Christianity in Japan - A Full History
In 1549, Saint Francisco Xavier of the Society of Jesus arrived at the port of Kagoshima
in western Japan.
He was ordered by His Holiness, Pope Paul III, to propagate the One True Faith among
the heathens of the Eastern Hemisphere.
Francisco Xavier was the first Catholic missionary to arrive in Japan.
His work set in motion a series of events which would lead to great suffering, political
strife and an isolation period of over 200 years.
But why did Christian missionaries depart Europe and travel all the way to Japan?
The answer lies in both the political as well as the religious era in which Europe has found
itself in, in the 16th century.
After half a millennium, the Catholic Church has lost its monopoly on Christian faith
in Western Europe.
The publicization of the 95 Theses by Martin Luther in 1517 led to the Reformation movement,
which swept across Europe, supported by anger among commoners and nobility against alleged
abuse of power by the papacy and the Catholic high clergy.
The Reformation caused violent conflicts to spring up in Europe for the next 150 years,
which in return induced a reactionary mindset in the Catholic Church.
Among those reactions was the founding of the Society of Jesus in 1540.
Jesuits are referred to as soldiers of God, as they have sworn obedience to the Pope himself
and the propagation and defense of the Catholic faith against pagans and heretics all around
the world.
At the same time, the Age of Discovery was kickstarted, with Christopher Columbus introducing
the Americas to Europe, and a few years later, Vasco da Gama established the first sea route
from Portugal to India by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
Both the Kingdom of Portugal as well as the Kingdom of Spain became the first global colonial
powers, and the Pope divided all newly found non-Christian lands among both kingdoms.
In the Treaty of Tordesillas, the world was divided along a meridian in the Atlantic Ocean,
with the lands of Africa, China, India and Japan falling under Portuguese authority.
Both the Counter-Reformation as well as the capabilities of the Portuguese Navy led to
the first Jesuit missionaries departing Portugal and going along the Portuguese trade routes
in Asia, landing first in India, then China and finally Japan.
Francisco Xavier was appointed the Papal Nuncio, i.e. an ambassador of the Pope for the Eastern
Hemisphere and was the highest ranking clergy member in all of Asia.
After a somewhat successful tenure in India, Francisco Xavier met a Japanese man, who taught
him about the Japanese people and culture and advocated for propagation of the Christian
faith in his homeland.
In 1549, Francisco Xavier took three Japanese translators and two Spanish Jesuits with him
towards Western Japan.
In order to understand the religious status quo the incoming missionaries faced on the
Japanese archipelago, it is worthwhile to look at the religious history of Japan until
the arrival of the missionaries in 1549.
Basically, it can be broken down to a pattern of recurring encounters and prompt syncretism.
The native religion of Japan is Shinto, Way of the Gods, which is considered an animistic
nature religion with a polytheistic system of kami, or supernatural beings, which are
present in all things.
Early on at around 500 AD, Buddhism arrived from India via China and Korea and the Japanese
states and was subsequently syncretized or combined with Shinto.
Over the millennium until the 16th century, ideas from India and China, like Taoism and
Confucianism, as well as other Buddhist sects arrived in Japan.
Buddhism, Shintoism, and other faiths continued to influence each other, with many schools
or sects of these religions making their marks on the multitude of doctrines, rituals, and
customs of the syncretic religious identity of the Japanese people.
Most Japanese peasants at the time practiced rituals of both Shinto and Buddhism simultaneously
and were not solely adherent to either religion.
For that matter, the religion of the Japanese at the time is commonly referred to as Shinto
Buddhism, or Shinbutsugo.
The basis of the amalgamation of kami and Buddha was the doctrine of Honji Suijaku,
a theory which states that native kami are local manifestations of Buddhist deities.
Both the kami and the Buddha are each considered one side of the same coin.
This way of thinking was not universal, however, and some schools viewed kami and Buddha as
equal and others, Buddha, as more important.
The history of Shintoism and Buddhism and their combination in Japan is extremely complicated,
especially from a western viewpoint.
While there were conflicts regarding the adoption of Buddhism in the 7th century and further
encounters with different Buddhist schools, in general it can be said that the syncretism
of Buddhism and Shinto was relatively easy and peaceful.
The reason for that lies in the fact that both religions are polytheistic and do not
outright deny the existence of other deities or outlaw the practice of the other faith.
This amalgamation was only possible because of the mutual tolerance of native and foreign
polytheistic faiths in eastern Asia.
This mutual tolerance, however, would not apply to the Christian missionaries, as Christianity,
unlike Buddhism or Shinto, is built on the firm belief that it is the one true faith
and reveres the one true God.
Praying to other gods or symbols is considered a sin under the second commandment.
Quote,
Thou shalt have no other gods before me, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
So, with the arrival of Christianity, Japan witnesses for the first time an encounter
with a foreign religion that is entirely opposed to any religion already found in Japan.
One thing was sure, the Christianization of Japan would be no small feat, and conflicts
would surely arise from every side once the missionaries began their propagation efforts.
The arrival of the first missionaries in 1549 marks the beginning of the so-called
Kirishitan century, the Japanese pronunciation of the Portuguese word Christão or Christian.
Francisco Xavier's propagation strategy in Japan was unlike in India, started from the
top.
He immediately tried to gain an audience with the Shogun and the Emperor as an ambassador
and used the chance to convert both to Christianity.
He hoped for a swift conversion of the elite and believed the peasants and lower classes
would soon follow the example of their lords.
He would learn quickly, however, that he arrived at a time, later referred to as Sengoku period,
during which the influence of the Shogun and the Emperor on the domains was negligible,
and he thus aborted his efforts of conversion in the capital Kyoto and returned to western
Japan.
