Hidden Christians: Practicing Christianity in Tokugawa Japan

This essay delves into the history of Christianity in Japan, focusing on the era when the Tokugawa shogunate prohibited the religion, leading to the emergence of "Hidden Christians" or Kakure Kirishitan. These Christians either went underground or outwardly renounced their faith while secretly practicing it. The essay highlights the severe persecution they faced, including torture, murder, and forced apostasy, and describes how they maintained their beliefs in secrecy for over two centuries. It further examines the unique practices and traditions that developed within these hidden communities, such as the veneration of Mother Mary, the use of 'fumi-e' to identify Christians, and the adaptation of Buddhist deities and rituals. The essay also discusses the eventual restoration of religious freedom and the differing paths taken by underground Christians, with some returning to the Roman Catholic Church and others continuing their distinct practices, preserving a distorted version of Christianity even after the ban was lifted and how the churches of Nagasaki symbolizes resurrection and portrays the resilience of Christianity even after years of suppression and persecution.

Running head: History Essay
History Essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HISTORY ESSAY
Roman Catholic Jesuit missionaries led by Francis Xaviers, who arrived in Kagoshima in
1549, introduced Christianity in Japan. Franciscan missionaries arrived in Kyoto towards the
end of the sixteenth century. However according to some scholars, Nestorian missionaries
reached Japan through India, Korea and China in 199 C.E. and that there were Nestorian
churches in 400 C.E1. The number of people who had started following Christianity had
reached three lakh, when the Tokugawa shogunate prohibited people from practicing
Christianity and expelled all the foreigners living in Japan in 1638 thereby prohibiting
Christianity. Many people went underground out of fear while others renounced their faith.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued an edict that banned Christianity and crucified twenty six
Franciscans in Nagasaki. In 1626, missionaries were asked to leave the country and Christians
were told to give up their faith or be punished. The Tokugawa shogunate enacted a policy of
‘Sakoku’ wherein Japan was completely isolated from foreign influences. Christians were
persecuted and an estimated three thousand Christians were killed. Many of the Christians in
Japan gave up their faith while others continued to practice Christianity, their religion,
underground. Hideyoshi Toyotomi passed anti-Christian laws, banned Christianity and ordered
the missionaries out. In 1597 twenty-six Catholics including six foreigners and a twelve-year
old young boy named Luis Ibaraki was crucified on a hill in Nagasaki. After the crucifixion all
twenty-six people who were crucified were canonized as saints. Christians were beaten with
hot irons, boiled alive in hot springs and tortured unmercifully. Every year, during an annual
ceremony, Christians were identified by asking people to step on ‘fumi-e’ wooden or copper
tablets with images of Mother Mary and Jesus Christ. Refusals usually meant death and those
1 Alva, Reginald. "Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement and Healing in Japan’s Religious Culture." Claritas:
Journal of Dialogue and Culture 5, no. 1 (2016): 6.

2HISTORY ESSAY
who refused to step on those tablets were recognized as Christians and were persecuted.
Throughout the period of ban on Christianity, these annual ceremonies haunted the imagination
and tormented the hearts of the Hidden Christians. Without a priest to guide and absolve them
they suffered in guilt silently and was extremely tormented. Every year, they would return
home and pray and would ask for forgiveness from what one scholar says a necessary sin. One
inhumane method of torture was ‘anazuri’ wherein a person who was perceived to be a
Christian was hung upside down for days in a hole. In order that the person be in pain for as
long as possible a small hole was bored behind the ear of a person so that the person would
gradually die as the blood dripped slowly from that region. The Tokugawa shoguns thus almost
eradicated Christianity in Japan by using decrees murder and persecution. The method of
suppression included monetary awards being given to people who revealed the names of
Christians and it was compulsory for all Japanese peope to register themselves as worshippers
in the temples of Buddhists. Churches were completely destroyed and Christians in Japan was
exposed to a plethora of opportunities. Some were exiled and were forbade from returning
while others were sentenced to death and were martyred as they refused to comply and
renounce their faith, renounce Christianity. They were severely tortured and had to suffer
atrocious punishment. There were also people who committed apostasy because they were
unable to bear the torment that they were subjected to. By the 1640s there were no priests left
in Japan. As persecution continued, and the threat of the Christian faith being completely
eliminated became a possible factor those who followed Christianity in Japan, decided to
practice their faith in secrecy, in secret. With the passage of time, the Christians who were in
hiding grew increasingly desperate. Some were deprived of all the reminders of the Christian
faith. Hidden Christians lived in abject poverty. They lived in inhospitable islands and did

3HISTORY ESSAY
fishing in small boats in order to sustain themselves. What kept these Hidden Christians going
was the hope that one day the missionaries would come to Japan and their ordeal would be
over. Religious freedom was restored after the Meiji Restoration in 1971.
Hidden Christians survived the prohibition and persecution of Christianity in Tokugawa
Japan by either going underground or by renouncing their faith. Hidden Christians practiced
their religion in secrecy and concealment and without the supervision of the missionary for
two-hundred and fifty years and hence came to be known as Hidden Christians or Kakure
Kirishitan. The Goto Islands, Ikitsukishima and Sotomecho in Nagasaki, Japan are home to the
last remaining Hidden Christians whose ancestors practiced Christianity during the time when
it was outlawed between 1614 and 1873. As Christians were executed by their beliefs, the
Hidden Christians used a ‘magic mirror’ that projected an image of Lord Buddha but when it
was held up to light in a certain manner projected shadows of a cross.
Hidden Christians perceived themselves to be different from other Christians. They had
two types of funerals, one Buddhist in nature and another Christian in nature. Members of the
group recite ‘orasho’ which comes from the Latin word orashia that have been passed down
from one generation to the next. Hidden Christians place a high value on the veneration of
Mother Mary and on the prayer of contrition. Religious communities usually have two leaders,
one who cares for religious objects and one who performs baptism.
Hidden Christians hid their religion not only from the Japanese authorities but sometimes
also from their children. In order to survive, the Hidden Christians concealed all outer
manifestations of Christianity and assumed the guise of Shintoists or Buddhists. But they
practiced their Christian faith in their hearts. The Hidden Christians silently recited their

