The Japanese and the Jesuits

Home of the faithful
Embracing World Heritage By Makoto Miyazaki Daily Yomiuri Photographer

With about 130 churches and home to about 15 percent of Christians in the country, Nagasaki Prefecture is viewed by many as the center of Catholicism in Japan.

The churches are a combination of Western architectural styles introduced by foreign priests and traditional Japanese techniques developed by such skilled carpenters as Yosuke Tetsukawa (1879-1976). The materials used to construct the churches include timber, brick, stone and reinforced concrete, and there are a wide range of designs.

Churches are an important part of the daily lives of Christians living on the Goto Islands, a chain of about 140 islands located about 100 kilometers west of Nagasaki city, but still part of the prefecture.

"If the churches become World Heritage sites, I wouldn't want them to become tourist attractions," said Yoshiaki Yamamoto, a photographer living in Nagasaki who has visited many churches in Japan and other countries. "I hope tourists visiting them will be respectful because these churches are for the local people."Not only are the churches places where the faithful can worship, but also places where people can meet and children can play. The churches I visited were clean and comfortable, although they had a somewhat formal air.

Most of the churches in Japan built before World War II are located in Nagasaki Prefecture, and serve as a reminder of the history of Christianity in this country. This history began with the arrival of Christianity in the 16th century, followed by periods of persecution, and finally a revival of the faith.

St. Francis Xavier, cofounder of the Society of Jesus, landed in Kagoshima in 1549. At that time, Nagasaki was open for trade between Japan and Portugal and it eventually became an important base for spreading Christianity to the rest of Japan. The Society of Jesus establishing a headquarters in the city.

In 1587, however, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), the warlord who was in the process of unifying Japan, issued a decree banning Christianity. Ten years later, Hideyoshi ordered the deaths of 26 Catholics in Nagasaki in what became known as the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints.

The oppression grew worse in the Edo period (1603-1867) under the Tokugawa shogunate, with believers forced to renounce their faith, sent into exile or killed. Eventually, it was believed Christianity, a religion that claimed 750,000 followers in the early Edo period, had been eradicated in Japan.

However, one of the most significant episodes in this country's religious history occurred in Nagasaki in 1865, when several Japanese visited the Oura Cathedral, built the year before for foreign residents, and revealed that they were Christians. The episode is known as the revelation of believers, and served to prove that despite the persecutions Christianity had not died out in Japan.

original article (here)