There, he held debates on theology with Buddhist priests who were curious about the cosmology
and philosophy of the Christian faith.
Francisco Xavier and his entourage faced many problems when trying to convert the Japanese
populace.
One of the main problems lied in how to accurately translate the catechism from Latin and Portuguese
into Japanese.
The Japanese language at the time simply lacked words that could be used to translate even
basic terms such as God.
The Japanese translators made use of whatever language they could find, which is why they
adopted mainly Buddhist terminology.
For example, when it came to finding a word for God, that is, the one true Christian God,
they simply used the word for the most important Buddha of esoteric Buddhism, who was referred
to as Dainichi, or Great Sun.
This led to a misunderstanding among Japanese people that the Christian missionaries were
in fact propagating another Buddha instead of a strictly monotheistic God.
When the missionaries found out about this misconception, they promptly introduced the
Portuguese word Deus for God.
These linguistic problems were exacerbated by fundamental differences in religious thinking.
As noted earlier, Japanese Shinto Buddhists were tolerant towards new faiths.
However, this tolerance does not reach to the extent of denying one's own religion.
Christianity was consistently negative towards Buddhism, which missionaries viewed a diabolical
worship introduced by the devil himself.
The enforcement of the second commandment also meant that newly converted Japanese Christians
had to destroy their Buddhist family altars, which they used to pray to their ancestors.
Shinto worship was a central aspect of Shinto and even of Japanese culture to this day.
The belief that ancestors exist in a spiritual world and watch over the currently living
members of the family and are to be revered, prayed to, and presented offerings, lest they
become aggressive spirits, is probably as old as Japanese history itself.
Even individuals open to Christianity will have strong objections to doing anything that
could anger the spirits of their ancestors, like destroying family altars.
Another aspect of Christianity which clashed with ancestral worship was the thought that
pagans could not enter heaven and would remain in hell for eternity and could not be saved
as they are not baptized.
This was a notion that presented an overwhelming existential crisis for Japanese Christians.
In the more individualistic Europe, the nuclear family was important, however, ancestors whom
living members had never met or heard about, like great-grandparents, were usually not
of much importance.
For the Japanese, however, the extended family which includes any ancestors no matter how
long ago they lived, was considered holy and divine.
The Bible and the missionaries offered no basis for comfort or hope for the deceased,
non-baptized members of the extended family.
The theological vacuum regarding the ancestors was accentuated by the missionary demand for
ritual purity on the part of Japanese converts.
The first generation of Christians in Japan was under a great deal of pressure to comply
with the iconoclastic policy of the missionaries.
As they had to destroy family altars and shrines, they angered not only their ancestral spirits,
but also any living non-Christian family members.
Despite these fundamental differences, Francisco Xavier was rather optimistic.
He would write to the Roman Curia after a year in Japan, quote,
The people whom we have met so far are the best who have as yet been discovered, and
it seems to me that we shall never find among heathens another race to equal the Japanese.
They are people of very good manners, good in general and not malicious.
While the conversion attempts at the Emperor and Shogun were abandoned, the top-down strategy
was continued in western Japan with great success.
Francisco Xavier, however, would not live to see the fruits of his labor, as he departed
back to India after spending a little over two years in Japan and died in China shortly
after.
He was succeeded by a Spanish Jesuit who accompanied him, Cosme de Torres.
Torres would spend 19 years, from 1551 to 1570, as the highest-ranking clergy member
in Japan and would oversee the conversion of thousands.
In 1563, Omura Sumitada was the first daimyo, or lord of a feudal domain, to be baptized.
In 1564, Takayama Ukon followed, and in 1578, the powerful daimyo of Bungo, Otomo Sorin,
was baptized.
The top-down strategy seemed to be working.
In 1559, the number of Christians was estimated at around 6,000, and ten years later, they
numbered around 20,000.
In 1579, 30 years after Francisco Xavier's arrival, the number stood at around 130,000.
Most of these were concentrated in western Japan, where mass conversions took place.
After a daimyo converted, most retainers, family members, and subjects living in the
fiefs converted along with their lord.
In a wave of zealousness among fresh converts, Buddhist monks in Christian domains were urged
to convert as well, with those refusing banished and Buddhist temples destroyed.
By 1579, Japan was the jewel among propagation in Asia, and the highest-ranking Jesuit in
charge of the East, the Italian Alessandro Valignano, took steps to expand missionary
activities and cement Catholicism in Japan even further.
Valignano had an extremely, for the time, progressive approach when addressing Japanese
culture.
Many Jesuits, or any European in the region for that matter, viewed Japanese customs and
traditions as somewhat barbaric and inferior, and encouraged Japanese Christians to adopt
Portuguese customs.
Valignano, however, suggested a different approach.
When he maintained the top-down approach of his predecessors, he encouraged quantity over
quality in terms of conversion, meaning, he wanted to baptize and convert on paper as
many people as possible, even if most of them had an imperfect understanding of Christianity
and did not thoroughly exercise strict iconoclasm.
He suggested this approach in order to accommodate the more tolerant Japanese culture.
Showing respect to the local customs was a centerpiece of his instructions, and local
missionaries were urged to learn the Japanese language and adopt their customs.
Valignano envisioned a system of evangelism in which Christian culture was to be placed
on top of Japanese culture, without destroying it.
Whether Valignano was progressive or just wanted the path of least resistance for a
full conversion of the country, this way of cultural tolerance and acceptance was groundbreaking
for Europeans at the time.
Valignano's pragmatism also showed itself in the financing of the mission.
As the number of Jesuits, churches, and lay clergy exploded in the 1570s, financial upkeep
became difficult.
