Part 9 (1/2)

In order rightly to appreciate the introduction and spread of Christianity in j.a.pan, it is necessary that we take a bird's-eye view of the internal condition of the country about the middle of the {145} sixteenth century. The j.a.panese were not then, as now, a h.o.m.ogeneous people with a strong central government. The emperor, although the nominal ruler, was in reality the creature of the shogun, who was the real ruler. His t.i.tle to the shogunate was frequently disputed, however, and rival claimants waged fierce war upon him. The whole of j.a.pan was divided into warring factions that were hardly ever at peace with one another. The feudal lords of the various provinces were only bound to the central government by the weakest ties, and were continually in a state of rebellion. Many of these daimios were great and powerful, able to wage war with the shogun himself. Jealousy and rivalry between the provinces kept up constant quarrels and divisions.

Bad government, internal wars, the disputes and quarrels of different clans, and the ambitions and jealousies of their rulers had destroyed the resources of the country and had devastated her rich and beautiful cities. Even the fine old capital of Kyoto is represented as at that time in a state of dilapidation and ruin, its streets filled with unburied corpses and all kinds of debris and filth. Kamakura, the seat of the shogun's government, once boasting 1,000,000 inhabitants, was in ashes.

In those dark times there was little in the prevalent religions to cheer and uplift discouraged {146} men. s.h.i.+nto was so completely overshadowed by Buddhism that it was little more than a myth. Buddhism had become a political system, and paid little attention to purely religious matters. The priests had degenerated into an army of mercenaries, living in luxury and dissoluteness. The common people were in a continual state of excitement and ferment.

Into this disordered, chaotic society Catholic Christianity was first introduced. The conditions were favorable to its reception.

St. Francis Xavier, one of the most devoted, earnest, and successful missionaries ever sent out by the Roman Church, has the honor of having been the first missionary to j.a.pan. He was led to go there in the following manner: A refugee from j.a.pan, named Anjiro, had wandered to Malacca, and there he met Xavier, who was at that time engaged in preaching the gospel in India and the Sunda Islands. Through Xavier's influence Anjiro was converted to Christianity. The stories which he told of his own people fired the great evangelist with the desire to preach the gospel to the j.a.panese. A few years prior to this some Portuguese traders had made their way to j.a.pan, had been warmly received, and had begun a lucrative trade. Some of the daimios expressed to them a desire to have the Christian religion taught to their people; and Xavier no {147} sooner heard of this than he set out for j.a.pan, accompanied by the native convert Anjiro.

They landed at Kagos.h.i.+ma, a large city on the coast of the southern island of Kyushu, August 15, 1549. The prince of Satsuma gave Xavier a hearty welcome, but afterward became jealous because one of the rival clans had been furnished with firearms by the Portuguese merchants, so that Xavier was compelled to remove to Hirado. From there he went to Nagato, thence to Bungo, where he again met a warm reception. Although so great a missionary, and having labored in so many countries, Xavier is said never to have mastered completely a single foreign tongue. He studied the rudiments of j.a.panese, but, finding that way much too slow, began preaching through an interpreter, with marked success and power.

Anjiro had translated the Gospel of Matthew, writing it in Roman letters, and Xavier is said to have read this to the people with wonderful effect. He stayed only two and a half years in j.a.pan; yet in that short time he organized several congregations in the neighborhood of Yamaguchi and Hirado, and visited and preached in the old capital Kyoto. He then left the work in the hands of other missionaries, while he undertook the spiritual conquest of China. This ancient empire, with her hard, conservative civilization, impervious to foreign influence, lay like a burden {148} on his heart. Contemplating her learning, her pride, and her exclusiveness, he uttered the despairing cry, ”O mountain, mountain, when wilt thou open to my Lord?” He died December 2, 1551, on an island in the Canton River.

The inspiring example of Xavier attracted scores of missionaries to j.a.pan, and also incited the native converts to const.i.tute themselves missionaries to their kinsmen and friends; and their labors bore much fruit. In a very short time, in the region of Kyoto alone, there were seven strong churches; and the island of Amakusa, the greater part of the Goto Islands, and the daimiates of Omura and Yamaguchi had become Christian. In 1581 the churches had grown to two hundred, and the number of Christians to 150,000. The converts were drawn from all cla.s.ses of the people; Buddhist priests, scholars, and n.o.blemen embraced the new faith with as much readiness as did the lower cla.s.ses.

Two daimios had accepted it, and were doing all in their power to aid the missionaries in their provinces. At this period the missionaries and Christians found a powerful supporter in n.o.bunaga, the minister of the mikado. This man openly welcomed the foreign priests, and gave them suitable grounds on which to build their churches, schools, and dwellings; and under his patronage the new {149} religion grew apace.

Catholic Christianity took its deepest root in the southern provinces, flouris.h.i.+ng especially in Bungo, Omura, and Arima; but there were churches as far north as Yedo, and evangelists had carried the tidings of Christ and the ”Mother of G.o.d” even to the northern boundaries of the empire. This was the high tide of j.a.panese Catholicism.

