When our former master was alive, he secretly taught us his doctrines; but we did not know that in so doing he was acting contrary to the laws of the land. Now in our old age we have seen how this Roman, in disregard of his own life and for the sake of religion, has come many thousand miles to this land where he has been imprisoned; and, loath as we are to lose the little that remains of life, the knowledge of what a fearful thing it is to fall into hell has led us to receive his instruction and become believers. As it would be opposing the goodness of the Government not to acknowledge these things, we make our confession. Whatever the consequences may be to us, we ask that we may be dealt with according to the law.”
The two servants were confined in separate rooms and Sidotti was put in chains. He supposed that they would be executed, and as they were within hearing, he often shouted out, urging them to be faithful unto death. Both Sidotti and Chosuke died in 1715.†
The “Annals of the Propagation of the Faith” (Eng. ed., 1849, p. 215), after speaking of Sidotti says: “Subsequently to this an attempt of the same kind was made and the result is not known.” Possibly this notice may refer to four mysterious persons who are said to have appeared in Cochin China about the end of the eighteenth century, saying that they were missionaries to Japan. They asked the Vicar Apostolic to give them some sacred vestments, but insisted on the utmost secrecy. Nothing more is known about them.*
Apparently persecution had attained its object and wholly extirpated the religion against which it was directed. So it seemed to Europeans, save as there remained among Roman Catholics a lingering hope, nourished by one or two incidents hereafter to be noted that some secret believers in Christianity yet remained; so it seemed to the Japanese, except as now and then suspicion arose against the inhabitants of certain villages whose customs had some strange peculiarities. References to the hated religion were not permitted in books, and its very name might have been almost forgotten were it not written so prominently on the public proclamation-boards of every town. As soon as a child could read, he saw upon the boards that the KIRISHITAN JASHU-MON (Evil Sect of Christianity) was strictly prohibited, and when he asked what this meant, he was told by his parents about the wily scheme of the barbarian nations that sought to gain possession of Japan by means of a religion that was a strange compound of foolish doctrines and powerful magic.
Thus the close of this stage in the history of Christianity in Japan left it as a religion that seemed to have been thoroughly defeated and whose very name was enough to excite the derision and hatred of those that heard it.
Footnotes
* Germ. As. Soc.. vol. vii., pt, I. Another account, however, says Jorchin (or Jojin) was a Japanese. Trans, As. Soc vol vi. p. 44.
* In 1897 a suggestive sight was seen on what I suppose was almost the exact spot where these martyrs suffered. In connection with the funeral of the Empress Dowager, the Japanese Red Cross Society made preparations to care for any persons among the immense crowds viewing the procession who might be injured. Its tents were set up before the Temple of the Great Buddha and almost within the shadow of the Mimizuka, a mound under which were buried the ears of Koreans that had been sent back by Hideyoshi’s soldiers to show the number of the enemy they had slain. In strange contrast with the spirit that led to the erection of that mound and with the event related in the text, there floated over these tents white flags bearing what though once the most hated emblem in Japan, is now honoured as that of the Red Cross Society, which, though not distinctively Christian, owes it origin to the influence of Him who transformed the cross from a thing of shame into a symbol of love.
* “Les chrétiens. . . écriverent à Notre Réverénd P. Provincial, afin de la faire renvoyer, promettant de livrer en échange le saint corps du bienheureux martyr Fray Hernando de San Joseph, qu’ils avaient en leur possession” (Pagés, vol. ii., p. 257).
* “Nous répondimes que nous n’étions pas Péres, intrinsecè filiorum. “ This letter and one by Flores are given in Pagés vol. 11., pp. 204-215.
* The letter is given by Pagés, vol. ii., p. 137.
* Pagés, vol. ii., p, 331.
* Possibly this delay of two years before taking more vigorous measures against the prisoners was owing in part to negotiations that Takenaka had begun with the Philippines. Both he and Matsukura had sent envoys to consult about the renewal of commerce. The Spanish Governor suspected that the real purpose was to spy out the land before making an attack upon it. Though he received the visitors with a great show of cordiality, he took care to show them the forts, arsenals, and troops, so as to impress them with the military power of the colony. His suspicions were not unreasonable, for, though he probably did not know it, Matsukura had shortly before this sent a memorial to Yedo asking that he be allowed to invade the Philippines.
* The “Nagasaki Sambyakunen-kan,” from which I take these directions, says “Descendants of the Fathers” (Bateren no shison), but as afterwards it speaks of two hundred and eighty-seven children of the Portuguese who were sent to Macao, we may suppose that there has been a mistake in copying.
* Some of the Christians escaped to Macao, the Philippines, Siam, and other countries. About 1666, Japanese who had taken refuge in Siam told of three hundred and seventy of their fellow-believers in Japan who had been put to death the previous year. They said that, although the absence of priests prevented the reception of the sacraments, the fervour of the Christians was ever on the increase. The Bishop in Siam asked the Japanese to write to their friends at home, assuring them of his sympathy and of his readiness to admit to holy order-: any fit for the priesthood who would come to Siam. Relatione delle Missione de Vescovi Vicarii, Rome, 1677, as quoted in Trans. As. Soc,, vol. xiii., p. 209.
* The “Nagasaki Sambyakunen-kan” (History of Nagasaki for Three Hundred Years), published in 1902, says the Dutch were required to perform the ceremony and continued to do so until 1856.
* This is as given by Pages. A more common version reads somewhat as follows; “So long as the sun warms the earth et no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan; and let all know that if the King of Spain, or the Christians’ God, or the great God of all violate this command, he shall pay for it with his head.
* The accounts of these missionaries were drawn from Japanese sources by Sir Ernest Satow (Trans. As. Soc., vol. vi., pp. 56-62). The records also mention an Annamite Christian named Jikuan, who was also buried at Muryoin, Further notices of Kirishitan-zaka are contained in a paper by J. M. Dixon in Trans. As. Soc., vol. xvi., p. 207, and in an article in the Toyo Gakugei Zasshi, No. 83, reproduced in the Romaji Zasshi, Nos. 40 and 41. The latter speaks of a Brother from Canton, named John, who was arrested at the same time as Chiara, was imprisoned with him, and died in 1697 (cf. Satow’s paper, p. 58). It also says that in 1675 Chiara was ordered to become a Buddhist but refused to do so; also, that his widow died in 1695.
In The Month for May, 1905, Rev. Herbert Thurston, after bringing together the reasons that may be adduced for hoping that the Japanese accounts are incorrect, feels obliged to say: “Reviewing, however, the evidence as a whole, it can hardly be doubted that some sort of renunciation of Christianity was extorted from one or more of the Jesuit missionaries by the extremity of their tortures.”
* The “Historia General de Philipinas” tells of another party of shipwrecked Japanese in 1753. They were received by the Franciscans living near the place where they were rescued I he sum needed for their maintenance was drawn from a fund that had been gathered by Sidotti for the relief of suffering Chinese and Japanese.
** Romaji Zasshi,* vol. iii., No. 40. Roman Catholic accounts say they had been servants of an apostate Japanese priest.
† The article in the Gakugei Zasshi and the Romaji Zasshi has a map showing the situation of the graves of Sidotti and of the servants. Apparently the grave supposed by Griffis (“Mikado’s Empire, “1st ed., p. 263) to be Sidotti’s was that of Hachibei, who was not a Christian hut a robber brought from another place that a samurai might test a new sword by decapitating him.
* “Pulo-Pinang Compendium of Ecclesiastical History” as quoted in La Relig. de Jésus Ressus. au Japon,” vol, i., p, 77.