The Nagasaki port was given to the missionaries after the baptism of Oto Mosorin, and the
Jesuits, who were supposed to be mendicant and adhere to vows of poverty, engaged in
the silver-silk trade between China and Japan and soon gained a de facto monopoly over goods
from the Portuguese trade routes entering Japan.
Nagasaki soon became the Christian capital of Japan, with almost all inhabitants being
Christians and dozens of churches in the vicinity.
The apex of high regard of the propagation of Christianity in Japan was in 1586, when
Valignano accompanied four young Japanese converts, educated in the seminaryu, or Christian
schools in Portuguese, Latin, and Christian doctrine for a trip to Europe.
The party landed in Portugal and toured European courts, where monarchs and clergy enthusiastically
welcomed them.
The fruit of 30 years of conversion effort was finally shown to the Pope himself, who
gave an audience to the esteemed fellow Christians of the Orient.
This envoy was extremely important for Valignano and the Japanese mission, as not only could
the nations be collected, but the Pope and high clergy in Rome could be convinced of
the necessity and fruitfulness of the missionary activities in Japan.
This was indubitably the high point of Japanese Christianity and missionary work, arguably
to this day.
However, when the envoy was returning towards Japan and made rest in India, they learned
that Toyotomi Hideyoshi has finally unified Japan in 1587 and promptly issued an order
to expel all foreign missionaries.
The tide was turning and Japan had become a newly unified country under one ruler, who
previously has shown a favorable attitude towards Christianity, but now seems to have
changed his policy.
Nagasaki was confiscated and put under the shogunate's direct control, and in 1590,
when the envoy returned to Japan, they were welcomed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, as the order
to expel foreign missionaries was not followed too strictly at this time.
However, from this point on, missionaries had to refrain from public propagation activities.
After a diplomatic incident with a stranded Spanish ship in western Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi
arrested 26 missionaries of the Jesuit order, the Franciscan and the Dominican order.
The 26 were tortured and crucified in 1597 in Nagasaki in an incident that would be known
as the martyrdom of the 26 Japanese saints.
These were the first public cases of martyrdom of Japanese Christians at the hand of the
shogunate.
Only one year later, Toyotomi Hideyoshi passed away and the succession struggle broke out.
Tokugawa Ieyasu emerged victorious and established a new shogunate in the city of Edo, called
the Edo-Bakufu, in 1603.
As Tokugawa Ieyasu had to concentrate his efforts on consolidating his empire, he left
Christians largely alone and did not enact overtly discriminatory measures in the first
years of his reign.
For this reason, Christianity in Japan experienced one last growth spurt.
At the same time, in Europe, history began to change as well.
The Pope scrapped the exclusive missionary rights of the Jesuits in Japan in 1600.
The order of the Dominicans and the Augustinians as well as the Franciscans proceeded to engage
in propagations from their bases in the Philippines and were subsequently in conflict with the
Jesuits in terms of missionary strategy and doctrine.
Furthermore, the Spanish and Portuguese monopoly of the global sea trade routes began to wane
after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in the English Channel in 1588.
Protestant countries like England and Holland began to stake their claim on the New World
and with the establishment of the East India Trading Company in 1602 and a Dutch fleet
of trading vessels arriving in Japan in 1600, the era of Portuguese Catholic domination
of Japanese trade was over.
It is important to note the difference in the approach between Protestant and Catholics
here.
While Catholics came to Japan with the mission of trade and propagation as one unit, the
Protestants had no interest in propagation and came solely with the ambition to trade.
This was favorable to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who employed English and Dutch traders as advisors
in his government.
Over the years, until the 1610s, the trade with England and Holland gained in importance
and the trade with Portugal and Spain decreased.
Now that the country was unified and stabilized under the Shogun and the trade with Europeans
did not hinge on the well-being of local Japanese Christians, Tokugawa Ieyasu could start to
radically suppress Japanese Christians, whom he saw as a hindrance for the government's
stability.
In 1614, Tokugawa Ieyasu issued a nationwide ban on the Christian faith and expelled all
foreign missionaries.
With this order began the 250-year-long suppression of Japanese Christians.
All Christian daimyos were banished to Macau or Manila and all churches, monasteries, seminarios
and other sectarian buildings were destroyed.
Many foreign missionaries at the time escaped the authorities and went underground to continue
preaching to their congregation.
In the next 30 years until the end of the Christian century in 1644, many members of
the clergy as well as their followers were martyred.
This did little in convincing the peasants to abandon Christianity and only strengthened
their faith and resolve.
In 1630, it was estimated that 760,000 Christians existed in Japan.
That would be 15% of the estimated total population of 12 million people.
The goal of the Inquisitors shifted to make existing Christians apostatized or renounce
the faith under torture and return to Shinto Buddhism, an act which would hopefully break
the faith of other Christians in the process.
The Japanese authorities used intricate techniques to inflict as much pain and suffering as possible
for the longest time possible.
For example, the suspension in a dark pit had down.
Many Christians, both domestic and foreign, subsequently apostatized, with a minority
being unbroken in their faith and enduring the torture until finally being martyred.
A famous apostate was the Portuguese Jesuit Cristofão Ferreira, who apostatized after
being suspended into a pit.
He was the highest ranking clergy member in Japan and his publicly orchestrated apostasy
sent shockwaves through the entire country.
Ferreira then took a Japanese name and Japanese wife and assisted the bakufu in interrogation
with suspected Christians or identification of Christian items during the persecution.
The last missionary to have remained in Japan, Manseo Konishi, died in martyrdom in 1644,
marking the end of the Christian century and ushering in the era of hidden Christians,
completely isolated from clergy and Rome.
In 1637, the largest civil conflict during the Edo period occurred, when the predominantly
Christian population of Shimabara domain in Kyushu rebelled against their non-Christian daimyo.