The native Christians were so earnest and loyal to the church that, in 1583, they sent an emba.s.sy of four young n.o.blemen to Rome to pay their respects to the pope and to declare themselves his spiritual va.s.sals.

They were suspected by some of their countrymen of desiring to become his va.s.sals in another sense as well. This emba.s.sy was received with the greatest honors by the pope, as well as by the European princes, and was sent away heavily laden with presents. After an absence of eight years it returned to Nagasaki, accompanied by seventeen more Jesuit fathers. Up to this time all of the priests laboring in j.a.pan were members of this order. From time to time other emba.s.sies were despatched from j.a.pan to Rome, one of which was sent many years after the persecutions had begun. Catholic histories put the number of native Christians at this time at about 600,000, but native authorities put it much higher.

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_Persecutions_

Such was the happy state of Christianity in this empire as the sixteenth century was drawing to a close. But, thick and fast, clouds were gathering over the horizon, and suddenly and furiously the storm broke. The loss of their protector, n.o.bunaga, was the beginning of the misfortunes of the Christians. This great man was slain by an a.s.sa.s.sin, Akechi by name, who attempted to take the reins of government into his own hands. Hideyos.h.i.+, one of the greatest men j.a.pan ever produced, now came upon the stage. He was the loyal general of the mikado, and, by the help of the Christian general Takayama, he overthrew the usurper Akechi, and became the molder of the destinies of the empire. He was the unifier of j.a.pan.

Hideyos.h.i.+ was at first tolerant of Christianity; but his suspicions were by and by aroused, and he became a cruel and relentless persecutor. According to Dr. Griffis, his umbrage arose partly because a Portuguese captain would not please him by risking his s.h.i.+p in coming out of deep water and nearer land, and partly because some Christian maidens of Arima scorned his degrading proposals. The quarrels of the Christians themselves also helped to bring on the persecutions. {151} Franciscan and Dominican missionaries from Spain had recently landed in j.a.pan, and they were continually at strife with the Portuguese Jesuits.

The jealousy and indiscretion of these unfriendly religious orders, and the slanders circulated by the Buddhists, stirred up the popular fury, and a persecution of fire and blood broke out. Hideyos.h.i.+ issued an edict commanding the Jesuits to leave the country in twenty days; but this edict was winked at, and the persecutions were carried on only locally and spasmodically. The converts increased faster during these persecutions than before, about 10,000 being added each year.

In open violation of the edict, four Franciscan priests came to Kyoto in 1593 with a Spanish envoy. They were allowed to build houses and reside there on the express condition that they were not to preach or teach, either publicly or privately. Immediately violating their pledge, they began preaching openly in the streets, wearing the vestments of their order. They excited a great deal of discord among the Jesuit congregations and used most violent language. Hideyos.h.i.+ was angered at this,--as he had good reason to be,--and caused nine preachers to be seized while they were building chapels in Osaka and Kyoto, and condemned to death. These, together with three Portuguese Jesuits, six Spanish {152} Franciscans, and seventeen native Christians, were crucified on bamboo crosses in Nagasaki, February 5, 1597. They were put to death, not as Christians, but as law-breakers and political conspirators.

Hideyos.h.i.+ was further confirmed in his opinion that these foreign priests had political designs by the remark of a Spanish sea-captain who showed him a map of the world, on which the vast dominions of the King of Spain were clearly marked, and who, in reply to the question as to how his master came by such wide territories, foolishly replied that he first sent priests to win over the people, then soldiers to cooperate with the native converts, and the conquest was easy.

Hideyos.h.i.+'s fears were not entirely ungrounded. The truth is that Catholic Christianity has always been, and was especially at that time, so intimately connected with the state that her emissaries could not keep from entangling themselves in politics.

Hideyos.h.i.+ died in 1597, and with the death of their persecutor the missionaries again took heart and began their work anew. The political successor of Hideyos.h.i.+ was Iyeyasu--a man even greater, perhaps, than his predecessor. He was not permitted to a.s.sume direction of affairs without a fierce and b.l.o.o.d.y struggle. Around the capital 200,000 soldiers were gathered under ambitious rival leaders. Soon the camps were {153} divided into two factions, the northern soldiers under Iyeyasu, and the southern soldiers under their own daimios. Most of the Christians were naturally allied with the latter party. Believing Iyeyasu to be a usurper, the Christian generals arrayed themselves against him and went forth to meet him in the open field. On the field of Sekigahara a b.l.o.o.d.y battle was fought, and 10,000 men lost their lives. The Christians were beaten, and were dealt with after the custom of the time--their heads were stricken off. Iyeyasu, finding himself in undisputed possession of the reins of government, began at once the completion of the work of Hideyos.h.i.+, i.e., the creation of a strong central government and the subjugation of the several daimios.

Henceforth the Christians had to deal with this central government instead of the petty local ones.

