The aim of this research is to argue the importance of internal political influences during the Tokugawa period that influenced the appeal of Christianity in Japan for centuries to come. In addition to that, we can also argue that these internal political conflicts impacted Japan substantially in terms of history and culture, and economy for at least 250 years. It was the advent of Christianity that influenced the behavior of Tokugawa to complete close the borders of Japan, hence altering history permanently. However, even after the closure of borders, Christianity remained in practice in japan, although it was practiced clandestinely, and the hidden Christians, or the Karuke Kirishitans, as they were called, continued to impact Japanese culture and politics.
The advent of St.Francis Xavier and the Portuguese Christian missionaries market the beginning of Christianity in Japan. Before Christianity, japan was largely a Buddhist nation ruled by monarchy and feudal system. With the advent of Christianity, a significant impact on the existing society and culture started to occur. Christianity brought with it a whole new moral and ethical code which was largely incompatible with the existing norms of society. This resulted in the clash between the traditional Japanese society and newly growing Christian minority. With the increase of Christians, need was felt to build more churches this resulted in violent clashes with the Buddhist majority there, who did not favor this new developments. Also, as adherents of Christianity grew, the newly converted Christians tended to be very fundamentalist about their new religion, their toleration of of non-believers grew less due to the incompatibilities in their respective moral code. These new converts then became involved in violence against the Buddhists, who retaliated with the same (Higashibaba).
When the Japanese were converted to Christianity, they were given new teaches about their religion, but it did not end at that. The missionaries that were coming to Japan encouraged the new converts to adopt western culture (Higashibaba). They were given new Christian names at baptism and were being given a whole new culture. Inasmuch the change of religion was being tolerated to such a small extent already, this coerced change of culture came to be regarded very suspiciously among the Japanese.
The main reason for toleration of Christians in japan up till now was the fact that they brought trade with them (Elison), which was extremely beneficial to the economy, especially the existing feudal class. However, the Christian morality was being taught to the masses of japan, which said that all men are created equal. This annoyed the feudal class because it challenged the established status quo. This was the time when Tokugawa Ieyasu ruled over Japan. He saw these new preachings as a threat to his authority and crown, and decided that to save his authority he must overcome this new phenomenon that is trying to change the culture, religion and morality of the country. He did this by banishing the missionaries from the country, outlawing Christianity and persecuting Christians. As much as 3000 Christians were killed in this pogrom (Elison). At the time, the total population of Christians in Japan was around 300000.
Due to the lack of understanding of the Christian religion, Ieyasu regarded all Christian teachings as a plot to overthrow his regime. He was already suspicious of the fact that Japanese culture was slowly being westernized, the teachings of equality he considered to be the next step to make him weaker. Not only that, he considered all Christians to be working for Toyotomi force (Higashibaba) which was the political rival faction at the time. He saw the elimination of the Christians in general and the foreign missionaries in particular a way to destroy his political rivals. And hence, foreigners were banished and Japanese borders were closed for the next 250 years.
After getting rid of the foreigners, he wanted to restructure the Japanese society internally, therefore he ordered all citizens to register themselves at Buddhist temples and reaffirm their affiliating with the Buddhist religion. To make an example out of it and discourage other Japanese to take interest in Christianity, he tortured the now famous twenty-six martyrs of Japan and crucified them on crosses outside Nagasaki in 1597 (Higashibaba). Christianity was effectively banned in japan from that point onwards. However, out of the 300000 adherents of Christianity, many did not abandon their beliefs and continued to practice Christianity as an underground subculture. These were called the Kakure Kirishitan, the hidden Christians. These secret Christians kept their religious affiliations hidden, as well as the Christian iconography in their closed shrines (Elison).
By closely researching this topic we can know about the correlation between the advent of Christianity in Japan and the closure of Japan from the rest of the world. At initial inspection, it may seem that these two are directly correlated, however there are various other factors that we must take into account. For example the internal politics and the existing structure of Japanese society might have played a large part in influencing the decision to close the borders of Japan. Another topic of interest is the condition of the hidden christians at the time when they were being persecuted, and their eventual reemergence when forieign missionaries were alloed in japan at around 1853, and their eventual acceptance around 1870 when freedom of religion was allowed in Japan finally under Meiji Restoration (Higashibaba).
As we do not have much primary sources and data to rely on for the research of this topic, we need to research from secondary sources. The two books that I will be primarily using for this research give a holistic perspective about the evolution of religion in Japan, particularly Christianity. The book by Ikuo Higashibaba gives insight about modern day practice of Christianity in japan in terms of its historical perspective from a native Japanese. His strengths lie in the in-depth view into the historical practice and evolution of Christianity in Japan. George Elisons book on the other hand is more aligned towards the present day practice of Christianity in Japan. He has devided his work into three parts, the introduction of Christianity in japan, its persecution and expulsion, and then its eventual acceptance in Japan. The strength of this book lie in the fact that there are numerous translation of Japanese historical texts about Christianity, which may give us a deeper insight into the practice and evolution of Christianity in that region. The weakness of this book lies in the introduction phase, which gives and outdated narration of introduction of Christianity in Japan.