The rebellion, though initially successful, was promptly suppressed by the shogunate and
approximately 30,000 rebels were executed.
While the Shimabara rebellion was caused by high taxation and had no sectarian motivation,
it cemented a fear among the ruling class in Edo that Christians are a latent factor
of destabilization.
Portuguese traders who were suspected of having aided the rebels were expelled from Japan.
In 1641, the famous policy of sakoku, or isolation, was enacted when foreign trade
was restricted to the Dutch and Chinese at Dejima.
The policy of complete isolation was enacted mainly because of the high degree of influence
Christianity gained in merely one century.
The Tokugawa shogunate sought to retain power by isolating the country so that no foreign
missionaries could ever arrive again, and at the same time enacted policies to uproot
the native Christian population, who were practicing their faith hidden entirely from
the outside.
While Buddhist schools had a long history of revolts and rebellions, the shogunate managed
to instrumentalize Buddhism in its fight against Christianity.
The troubled relationship between both religions was used in order for the shogunate to control
Buddhism and eradicate Christianity.
To that end, Buddhist priests were given the role of inquisitors against Christian belief.
Domestic policies to suppress Christians include famous measures such as fumie, where suspected
and even already apostatized Christians had to step on a picture of Jesus or Mary.
Another measure was terauke, a system where all Japanese had to register at a local Buddhist
temple, and in the case of a funeral, a Buddhist priest had to assist and make sure that the
burial was conducted strictly according to Buddhist rites and no Christian element was
allowed during the ceremony.
The nounces of Christians were given financial remuneration.
Apostates had to submit a written declaration of apostasy every year.
Other measures included registration and surveillance efforts, which made any public showing of
Christianity almost impossible.
Due to these measures, Christians, many of whom have publicly apostatized, continue to
practice their faith in secret.
Now that no priests or clergy was left and scriptures could not be kept due to security
reasons, Japanese Christianity became a religion consisting solely of non-ordained members,
passing down the catechism orally.
This would inevitably lead to a schism between Catholicism in Europe and Japanese Christianity.
This period of hidden Christianity would later be referred to in Japanese as kakure-kidijidan
or hidden Christians and would last until the reopening of the country and dawn of constitutionally
guaranteed religious freedom in 1873.
Due to the secret nature of the religion, most of what we know about the customs, doctrines
and practices of these kakure-kidijidan comes either from the last missionaries who have
witnessed its beginning or from the last kakure-kidijidan emerging from secrecy in 1873.
During the period of isolation, which lasted a total of 210 years, hidden Christian congregations
practiced the so-called orashio or prayer in Portuguese, which had to be passed down
orally.
When Christians were stepping on pictures of Jesus or submitting written declarations
of apostasy, they would silently recite the orashio to ask for forgiveness for their sins.
Because of the frequent committing of grave sins like apostasy, the kakure-kidijidan moved
away from the strict father figure of the Christian God who harshly punished humans
for their sins and instead focused their faith on the holy mother Mary, who was seen as a
motherly figure who would forgive even grave sins.
As pictures depicting Mary would inevitably lead to persecution, many kirijidan opted
for Buddhist symbols like the image of Kanon, a woman holding a child.
Over the generations of kakure-kidijidan, as could be expected, the faith increasingly
drifted away from orthodox Christianity in Europe and instead included more and more
syncretic adaptions to indigenous Japanese beliefs.
Examples for syncretism include the notion of kegare or pollution, which stems from Shinto.
Christian lay priests had to stay pure and clean both literally and figuratively.
To that end, they had to enter the bath before conducting underground mass, and their clothes
had to be washed separately from those of other family members.
Kegare does not originate from Christianity, but is a widespread belief among the Japanese,
regardless of religion.
Also, a substantial number of rituals were created that were practiced, for example,
to guarantee a good harvest, perform memorial services for deceased family members, and
ward off evil spirits.
Over multiple generations, kirijidan belief has diverged almost beyond recognition from
Catholicism.
Syncretism with indigenous Japanese beliefs was complete.
Over the 210-year period, some information about kakure-kirijidan can be retrieved from
the kuzure.
Kuzure, or breakdown, refers to incidents of revealing large underground congregations
at once, and the subsequent punishment of those involved.
Whilst initially the punishment for denomination members was harsh and included in many cases
death and torture, in the beginning of the 19th century, shortly before the reopening
of Japan, kuzure were overseen by breaking up villages and scattering members all over
Japan.
During interviews the shogunate authorities conducted with prisoners about their faith,
many stated that the Maria Kannon, the Holy Mother Mary in the image of Kannon, has become
the main deity, and Jesus, portrayed by using a mundane Buddhist figure, was the side deity.
The only surviving document from this era that was written by kakure-kirijidan was a
doctrinal text known as Tenchi Hajimari no Koto, or About the Beginning of Heaven and
Earth.
This text was basically a summarization of events of the Bible and other doctrinal Catholic
texts with a distinctly Japanese interpretation.
The Tenchi Hajimari no Koto shows significant deviations from the orthodox doctrine caused
by syncretic adaptions to indigenous Japanese beliefs.
It also includes references to debates between Jesus and a Buddhist priest, with Jesus ultimately
winning the debate and making the priest his disciple.
The veneration of martyred ancestors was also another point of syncretism.
The dilemma of the Japanese Christians when it came to ancestral worship was mitigated
through the veneration of ancestors who were martyred or at least repressed by the shogunate.
So the kakure-kirijidan secretly existed for the entire duration of Sakoku, with some revealed
and others undisturbed.
By the end of the Edo period, in 1869, only a few regions harbored kakure-kirijidan, mainly
in the west of Japan.
And in the early 19th century, kuzure became less frequent and kōt-kirijidan usually were
not executed or tortured, but rather deported domestically.
