The advent of Christianity in Japan played an important role in the shaping of its history and culture. The closing of borders for the European countries was a direct consequence of the advent of the Christian religion, and the European culture that it brought with it. This not only affected trade and foreign relations, it also affected technological developments in Japan in the Tokugawa period, where European technological advances and literature were not available. Also, in many other countries, the advent of Europeans resulted in colonialism, this was not the case with Japan, which can be attributed to the rejection of the Christian religion in part.
It is important to understand the Japanese society that existed before the advent of Christianity. Japan was a very closed society built on a very strict system of classes. Buddhism was the main religion of this region although the people were not extremely religious. The warrior classes collected taxes from farmers, however they were not extremely high. Japan was not a united entity before Christianity entered Japan. It was a country divided into many factions all fighting a fierce civil war with each other. It was a very chaotic situation where none of the rulers enjoyed an tangible authority over the whole of population. Hence, the institutions were weak and the government was extremely mismanaged. Under these conditions, the people of Japan were not happy. Neither with the morality and ethics of the era, nor with the established authorities of the country. This was basically a military society that needed much room for improvement.
Christianity came into Japan in the late 16th to early 17th century for the first time in an organized and large scale. Spain and Portugal were established powers of the time and were involved in colonizing new territories. The main motives of their colonizations were the control of trade and the overseeing of their respective countries economic interests. However, during these times, religion was as much a part of the government as a whole as any other secular institution. Therefore, a major part of going into any country was the spread of Christianity throughout that country. The westerners thought of Christianity as a major force in modernizing and civilizing a country, the non-Christians were considered as savages in this era. Hence whenever the Portuguese of Spaniards entered a country, the spread of Christianity was one of their major stated goals. Initially, both the Spanish and the Portuguese had a dispute regarding the spread of Christianity in japan, because whoever got the exclusive right to spread Christianity in this region, also got the rights to trade exclusively with this country automatically.
When the Jesuit Priest Francis Xavier entered Japan the country was involved in a large scale civil war. None of the power brokers exercised real meaningful power over the region. Neither the emperor nor the Ashikaga shogun had complete control over the country at that time. The Jesuits then preached to the daimyo in southwestern Japan and succeeded in converting some of these daimyo. According to some historians, one reason for their conversion may have been the Portuguese trade in which the Jesuits acted as brokers. The Jesuits recognized this need of the daimyo and approached them with offers of trade and exotic gifts.
The main strategy of the propagation of Chritianity by the missionaries was to convert or befriend the influential feudal lords of a particular region. In hindsight, we do see the effectiveness of this strategy because those regions in which the feudal lords converted to Christianity were the ones which were most responsive to the Christian missions . Yamaguchi was one such story in this saga. The rulers of Yamagachi were curious about Francis Xavier and this new religion that he was preaching, however, they thought of Christianity as a part of the Buddhist religion and did not this of it having as any revolutionary ideas. Hence, their acceptance of Christianity was based on its harmlessness and non-threatening to the Yamagachi rulers. However, when Francis Xavier openly started preaching Christianity in this region he stated many ideas publicly that went against the accepted norms of the society. For example he denounced infanticide, idolatry and homosexuality these were the practices that were widely accepted at that time. Due to his denunciation of these ideas, the rulers became suspicious of him.
By the end of the 16th century, Christianity was flourishing in Japan. There were baptized Christians in virtually every province of Japan and became a nationwide phenomenon. There were hundreds of churches spread throughout Japan and Christianity was equally popular among all classes of society, the rich, the poor, the peasants and artisans alike. Most of the daily rituals of the churches in Japan were done by the Japanese themselves, as opposed to Europeans. This gave Christianity a local color, also, the churches were mostly based on Japanese native architecture. This was the time when Nagasaki was called The Rome of Japan due to a large number of native Christians residing in the city. All types of people became Christians up till this time, and were actively involved in the workings of the church. We cannot say that only traders or daimyo were responsible for the spread of Christianity, because each member of the Japanese church was actively involved. One notable fact here is that it was widely accepted by the Christian missions that it was impossible to colonize or conquer Japan and limited their activities accordingly.