Systematic persecutions were now begun in the different provinces, culminating in the year 1606, when Iyeyasu issued his famous edict prohibiting Christianity. At this time there were more than 1,000,000 Christians in j.a.pan. An outward show of obedience warded off active persecution for a few years, when the Franciscan friars again aroused the wrath of the government by openly violating the laws and exhorting their converts to do likewise. In 1611 Iyeyasu is reported to have discovered doc.u.mentary evidence of the {154} existence of a plot on the part of the native Christians and the foreign emissaries to overthrow the government and reduce j.a.pan to the position of a subject state.

Taking advantage of the opportunity thus afforded, he determined to utterly extirpate Christianity from his dominions. January 27, 1614, he issued the famous edict in which he branded the Jesuit missionaries as triple enemies--as enemies of the G.o.ds, of j.a.pan, and of the buddhas. Desiring to avoid so much bloodshed, if possible, he tried the plan of transportation. Three hundred persons--Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, Augustinians, and natives--were s.h.i.+pped from Nagasaki to Macao. But many priests concealed themselves and were overlooked. The native Christians refused to renounce their faith. It was evident that the end was not yet. The Christians were sympathizers with Hideyori, who had been a rival claimant with Iyeyasu for the shogunate, and whose castle in Osaka was the greatest stronghold in the empire. In this castle Hideyori gave shelter to some Christians, and Iyeyasu called out a great army and laid siege to it. The war which followed was very brief, but, if the report of the Jesuits is to be relied upon, 100,000 men perished. The castle finally fell, and with it the cause of the Christians. Hidetada, the next shogun, now p.r.o.nounced sentence of death upon {155} every foreigner, whether priest or catechist, found in the country. All native converts who refused to renounce their faith were likewise sentenced to death. The story of the persecutions that followed is too horrible to be described. Fire and sword were freely used to extirpate Christianity. Converts were wrapped in straw sacks, piled in heaps of living fuel, and then set on fire. Many were burned with fires made from the crosses before which they were accustomed to bow. Some were buried alive. All the tortures that barbaric cruelty could invent were freely used to rid the land of them. The calmness and fort.i.tude with which they bore their lot, gladly dying for their faith, command our warmest admiration. The power of our religion to uphold and sustain even in the midst of torture was never more strikingly ill.u.s.trated, and the ancient Roman world produced no more willing martyrs than did j.a.pan at this time.

At last even the patient, uncomplaining j.a.panese Christians could stand it no longer. Persecuted until desperate, those who remained finally arose in rebellion, seized and fortified the old castle of s.h.i.+mabara, and resolved to die rather than submit. The rebelling party probably numbered about 30,000, and there was not one foreigner among them. A veteran army, led by skilled commanders, was sent against the rebels, {156} and after a stubborn resistance of four months the castle was taken. Men, women, and children--all were slaughtered. There is an old story to the effect that many of them were thrown from the rock of Pappenburg into the sea; but it lacks confirmation and doubtless is only a myth. It has also been charged against the Protestant Hollanders then resident in Nagasaki that they a.s.sisted in the overthrow of the s.h.i.+mabara castle and the destruction of the Catholics with their heavy guns, but this probably is untrue.

There was now left no power to resist, and the sword, fire, and banishment swept away every trace of Christianity. The extermination appeared so complete that non-Christian writers have pointed to j.a.pan as a land in which Christianity had been entirely conquered by the sword, thus proving that it could be extirpated. But the extirpation was not so thorough as at first appeared. Christian converts remained, and a.s.sembled regularly for wors.h.i.+p; but the utmost secrecy was observed, for fear of the authorities. When the country was reopened in 1859, the Catholic fathers found remaining in and around Nagasaki whole villages of Christians, holding their faith in secret, it is true, but still holding it. During the two hundred years in which they had been left alone the faith had become corrupt, but there were still thousands of people who, amid {157} much ignorance, wors.h.i.+ped the true G.o.d and refused to bow at pagan shrines. Christianity was not entirely crushed, neither can be, by the secular arm.

After the government had, as it fondly supposed, entirely suppressed the hated foreign religion, in order to prevent its return it determined upon the most rigid system of exclusiveness ever practised by any nation. The means of communication with the outer world were all cut off; all s.h.i.+ps above a certain size were destroyed, and the building of others large enough to visit foreign lands rigidly prohibited; j.a.panese were forbidden to travel abroad on pain of death; native s.h.i.+pwrecked sailors who had been driven to other lands were not permitted to return to their own country, lest they should carry the dreaded religion back with them; and all foreigners found on j.a.panese territory were executed. Over all the empire the most rigid prohibitions of Christianity were posted. The high-sounding text of one of them was as follows: ”So long as the sun shall continue to warm the earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to j.a.pan; and let all know that the King of Spain himself, or the Christians' G.o.d, or the great G.o.d of all, if He dare violate this command, shall pay for it with His head.” These prohibitions could still be seen along the highways as late as 1872.