By 1853, the outside world has gained a technological progression far beyond what Japan had been
able to muster.
This became apparent when the American Commodore Perry arrived in Tokyo Bay and demanded Japan
to open its port to trade with America.
The modern gunboat Commodore Perry took with him was so far and obvious beyond Japan's
technological capabilities that they had no choice but to accept reopening the country.
With the establishment of foreign residencies for traders, along came the first Christian
priests to set foot on Japan for 200 years.
With the reopening of the treaty port of Nagasaki, a French Catholic of the Paris Society of
Foreign Missions, Fr.
Pétit-Jean, wasted no time and immediately built a church in the former capital of Christianity
in Japan.
He hoped that some of the Christians from 200 years ago survived and would return to
the Catholic Church.
In a dramatic event known as the Resurrection of the Kirijitan, thousands of kakurekirijitan
emerged in 1865 to meet the first clergy members in 200 years.
They were emboldened by the return of priests and officially came out of hiding and requested
the authorities to end the persecution.
However, the shogunate was not ready to restore religious freedom at this point, and so with
this revelation, the last kuzure took place in 1867 when about 4000 kakurekirijitan of
Nagasaki and Urakami were exiled and deported domestically to various domains.
While no outright executions took place, inhumane prison and transport conditions led to the
death of 664 people who are later referred to as the last Japanese martyrs.
Shortly after, in 1873, the shogunate succumbed to international pressure and made the decision
to cease persecution of kakurekirijitan and officially revoke the ban on Christianity.
Kakurekirijitan were finally able to come out of hiding, while some religious discrimination
continued until the constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom in 1889, kuzure at least
were finally over.
Japan was changing drastically in the 19th century, and religion was to be no exception.
Shortly after the Meiji restoration, the 1870s were a period of rapid modernization and westernization
in technology, politics, culture, and economy.
Great political leaders of the era recognized the urgent need to adopt western values and
politics in order to strengthen Japan as a nation against the colonial policies of the
great powers to the west.
While most political leaders at the time sought to retain certain core values of being Japanese
amid this process of radical modernization, some turned to Christianity as one of the
aspects of western countries that supposedly made them powerful.
Some were exposed to Christianity during overseas studying trips and came back to Japan as baptized
Christians of any denomination.
Others were converted by the revamping missionary efforts, this time not only Catholic but also
Protestant ones.
One thing was to be sure though, the era of Christians hiding in the shadows was over.
Japanese Christians were eager to play their part in this exciting new dawn of the empire
of Japan.
In the 1890s, Japan has already modernized a great deal and subsequently turned its eyes
overseas.
The ultimate aspect of western strength was the possession of colonies and the Japanese
government was keen on joining this club of powerful nations.
Accompanying this expansionist doctrine was a nationalist sentiment which spread throughout
the working, middle and upper class like a wildfire.
Westernization, something viewed as necessary for Japan's strength, was now stopped entirely
and along with an anti-western sentiment, an anti-Christian sentiment grew among the
population.
The dilemma of the Japanese Christians, which was previously limited to individual or familial
concern, was now a national concern.
The emperor was a divine being who is descended from ancient Japanese kami.
All major Christian denominations at the time did not recognize the divinity of the emperor.
Japanese Christians, many of whom shared the nationalistic spirit of their non-Christian
countrymen, were faced with a dilemma.
Break the second commandment and acknowledge the emperor as a divine being or refrain and
risk being labeled as disloyal or even anti-Japanese.
Foreign missionaries and church leaders were clear on this issue, but Japanese believers
were more mixed.
The main concern non-Christian Japanese had with Christians was that their loyalty to
the Christian god had to take precedence over their loyalty to the emperor.
This would be the dawn of the almost 100 year long effort of Japanese Christians to convince
non-Christian Japanese that their loyalty is equal.
Japanese Christians, when faced with these issues directly, would simply ignore them
in most cases.
If the government mandated certain rituals or ceremonies in reverence of the emperor
or the country itself, most Japanese Christians would oblige in participation.
They would however maintain that these rituals are not worshipping, but instead acts of patriotism
or loyalty.
This issue was evident when Uchimura Kanzo, a Christian teacher at an elite high school,
did not bow deeply before the imperial rescript of education which bore the signature of the
emperor, but instead just bowed his head.
This was viewed as an act of les majesté and Uchimura later declared he was willing
to bow out of respect, but not worship.
In the ensuing debate, Japanese Protestant leaders objected strongly to the idea that
Christianity is incompatible with loyalty to the emperor.
There were many such conflicts during the 1890s and Christians constantly had to defend
themselves and their loyalty.
With the beginning of the first Sino-Japanese war in 1894, there was finally a chance for
Japanese Christians to prove their loyalty, and they certainly did not hesitate to do so.
Protestants in particular organized various activities to support the war effort and were
vocal in their own religious justification of Japan's expansionism as God's will.
Catholics on the other hand were more secluded in their public activities, because Catholic
leadership was still mainly comprised of foreigners.
During the final years of the Meiji era, many Protestant Christians began to split
off from foreign missionaries and founded native Japanese Christian Protestant denominations.
These Protestants in particular sought to be a spiritual and moral force guiding the
Japanese people, but at the same time fully embracing the nationalist sentiment of the time.
Among the non-Christian Japanese however, the sentiment regarding the inherent disloyalty
and incompatibility of Christianity with the Japanese national spirit did not change, despite
efforts by the Christians.
At the end of the Meiji period in 1912, there were approximately 190,000 Christians in Japan.
67,000 of them were Catholics, 90,000 were Protestant, and 32,000 Orthodox.
But the rest belonging to other denominations.