As stated earlier in the paper, this was largely a militarized society where the daimyo were frequently at war with each other. Initially, when the Christian daimyo were fighting the non-Christian daimyo, the Christians would provide with weapons and support to the Christian daimyo. Their support of Omura Sumitada and Arima Harunobu, who fought against the anti-Catholic Ryuzoji clan is one such example. This was one of the mistakes that the Kirishitan made, that is involving themselves on military actions between warring feudal daimyo. As the military activities of Kirishitans increased, they were regarded more and more as western agents who were trying to conquer Japan in the name of Spain or Portugal. Another interesting aspect is the relative competition between the Jesuits and the Mendicant orders to have complete rights over Japan. They both employed different methods but their rivalry was one factor which pushed them towards gaining more ground over the other even if they had to use military force.
By 1559, a missionary, Gaspar Vilela, asked for permission from Ashikaga Yoshiteru to preach Christianity in his region, which was granted in the same manner in which the Buddhist temples were granted permission in those days, which means that no special treatment was accorded to them. At the same time, Emperor Ogimachi issued edicts to ban Catholicism in 1565 and 1568, however, these bans did no prove to be much meaningful because at the time neither the Emperor nor the Shogun enjoyed widespread control of all territories. By the end of 1579 there were around 130,000 Christians in Japan. 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, also, with the increase of Christians, need was felt to build more churches these factors contributed to the causes violent clashes with the Buddhist majority of Japan, who did not favor these 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.
Up till 1580, Christianity was gaining smooth ground in Japan and there were relatively few obstacles. This was because Japan was in political chaos internally and there was no absolute authority that could question the missionaries universally or hinder their activities in an organized manner. Therefore, up till 1580 Christianity grew in Japan with and unprecedented growth rate. However, Christianity started to lose its appeal when things started to change in Japan. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi came into power, Japan was reunited and there was complete authority of the ruler in most of the Japanese mainland.
To understand the influence of internal political factors that played a role in the spread of Christianity in Japan we must understand the background of that period of Japans history. The Tokugawa Shogunate was a feudal regime in Japan that came into power in the early seventeenth century. It was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa and this period is also known as the Edo period. This period was marked by a feudal society. The society of this period was based on a strict system of classes, where the warriors were placed on top, which were followed by the farmers, artisans and the traders. The shogunate was a military government that ruled according to strict discipline from the masses. The population was forced to follow rigid laws that could not be broken at all, and the punishments were the most strict.
When the Japanese were converted to Christianity, they were given new teachings 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. 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 Tokugawa also had complete control over the trade. The monopolized this industry and yielded huge profits from it. Initially, trade started with the visits of Nanban ships from Portugal. When initially the Christians started coming into Japan, their advent was not resisted at all because of the lucrative trade that they brought with them. Also, they brought foreign advanced technology with them, such as the Musket. The Tokugawa saw this as a way to crush the Buddhist forces of the country. The turning point in their relationship with the Christianity came when a ship captain accused the Christian missionaries of being there to prepare Japan for western conquest. These claims made Hideyoshi suspicious of the missionaries. However, he could not afford to have bad trading relationships with Portugal and Spain because they could provide support to Dom Justo Takayama, who was a Christian Daimyo in western Japan. Therefore, he tried to curb Catholicism while maintaining a good trading relationship with the westerners.
Hideyoshis suspicions crossed the threshold when he learned about some of the practices of the Christians by 1587. He learned that Japanese commoners were focred to convert under the instrctions of the Christian lords. Also that they had converted Nagasaki into a military garrison and openly practiced slave trade and the slaughter of horses and oxen for food, which was against Buddhist practices. It is a fact that many daimyo converted to Christianity because it gave them a better access to saltpeter, which is a main ingredient in the manufacture of gunpowder. Hideyoshi Toyotomi promulgated the Bateren-tsuiho-rei (the Purge Directive Order to the Jesuits) on July 24, 1587 which consisted of 11 articles and put Nagasaki under his direct rule to control Portuguese trade and in 1597, 26 Kirishitan followers were executed there on his order.