4HISTORY ESSAY
prayers in and hid their objects of worship in the roof and walls of their homes. There were no
contacts with the outside world and they married close relatives. It seems that concealment and
secrecy has become a part of all aspects of their communities as well as their religious
tradition. Not only religious matters but community life is also kept a secret. One of the main
features of the Kakure Kirishitan is himitsu-shugi or the ‘ideology of secrecy.’ Preservation of
secrecy ensured peace and safety and revealing the religion to non-believers was related with
curse, guilt and sin.
After the severe persecution of Christianity and the atrocities committed on people and
missionaries in Japan, the Christians were forced into hiding in order to live and practice their
religion and faith in secrecy. The Hidden Christians lived in poor farming and fishing villages.
The term Senpuku Kirishtan is translated as Secret Christian or underground ‘Kirishtan’ which
in turn means Christian and it applies to all Japanese Christians who experienced and survived
the prohibition of the Tokugawa period.
When the ban on Christianity was lifted in Japan in 1873, most of the underground
Christians returned to the Roman Catholic Church. These Christians were called underground
Christians or senpuku kirishitan. The term kakure kirishtan or hidden Christians refers to those
Japanese people who continued to practice a distorted version of Christianity even after the ban
on Christianity was lifted.
The Christianity of the Hidden Christians focused heavily on baptism. Since there were
left with no priests to guide them, the Hidden Christians found solace in baptism. Catholic
priests had taught them that baptism led to salvation and hence they retained a belief in
baptism. Hidden Christians kept the Buddhist deity Kannon, the goddess of mercy in their

5HISTORY ESSAY
homes and worshipped the deity as they believed it was the depiction of Mother Mary. Hidden
Christians worshipped in places where masses were held and they had sashimi or rice instead
of bread and wine. Since worship was done in secret, nothing was ever written down and so it
is not possible to know the actual nature of these events of worship. Some groups worshipped
their ancestors, which is intrinsic to Japanese, Shinto and Buddhist religions as well. Hidden
Christians were distressed to renounce and deny their faith and take part in fumie. Hidden
Christians were so guilty after performing fumie that they burnt their sandals and consumed the
ashes. Kakure Kirishitans are known as ‘Hidden Christians’ because they continued to practice
Christianity in secrecy. The Hidden Christians worshipped their deities in secret rooms as they
were forbid to practice their religion in public. The teachings of the Bible was spread orally as
printed texts could be confiscated by the Japanese authorities.
In order to survive persecution, the Hidden Christians had no choice but to conceal their
fate under the guise of Shintoism and Buddhism. Ancestor worship is one of the most
illustrative and fundamental traits of Hidden Christians and the main motive why the Hidden
Christians refused to return to the Christianity that was followed by the masses even after the
government of Japan declared religious freedom. The souls of ancestors are the God of the
Hidden Christians who chose grisly death over renouncing their religion that was Christianity.
The Hidden Christians therefore considers it to be their duty to maintain the religious system in
a loyal manner for which their ancestors willingly gave up their lives2. The Hidden Christians
communities in the Goto Islands and in Sotome which have disintegrated find it difficult to
2 Bogdan, David R., and Yasunori Fukuda. "Iyo's Kakure Christians: A Hidden History." (2014).
Heuts, Katelynd. "Validation and Propagation–Mutio Vitelleschi’s Letters from Surviving Japan Mission Jesuits
(1625–1627)." MaRBLe 6 (2015).

6HISTORY ESSAY
observe all religious ceremonies and cultural events but on Ikitsuki island the Hidden
Christians continue to observe cultural events and events rooted in tradition. The Catholic
churches that were built after the ban was lifted on Christianity in 1873 is centred around the
settlements of the Hidden Christians. These sites represent places where the Hidden Christians
during the Tokugawa shogunate suffered the harshest punishments, the most atrocious torture
and martyrdom. It is situated in all those places where the Hidden Christians lived. These
churches are being proposed for UNESCO world heritage status and they tell the story how the
Hidden Christians gave up everything for the sake of their faith and religion, for the sake of
Christianity. For example, the brickwork in one of the churches is slightly uneven which bears
testimony to the fact that the Hidden Christians built that church with whatever little money
they had. This is truly a poignant example. Another church is believed to have been created on
the spot where fumie used to take place.
The faith of the Hidden Christians has little in common with modern Christianity3. The
churches of Nagasaki symbolizes resurrection that was once thought of as being impossible.
They portray the resilience of Christianity even after years of suppression and persecution. It
also recognizes the centrality of hidden Christianity in Japan. They stand as symbols of hope
inviting us to ponder on what it means to be human and have indelible faith in the midst of
suffering. It also reflects the Christian tradition that centers around the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ and the redemptive power of suffering. This redemption and resilience is reflected in the
churches.
3 Alva, Reginald. "Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement and Healing in Japan’s Religious Culture." Claritas:
Journal of Dialogue and Culture 5, no. 1 (2016): 6.

7HISTORY ESSAY
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