In the beginning of the Showa era in 1926, the challenges for Japanese Christians largely
remained the same since the reopening.
They needed to convince non-Christian Japanese that they could be as loyal to their country
as them, and that Christianity was not inherently opposed to reverence of the emperor.
The initial nationalist spirit of the Meiji era turned into ultra-nationalist elements
in army, navy, politics, and all swaths of society vying for complete control of the
government.
A central idea of Japanese ultra-nationalism is the government's control and regulation
of every aspect of the lives of citizens.
Since the Meiji era, officials in the Ministry of Education have drawn up several policies
to instill nationalist thought into school curricula and public education.
The central conflict that existed in the wake of Japanese ultra-nationalism consisted of
Japanese Christians trying to merge adherence to their faith with compliance and endorsement
of any and all nationalistic policies of the Japanese right wing.
Needless to say, such a merger was almost never possible without one side, Christian
doctrine or a nationalist agenda, having the back down.
Christians of all denominations during this time strived for independence from the West
and advocated for self-determination.
In Protestant faiths, this was successful with major denominations being entirely independent
from the West.
Even a Catholic faith, which obviously has to retain a connection to the Roman Curia,
managed to install native Japanese in high clergy positions and church administration.
These independence efforts were important at the time, as anti-West sentiment was high
after the triple intervention of Russia, Germany, and France forced the Japanese government
to rescind large claims of Chinese territories after the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895
and the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
The minimum requirement of continued existence of Christianity in a xenophobic, ultra-nationalist
Japan was the complete disconnect from Western missionaries and denominations.
Theologically liberal clergy was instrumental in introducing a complementing theology of
Christianity in Japan.
These priests did not view Christianity as superior to other Japanese faiths and instead
advocated for peaceful coexisting.
Many also believed evangelistic effort, something that is considered a duty among good Christians,
to be ceased or at least tempered as to not offend the Japanese national spirit.
The zeitgeist of nationalistic Japanese Christians at the time can be summed up this way.
Japanese culture is already good, but it can be perfected with the addition of Christianity.
Japanese Christians also tried to get on good terms with the government by propagation in
Japanese colonies.
Early Japanese colonies and protectorates like Taiwan and Korea were used by Japanese
Christians to propagate their unique perspective on Christianity.
These activities were tolerated by the government and military in large part due to the absolute
loyalty to the expansionist policies of most of the Japanese missionaries sent to the colonies.
These propagation effects were accentuated by Japanese Christians taking part in patriotic
activities like disseminating war propaganda, caring for troops and sending chaplains along
with the army.
It is no exaggeration to say that most of the Japanese Christians at the time were ideological
nationalists who were loyal to their government, the emperor and the expansionist policies
of the army and navy.
Ultimately, however, even all the concessions and efforts of Japanese Christians could not
change the sentiment among non-Christian Japanese that a Japanese Christian's loyalty cannot
be as strong as a non-Christian one's.
At the same time, the non-Christian religious situation in Japan began to change rapidly.
During the Meiji era, the government introduced a split between the ancient amalgamation of
Shinto Buddhism and created what is now referred to as State Shinto.
Shinto was for the most part decentralized, with priests looking after their local village
shrines and adhering to no specific doctrine.
The government took control of the finances and education of priests in order to instill
nationalistic policies like worshipping of the emperor, previously not that important
of an issue in normal Shinto rituals.
This was essentially a way for the government to monopolize religion and control the rituals
and customs that Japanese people would adhere to.
One such custom would be the mandatory state-sponsored Shinto rituals in honor of the emperor and
the country for students.
This is a prominent point of contingency between Christianity and the ultra-nationalist government.
In a highly publicized case in 1932, a university student at the Catholic Sophia University
refused to attend a mandatory ritual at the Yasukuni shrine on religious grounds.
Subsequently, the Archbishop of Tokyo asked the Ministry of Education to clarify whether
the mandatory ritual in question was of religious or educational nature.
The ministry answered that it was indeed an educational measure which served to instill
patriotism and loyalty.
While you may think right now that the ministry simply denied the obvious religious nature
of the ritual in order to not cause a conflict, this is actually not the case.
The under-first-years really did not consider state Shinto to be a religion, at least in
the Western sense of the word.
This is again a good example of the basic difference in thought between the concept
of what a religion actually is for Japanese people and Westerners.
In the West, religion is viewed as the following of one single faith, mainly monotheistic ones,
which in return makes it impossible to adhere to any other faith.
If you are a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew, even a secular one, you usually do not adhere
to doctrines or customs of any other religion, with the exception of maybe celebrating a
secular Christmas.
It is also fairly normal to be a registered member of a central religious institution,
again even for more secular members.
People in the West generally have a much more closed-minded conception of what religion
entails and cannot fathom the idea of someone being religious and drawing elements from,
for example, Christianity and Islam at the same time.
In Japan, however, the thought of being religious was and is much more private and independent
from centralized organizations.
Even to this day, the vast majority of Japanese people are not members of a religious institution,
but instead loosely adhere to doctrines and customs of many faiths.
In return, people who are members of religious institutions are often much more invested
into this specific denomination, with many of them being considered sects.
This is evident in the terminology as well.
The English word religion is translated into Japanese as shukyo.
However, this term is not used to describe oneself as a Shinto Buddhist when attending
rituals or festivities, for example.
This is because it has gained a rather negative connotation and is often used to describe
affiliation with centralized religious sects.
While the majority of Japanese people have participated in religious ceremonies of Shinto
and Buddhist nature, only a few would outright describe themselves as Shinto Buddhists.
Keeping that distinction in mind, it is easy to understand that the government of the 1930s
did not consider state Shinto to be a religion on par with Christianity.