The advent of St.Francis Xavier and the Portuguese Christian missionaries market the beginning of Christianity in Japan. Before Christianity, japan was largely a Buddhist nation ruled by monarchy and feudal system. With the advent of Christianity, a significant impact on the existing society and culture started to occur. Christianity brought with it a whole new moral and ethical code which was largely incompatible with the existing norms of society. This resulted in the clash between the traditional Japanese society and newly growing Christian minority. With the increase of Christians, need was felt to build more churches this resulted in violent clashes with the Buddhist majority there, who did not favor this new developments. Also, as adherents of Christianity grew, the newly converted Christians tended to be very fundamentalist about their new religion, their toleration of of non-believers grew less due to the incompatibilities in their respective moral code. These new converts then became involved in violence against the Buddhists, who retaliated with the same (Higashibaba).
When the Japanese were converted to Christianity, they were given new teaches about their religion, but it did not end at that. The missionaries that were coming to Japan encouraged the new converts to adopt western culture (Higashibaba). They were given new Christian names at baptism and were being given a whole new culture. Inasmuch the change of religion was being tolerated to such a small extent already, this coerced change of culture came to be regarded very suspiciously among the Japanese.
The main reason for toleration of Christians in japan up till now was the fact that they brought trade with them (Elison), which was extremely beneficial to the economy, especially the existing feudal class. However, the Christian morality was being taught to the masses of japan, which said that all men are created equal. This annoyed the feudal class because it challenged the established status quo. This was the time when Tokugawa Ieyasu ruled over Japan. He saw these new preachings as a threat to his authority and crown, and decided that to save his authority he must overcome this new phenomenon that is trying to change the culture, religion and morality of the country. He did this by banishing the missionaries from the country, outlawing Christianity and persecuting Christians. As much as 3000 Christians were killed in this pogrom (Elison). At the time, the total population of Christians in Japan was around 300000.
Due to the lack of understanding of the Christian religion, Ieyasu regarded all Christian teachings as a plot to overthrow his regime. He was already suspicious of the fact that Japanese culture was slowly being westernized, the teachings of equality he considered to be the next step to make him weaker. Not only that, he considered all Christians to be working for Toyotomi force (Higashibaba) which was the political rival faction at the time. He saw the elimination of the Christians in general and the foreign missionaries in particular a way to destroy his political rivals. And hence, foreigners were banished and Japanese borders were closed for the next 250 years.
After getting rid of the foreigners, he wanted to restructure the Japanese society internally, therefore he ordered all citizens to register themselves at Buddhist temples and reaffirm their affiliating with the Buddhist religion. To make an example out of it and discourage other Japanese to take interest in Christianity, he tortured the now famous twenty-six martyrs of Japan and crucified them on crosses outside Nagasaki in 1597 (Higashibaba). Christianity was effectively banned in japan from that point onwards. However, out of the 300000 adherents of Christianity, many did not abandon their beliefs and continued to practice Christianity as an underground subculture. These were called the Kakure Kirishitan, the hidden Christians. These secret Christians kept their religious affiliations hidden, as well as the Christian iconography in their closed shrines (Elison).
By closely researching this topic we can know about the correlation between the advent of Christianity in Japan and the closure of Japan from the rest of the world. At initial inspection, it may seem that these two are directly correlated, however there are various other factors that we must take into account. For example the internal politics and the existing structure of Japanese society might have played a large part in influencing the decision to close the borders of Japan. Another topic of interest is the condition of the hidden christians at the time when they were being persecuted, and their eventual reemergence when forieign missionaries were alloed in japan at around 1853, and their eventual acceptance around 1870 when freedom of religion was allowed in Japan finally under Meiji Restoration (Higashibaba).
As we do not have much primary sources and data to rely on for the research of this topic, we need to research from secondary sources. The two books that I will be primarily using for this research give a holistic perspective about the evolution of religion in Japan, particularly Christianity. The book by Ikuo Higashibaba gives insight about modern day practice of Christianity in japan in terms of its historical perspective from a native Japanese. His strengths lie in the in-depth view into the historical practice and evolution of Christianity in Japan. George Elisons book on the other hand is more aligned towards the present day practice of Christianity in Japan. He has devided his work into three parts, the introduction of Christianity in japan, its persecution and expulsion, and then its eventual acceptance in Japan. The strength of this book lie in the fact that there are numerous translation of Japanese historical texts about Christianity, which may give us a deeper insight into the practice and evolution of Christianity in that region. The weakness of this book lies in the introduction phase, which gives and outdated narration of introduction of Christianity in Japan.
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