Tokugawa Ieyasu took over Japan after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He did not have any different plans than what Hideyoshi had. On top of his list was still trade with the foreign countries, however, like the previous ruler he too was suspicious of the westerners and their designs regarding the spread of their religion. Religion was not the only problem with Tokugawa, a growing concern was the spread of western culture. The Japanese were increasingly becoming suspicious because the missionaries were acting in a manner that they were conquerers of the converts. Not only were they encouraged and forced top adopt western names, they were also encouraged to adopt western clothing. The top Hat was thought of as a Christian religious symbol rather than a western item of clothing, hence the Japanese orthodox people became increasingly hostile to this western Christianity and the Kirishitans responded with the same. The Kirishitans were not afraid to use force and violence to enforce their ideas and culture where it was required. Some of the practices of the Japanese that were native to the nation were dubbed as evil and sinful and the Kirishitan did not refrain from using violence to stop such practices. Inspite of all this, Ieyasu kept trade his priority. He took control of Portuguese trade in 1600 and negotiated trade with other regions, such as the Phillipines.
Internationally, the Dutch and the British were in the same race to secure as many countries as possible for trade and colonization. This meant that the Portuguese as well as Spain were in direct competition with them too. To secure trade with Japan from the Portuguese and the Spaniards for themselves, and discourage Catholicism the Dutch and the British told the Shogunate that Spain wanted to attack Japan, and historically the Spanish preach catholicism in a country just before attacking it, so that the colonized country is more receptive of its new rulers. The Dutch and the British held that if they were given a chance in Japan, they would only practice trade and would not preach any form of religion. The main reason for toleration of Christians in Japan up till now was the fact that they brought trade with them, 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. Tokugawa Ieyasu 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.
Catholicism was banned in 1614 by Tokugawa because of all the factors stated previously in addition to the fact that Ieyasus Catholic vavasor was involved in an alleged fraud against him. 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 which was the political rival faction at the time. Also, Ieyasu was concerned that the Spanish might attack Japan like they had done with some other countries already like the Philippines. In addition to that the ban was also a step against the Toyotomi clan. 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. By the middle of 1600s all Christian missionaries were forced to leave Japan and all converts were ordered to be executed. This was the end of Christianity in Japan till the Meiji restoration. Even though Christians resisted this persecution, they were virtually helpless against it. They had no other option than to follow their religion clandestinely. The Kakure Kirishitan came into being as a result of these events.
To make sure that a person was not a Christian, he had to obtain a certificate from a local Buddhist temple, this was called the Terauke seido. This proved that a person was orthodox and loyal to the Tokugawa regime. Another way to find out if a person was a Kirishitan or not was to place a picture of Jesu or Virgin Mary on the floor and telling him to trample upon this picture. If the person refused or hesitated to do so, he was considered a Christian and was sent to Nagasaki, where he was persecuted. As much as 3000 Christians were killed in this pogrom. At the time, the total population of Christians in Japan was around 300000.
For the next many years to come till the Meiji restoration, the Kakure Kirishitan lived in secrecy and practiced their religion under the constant fear of persecution. Japan closed its borders to the Europeans, especially Christians, completely now. The punishment for leaving the country was death, so was illegally entering the country. Hence japan completely sealed its borders, mainly due to the paranoia of the Tokugawa regime. This was done by the imposition of the Sokoku. Sokoku was imposed because of the Shimbara rebellion of 1637-38 in which almost 40,000 Christians rose against their persecution. After this, the Shogunate held the missionaries responsible for the whole rebellion.
In conclusion, the spread of Christianity was affected by the internal political factors of Japan to a large extent. We can state that the advent of Christian missionaries in Japan was somewhat motivated by trade in addition to spreading Christianity, but also, there were many mistakes made by the missionaries. Mistakes such as involving themselves in politics of the country and dealing in arms and changing the culture of the country. The strong actions that were taken by the missionaries, sometimes legal sometimes illegal to the state, had an equally strong reaction when the time came. As soon as Japan got over its internal conflicts, Christianity went downhill because of the stronger authority of the new ruler and more control he enjoyed over his land. Because of these events, Japan closed its borders completely for particularly for the Europeans for the next 250 years, which has had a lasting impact on not only Japan, but the whole world. In retrospect, there are many things that would have been different today if this had not happened, however that is all just conjecture. Today there are around 1 Christians in Japan, as compared to other East Asian countries like China (5), Vietnam (7), South Korea (29.2). Furthermore, Japan could not become a part of the world till many years later and was devoid of the technological advancements of the era. During these years, the only way to stay abreast of the technological and scientific advancements was to study the Dutch literature which became outdated as soon as the borders opened after 250 years. After the borders were finally opened, many Japanese went abroad to study and Japan opened its doors to development.