For them, as for many Japanese people at the time, these were cultural rituals which were
simply part of being Japanese.
Until the 1930s, there was a small minority among Christians that refused to participate
in the nationalistic agenda of the government and their fellow Christians.
This led to many conflicts, including right-wing protests at Christian universities and schools.
The watershed moment for Japanese Christians arrived during the Manchurian Incident of
1931, which saw Japan advance into Manchuria in northeastern China.
When initially a notable minority among Christians opposed this aggressive expansion, they soon
changed their minds.
That was because when the League of Nations unilaterally condemned the invasion, many
foreign missionaries residing in Japan echoed this condemnation.
This action was bewildering to many Japanese Christians, who saw hypocrisy in Western nations
Condemning Japan for what they themselves have been doing since centuries ago and would
continue doing for another 50 years at least.
The Manchurian Incident completed the schism between native Japanese Christianity and foreign
missionaries and congregations.
At the same time, it placed all Japanese Christians in a firmly nationalistic and anti-foreign
political ideology.
In 1936, it was estimated that approximately 300,000 Christians existed in Japan.
With the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and later the Pacific War with
the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the number of Christians as well as their influence diminished
radically as Protestant denominations were forced by government order to merge to be
better surveilled and controlled.
Persecution reached a peak when, after 1941, all denominations that were perceived to have
a connection to British or American entities were purged.
Even Roman Catholics, who were at the time under the protection of Fascist Italy and
had largely refrained from propagation efforts since the 1930s, were affected by discriminatory
measures.
While some Christian leaders during the war were imprisoned by the government, the majority
of clergy members of any denomination were supportive of the nationalist government,
with some even acting as propaganda mouthpieces.
The period of ultranationalism in Japan would be engulfed in flames and come crashing down
in August 1945 when the Emperor surrendered to the Allied forces.
The previous challenges of Japanese Christians would become void as loyalty to the state
and emperor would never again be required for existence and the new constitution of
1946 guarantees religious freedom as well as the abolishment of state Shinto and a strict
separation of religion and state.
Christianity would once again accompany Japan into a new era and would shape and be shaped
by the societal changes both domestic and international.
After the surrender, Japan was in shambles, both literally and figuratively.
Industrial capacity and cities were completely destroyed and the starvation the Japanese
civilian population had to endure for two years was at a peak after the surrender.
Worldly matters, however, were not the only concerns that the Japanese people had to face
in the beginning of the post-war era.
The Empire of Japan was for the first time in its 1500 year history defeated and occupied
by a foreign power.
The emperor had to publicly denounce his divine status and state Shinto was abolished.
The kokutai or national spirit of Japan was broken.
This led to an identity crisis of what it means to be Japanese and what a Japanese person
should strive for in their life.
The new constitution included complete religious freedom and a strict separation of religion
and state.
Previously forcibly amalgamated Protestant churches split into theologically different
denominations once again.
However, the disconnect of all Christian denominations from their foreign counterparts during World
War II was not to be reversed and the notion of independence of Japanese Christianity from
the West would continue after the war.
The governor general of Japan, Douglas MacArthur, identified a spiritual vacuum in Japan after
the abolishment of state Shinto and encouraged missionary work to resume.
Thousands of missionaries arrived and churches engaged in distributing food and shelter to
civilians.
After the occupation ended in the 1950s, Japan experienced a period of rapid economic growth
which would last for four decades and would transform Japanese national ideology from
ultra-nationalism to materialistic capitalism.
Economic growth and power on the world stage became the new Japanese pride and giving up
one's life for the emperor on the battlefield was replaced with giving up one's life in
the office for a good career and a high standard of living.
This was accompanied by secularization which spread in the 1950s and 60s as urbanization
and capitalism flourished.
Education was reduced to a private matter again and with a few customs and rituals of
Shinto and Buddhism usually conducted at family occasions.
Christianity experienced only a slow growth rate during this time.
Individuals who were searching for a more spiritual lifestyle were increasingly turning
to new religions which sprang up as modern interpretation of Buddhist or Shinto schools.
Shortly after the beginning of the Allied occupation of Japan, many politicians of the
ultra-nationalist camp were purged and banned from participating in the first post-war elections.
Among the remaining conservative and centrist politicians who were not purged, a disproportionate
number was Christian.
The first general election under the new constitution in 1947 was won by the Socialist Party with
the Christian Katayama Tetsu to become prime minister.
As a socialist, he was against the rearmament of Japan and wanted to conduct a completely
non-militaristic foreign policy and domestic policy concentrated on economic and social
issues.
Katayama, along with any Christian politician in Japan to this day, did not make his religion
a focal point of his public life.
Indeed, a disproportionate number of high-level politicians in Japan are Christians.
Japanese-born post-war prime minister Shigeru Yoshida was a Catholic as well as his grandson
Taro Asou, who was prime minister from 2008 to 2009.
In an equivalent manner, post-war prime minister Ichiro Hatoyama and his grandson Yukio Hatoyama,
prime minister from 2009 to 2010.
The above-mentioned politicians are both of socialist and conservative parties.
It is evident that high-ranking politicians in Japan, Christian or not, usually do not
talk about their personal religious practices.
When in 1950 the rearmament was resumed with the establishment of the Japanese self-defense
forces, Christians were in general opposed.
In 1951, the Christian Peace Association was formed.
In their manifest, a notable admission of guilt for actions and inactions taken by Christians
during World War II was included.
Admissions of guilt were rare, especially in political organizations.
This would be the beginning of the Christian involvement in politics, as now, Christians
are not in need of convincing other Japanese people of their loyalty, but can instead proclaim
their opinions openly, without having to fear persecution, discrimination and censorship.
In the 1960s, the National Security Treaty between the US and Japan was due for a renewal.