It is important to understand the Japanese society that existed before the advent of Christianity. Japan was a very closed society built on a very strict system of classes. Buddhism was the main religion of this region although the people were not extremely religious. The warrior classes collected taxes from farmers, however they were not extremely high. Japan was not a united entity before Christianity entered Japan. It was a country divided into many factions all fighting a fierce civil war with each other. It was a very chaotic situation where none of the rulers enjoyed an tangible authority over the whole of population. Hence, the institutions were weak and the government was extremely mismanaged. Under these conditions, the people of Japan were not happy. Neither with the morality and ethics of the era, nor with the established authorities of the country. This was basically a military society that needed much room for improvement.
Christianity came into Japan in the late 16th to early 17th century for the first time in an organized and large scale. Spain and Portugal were established powers of the time and were involved in colonizing new territories. The main motives of their colonizations were the control of trade and the overseeing of their respective countries economic interests. However, during these times, religion was as much a part of the government as a whole as any other secular institution. Therefore, a major part of going into any country was the spread of Christianity throughout that country. The westerners thought of Christianity as a major force in modernizing and civilizing a country, the non-Christians were considered as savages in this era. Hence whenever the Portuguese of Spaniards entered a country, the spread of Christianity was one of their major stated goals. Initially, both the Spanish and the Portuguese had a dispute regarding the spread of Christianity in japan, because whoever got the exclusive right to spread Christianity in this region, also got the rights to trade exclusively with this country automatically.
When the Jesuit Priest Francis Xavier entered Japan the country was involved in a large scale civil war. None of the power brokers exercised real meaningful power over the region. Neither the emperor nor the Ashikaga shogun had complete control over the country at that time. The Jesuits then preached to the daimyo in southwestern Japan and succeeded in converting some of these daimyo. According to some historians, one reason for their conversion may have been the Portuguese trade in which the Jesuits acted as brokers. The Jesuits recognized this need of the daimyo and approached them with offers of trade and exotic gifts.
The main strategy of the propagation of Chritianity by the missionaries was to convert or befriend the influential feudal lords of a particular region. In hindsight, we do see the effectiveness of this strategy because those regions in which the feudal lords converted to Christianity were the ones which were most responsive to the Christian missions . Yamaguchi was one such story in this saga. The rulers of Yamagachi were curious about Francis Xavier and this new religion that he was preaching, however, they thought of Christianity as a part of the Buddhist religion and did not this of it having as any revolutionary ideas. Hence, their acceptance of Christianity was based on its harmlessness and non-threatening to the Yamagachi rulers. However, when Francis Xavier openly started preaching Christianity in this region he stated many ideas publicly that went against the accepted norms of the society. For example he denounced infanticide, idolatry and homosexuality these were the practices that were widely accepted at that time. Due to his denunciation of these ideas, the rulers became suspicious of him.
By the end of the 16th century, Christianity was flourishing in Japan. There were baptized Christians in virtually every province of Japan and became a nationwide phenomenon. There were hundreds of churches spread throughout Japan and Christianity was equally popular among all classes of society, the rich, the poor, the peasants and artisans alike. Most of the daily rituals of the churches in Japan were done by the Japanese themselves, as opposed to Europeans. This gave Christianity a local color, also, the churches were mostly based on Japanese native architecture. This was the time when Nagasaki was called The Rome of Japan due to a large number of native Christians residing in the city. All types of people became Christians up till this time, and were actively involved in the workings of the church. We cannot say that only traders or daimyo were responsible for the spread of Christianity, because each member of the Japanese church was actively involved. One notable fact here is that it was widely accepted by the Christian missions that it was impossible to colonize or conquer Japan and limited their activities accordingly.
As stated earlier in the paper, this was largely a militarized society where the daimyo were frequently at war with each other. Initially, when the Christian daimyo were fighting the non-Christian daimyo, the Christians would provide with weapons and support to the Christian daimyo. Their support of Omura Sumitada and Arima Harunobu, who fought against the anti-Catholic Ryuzoji clan is one such example. This was one of the mistakes that the Kirishitan made, that is involving themselves on military actions between warring feudal daimyo. As the military activities of Kirishitans increased, they were regarded more and more as western agents who were trying to conquer Japan in the name of Spain or Portugal. Another interesting aspect is the relative competition between the Jesuits and the Mendicant orders to have complete rights over Japan. They both employed different methods but their rivalry was one factor which pushed them towards gaining more ground over the other even if they had to use military force.
By 1559, a missionary, Gaspar Vilela, asked for permission from Ashikaga Yoshiteru to preach Christianity in his region, which was granted in the same manner in which the Buddhist temples were granted permission in those days, which means that no special treatment was accorded to them. At the same time, Emperor Ogimachi issued edicts to ban Catholicism in 1565 and 1568, however, these bans did no prove to be much meaningful because at the time neither the Emperor nor the Shogun enjoyed widespread control of all territories. By the end of 1579 there were around 130,000 Christians in Japan. 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, also, with the increase of Christians, need was felt to build more churches these factors contributed to the causes violent clashes with the Buddhist majority of Japan, who did not favor these 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.
Up till 1580, Christianity was gaining smooth ground in Japan and there were relatively few obstacles. This was because Japan was in political chaos internally and there was no absolute authority that could question the missionaries universally or hinder their activities in an organized manner. Therefore, up till 1580 Christianity grew in Japan with and unprecedented growth rate. However, Christianity started to lose its appeal when things started to change in Japan. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi came into power, Japan was reunited and there was complete authority of the ruler in most of the Japanese mainland.
To understand the influence of internal political factors that played a role in the spread of Christianity in Japan we must understand the background of that period of Japans history. The Tokugawa Shogunate was a feudal regime in Japan that came into power in the early seventeenth century. It was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa and this period is also known as the Edo period. This period was marked by a feudal society. The society of this period was based on a strict system of classes, where the warriors were placed on top, which were followed by the farmers, artisans and the traders. The shogunate was a military government that ruled according to strict discipline from the masses. The population was forced to follow rigid laws that could not be broken at all, and the punishments were the most strict.
When the Japanese were converted to Christianity, they were given new teachings 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. 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 Tokugawa also had complete control over the trade. The monopolized this industry and yielded huge profits from it. Initially, trade started with the visits of Nanban ships from Portugal. When initially the Christians started coming into Japan, their advent was not resisted at all because of the lucrative trade that they brought with them. Also, they brought foreign advanced technology with them, such as the Musket. The Tokugawa saw this as a way to crush the Buddhist forces of the country. The turning point in their relationship with the Christianity came when a ship captain accused the Christian missionaries of being there to prepare Japan for western conquest. These claims made Hideyoshi suspicious of the missionaries. However, he could not afford to have bad trading relationships with Portugal and Spain because they could provide support to Dom Justo Takayama, who was a Christian Daimyo in western Japan. Therefore, he tried to curb Catholicism while maintaining a good trading relationship with the westerners.
Hideyoshis suspicions crossed the threshold when he learned about some of the practices of the Christians by 1587. He learned that Japanese commoners were focred to convert under the instrctions of the Christian lords. Also that they had converted Nagasaki into a military garrison and openly practiced slave trade and the slaughter of horses and oxen for food, which was against Buddhist practices. It is a fact that many daimyo converted to Christianity because it gave them a better access to saltpeter, which is a main ingredient in the manufacture of gunpowder. Hideyoshi Toyotomi promulgated the Bateren-tsuiho-rei (the Purge Directive Order to the Jesuits) on July 24, 1587 which consisted of 11 articles and put Nagasaki under his direct rule to control Portuguese trade and in 1597, 26 Kirishitan followers were executed there on his order.