The conservative prime minister Nobusuke Kishi wanted to revise the treaty to make Japan
more independent from the US and able to increase its military capabilities.
This led to the biggest protests in Japanese history, with millions going to the streets.
Protests were coming from all political ideologies, like Marxist students, liberal centrists
and also Christians.
Many Christian organizations opposed the treaty and took part in the protests.
Students and faculty members of International Christian University issued a statement condemning
the treaty revision.
However, there was a notable contingent of conservative Christians who argued that individual
piety is more important than involvement in politics and thus did not welcome the participation
in protests on non-religious issues.
During the early 1970s, with regards to the Vietnam War, two political camps were erected
in Protestant Christianity, with liberals opposing the government's support for the
Vietnam War and conservatives not supporting the war but again wanting to refrain from
taking part in political activities.
In the end, no faction was able to decisively win and the deadlock caused political engagement
of Protestant Christians to fail to materialize.
A resurgence of participation of Christians in the Japanese political discourse occurred
in the late 1970s when the conservative government tried to nationalize the Yasukuni shrine,
which enshrined class-A war criminals of World War II.
This move was criticized by liberals, socialists, Buddhists and most Christian denominations
in a joint campaign on awareness of religious freedom.
The government tried to argue that the shrine and its nationalization was not a religious
but a cultural matter.
This notion was criticized as a de facto return to state Shinto.
Christians were especially opposed to the bill as it brought up bitter memories of the
oppression they faced when state Shinto was instrumentalized against them.
Even though ultimately the bill failed in the parliament, conservatives would not give
up the Yasukuni aspirations that easily.
They instead opted to visit the Yasukuni shrine, officially in a private manner, and pray for
the fallen.
This practice was criticized in the same manner as the nationalization bill.
In 1979, Ohira Masayoshi, a Christian, was elected to become prime minister.
Just as all Christian prime ministers who came before him, he never made a big deal
out of his faith.
When he was elected, Christian groups sent letters asking him to refrain from visiting
the Yasukuni shrine.
Ohira, however, refused and said that visiting the shrine was a common Japanese custom and
it was, quote, his duty as a Japanese, unquote.
Fourteen war criminals were enshrined in 1978, something which was made public in 1979, just
two days before the prime minister's visit.
When made public, the outcry from Christians and other groups was immense, but Ohira still
chose to ignore them and continue his visit.
Officially, he proclaimed the visit was conducted as a private person.
However, he used the official prime minister's car and signed the shrine ledger with, quote,
prime minister of the cabinet, unquote.
The united Christian criticism of the shrine visit can be attributed to the fact that this
political issue was religious in nature and had historical significance for Japanese Christians,
unlike other political issues of the past like the Vietnam War or the security treaty.
The structure of political incursions of Christians would follow this pattern to this day.
Political issues at large are ignored, except in the case of religious freedom or the government's
actions regarding Shinto.
Today, approximately 1-2% of the Japanese populace consider themselves Christian.
Conversion numbers and propagation efforts are stagnating.
The mass conversions of villages and entire provinces in the 17th century are not feasible
in today's Japan.
The appeal of religions in general for the majority of Japanese people is not comparable
to that of the American people, for example.
A liberal and agnostic view of spirituality is present in today's Japan, with people picking
things they like out of every religion available.
One example of that are two Christian holidays, which are widely celebrated in Japan, albeit
in a completely secular manner.
Christmas Eve is celebrated with a significant other or with friends during a party with
cake and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The other commonly celebrated holiday is St. Valentine's Day, again entirely secular,
with women gifting chocolate to romantic interests or friends and family.
Both days are not national holidays, despite the overwhelming majority of people celebrating.
Another example are wedding ceremonies in Japan, which are commonly conducted either
as a Shinto ceremony or a Christian-inspired ceremony in a wedding chapel.
Reports of Western media and especially televised royal marriages have increased the popularity
of Christian marriages in Japan since the 1990s.
Most of these ceremonies are secular, and the corresponding priest is not necessarily
an ordained member of any church.
According to surveys, since the 2010s, around 70% of marriages in Japan are performed in
a Christian-inspired chapel or church, with 15% opting for a Shinto ceremony and the other
15% being entirely secular ceremonies.
One staple of Christian missionary work in the late 20th and early 21st century was the
opening of free English language classes.
As an important business language, good command of English can significantly improve career
prospects for students in Japan, making the chance to learn practical English skills from
native speakers an attractive prospect.
Foreign missionaries made use of that sentiment to attract potential convertees at an early
age and intertwine language study with Christian themes.
In recent years, however, the number of Christian-sponsored language classes decreased as professional
secular language schools are able to attract more qualified teaching personnel.
As discussed earlier, Christians left their mark in the 19th century on higher education.
Today, many of the Catholic universities founded a hundred years ago remain prestigious and
famous all around in Japan.
In many cases, however, bishops and priests have moved away from active teaching roles
in these universities, and evangelizing work among the students is lackluster for the most
part.
As in most industrialized countries, the younger generation becomes more secular and agnostic.
Even the nominally Christian population began to retreat from church institutions, as shown
in low attendance rates of mostly under 50% for Christian churches in Japan.
Christianity has certainly left its marks in the fields of history, education and culture
and politics in Japan.
Its existence has shaped the country for the better part of 500 years and has forced Japanese
society to take a closer look into the theology of their own faith.
The quote that best sums up today's state of Christianity in Japan would be,
Japanese are born Shinto, marry Christian and die Buddhist.
Guys, thank you so much for watching until the end.
This video got out a little longer than usual, but I thought the importance of the topic
warranted the runtime, so here we are.
If you want to learn more about the history of the Japanese emperor, I got a video about
that right here.
Have a nice day!