Tokugawa Ieyasu took over Japan after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He did not have any different plans than what Hideyoshi had. On top of his list was still trade with the foreign countries, however, like the previous ruler he too was suspicious of the westerners and their designs regarding the spread of their religion. Religion was not the only problem with Tokugawa, a growing concern was the spread of western culture. The Japanese were increasingly becoming suspicious because the missionaries were acting in a manner that they were conquerers of the converts. Not only were they encouraged and forced top adopt western names, they were also encouraged to adopt western clothing. The top Hat was thought of as a Christian religious symbol rather than a western item of clothing, hence the Japanese orthodox people became increasingly hostile to this western Christianity and the Kirishitans responded with the same. The Kirishitans were not afraid to use force and violence to enforce their ideas and culture where it was required. Some of the practices of the Japanese that were native to the nation were dubbed as evil and sinful and the Kirishitan did not refrain from using violence to stop such practices. Inspite of all this, Ieyasu kept trade his priority. He took control of Portuguese trade in 1600 and negotiated trade with other regions, such as the Phillipines.
Internationally, the Dutch and the British were in the same race to secure as many countries as possible for trade and colonization. This meant that the Portuguese as well as Spain were in direct competition with them too. To secure trade with Japan from the Portuguese and the Spaniards for themselves, and discourage Catholicism the Dutch and the British told the Shogunate that Spain wanted to attack Japan, and historically the Spanish preach catholicism in a country just before attacking it, so that the colonized country is more receptive of its new rulers. The Dutch and the British held that if they were given a chance in Japan, they would only practice trade and would not preach any form of religion. The main reason for toleration of Christians in Japan up till now was the fact that they brought trade with them, 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. Tokugawa Ieyasu 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.
Catholicism was banned in 1614 by Tokugawa because of all the factors stated previously in addition to the fact that Ieyasus Catholic vavasor was involved in an alleged fraud against him. 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 which was the political rival faction at the time. Also, Ieyasu was concerned that the Spanish might attack Japan like they had done with some other countries already like the Philippines. In addition to that the ban was also a step against the Toyotomi clan. 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. By the middle of 1600s all Christian missionaries were forced to leave Japan and all converts were ordered to be executed. This was the end of Christianity in Japan till the Meiji restoration. Even though Christians resisted this persecution, they were virtually helpless against it. They had no other option than to follow their religion clandestinely. The Kakure Kirishitan came into being as a result of these events.
To make sure that a person was not a Christian, he had to obtain a certificate from a local Buddhist temple, this was called the Terauke seido. This proved that a person was orthodox and loyal to the Tokugawa regime. Another way to find out if a person was a Kirishitan or not was to place a picture of Jesu or Virgin Mary on the floor and telling him to trample upon this picture. If the person refused or hesitated to do so, he was considered a Christian and was sent to Nagasaki, where he was persecuted. As much as 3000 Christians were killed in this pogrom. At the time, the total population of Christians in Japan was around 300000.
For the next many years to come till the Meiji restoration, the Kakure Kirishitan lived in secrecy and practiced their religion under the constant fear of persecution. Japan closed its borders to the Europeans, especially Christians, completely now. The punishment for leaving the country was death, so was illegally entering the country. Hence japan completely sealed its borders, mainly due to the paranoia of the Tokugawa regime. This was done by the imposition of the Sokoku. Sokoku was imposed because of the Shimbara rebellion of 1637-38 in which almost 40,000 Christians rose against their persecution. After this, the Shogunate held the missionaries responsible for the whole rebellion.
In conclusion, the spread of Christianity was affected by the internal political factors of Japan to a large extent. We can state that the advent of Christian missionaries in Japan was somewhat motivated by trade in addition to spreading Christianity, but also, there were many mistakes made by the missionaries. Mistakes such as involving themselves in politics of the country and dealing in arms and changing the culture of the country. The strong actions that were taken by the missionaries, sometimes legal sometimes illegal to the state, had an equally strong reaction when the time came. As soon as Japan got over its internal conflicts, Christianity went downhill because of the stronger authority of the new ruler and more control he enjoyed over his land. Because of these events, Japan closed its borders completely for particularly for the Europeans for the next 250 years, which has had a lasting impact on not only Japan, but the whole world. In retrospect, there are many things that would have been different today if this had not happened, however that is all just conjecture. Today there are around 1 Christians in Japan, as compared to other East Asian countries like China (5), Vietnam (7), South Korea (29.2). Furthermore, Japan could not become a part of the world till many years later and was devoid of the technological advancements of the era. During these years, the only way to stay abreast of the technological and scientific advancements was to study the Dutch literature which became outdated as soon as the borders opened after 250 years. After the borders were finally opened, many Japanese went abroad to study and Japan opened its doors to development.
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