Some Background on Japanese Missions (Part III)

Xavier stayed some twenty-seven months in Japan. He left behind him three little groups of converts; how much they understood of the Gospel is questionable - they probably imagined themselves to have accepted a new and superior kind of Buddhism. The great thing, however, was that a beginning had been made and the way had been shown. A French scholar, Claude Maitre, has summed up in the following terms what Xavier had achieved:

With remarkable penetration he had grasped the social and political situation in Japan, and had settled on the methods which could ensure success. He had realized that it was both impossible and useless to gain access to the emperor or to the Shogun (Mayor of the Palace); and that on the other hand conversions among the lower classes would never be able to produce a great movement towards the Faith. The only way to secure permanent results was to win over the local rulers with their almost complete independence - this is what the daimyos were at that time - nothing, therefore, must be neglected with might help to win their favour, their confidence, and if possible, their conversion. He had understood that, if this proud, intelligent, logical people, with its passion for disputation, was ever to be won, it would be necessary to send missionaries of the highest quality, flexible enough to adapt themselves to the customs of the country to the limit of what was permitted by their faith, but strong enough in character to fashion their conduct according to the most rigid requirements of the faith which they taught.

Until 1593 the evangelization of Japan was entirely in the hands of the Jesuits. The number of missionaries increased rapidly, and their work was crowned with notable success. The first converts had been from among the poorer classes. In 1563 began the conversion of the daimyos; the first to receive baptism was Omura Sumitada, who remained faithful and active to the end of this life. His example was rapidly followed by others, and in many cases the conversion of the daimyo was followed by that of the majority of his subjects. This did not always take place immediately; in 1571 Sumitada had only 5,600 Christian subjects, but then the mass movement set in , and by 1575 the whole population of the region - amounting in all to more than 50,000 - had become Christian. Of the depth and sincerity of these conversions it is hard to judge. As in the case of other mass movements there were no doubt many weaknesses and shadows, but unquestionably there was in Japan an elite of convinced and devoted Christians.

Daimyo: feudal lords of the provinces, and generals of the Samurai class

In 1579 Japan was visited by Alessandro Valignono (1539-1606), and Italian Jesuit who had been appointed Visitor of all the eastern regions. He left his impress on the Japan mission in three remarkable ways.

He held very strongly the view that in all possible ways, especially in external matters, missionaries ad Christians must adapt themselves to local customs and prejudice. The then Superior of the Mission, Francis Cabral, did not see eye to eye with the Visitor on every point; the crucial issue - one that may seem utterly trivial to the Western reader, unfamiliar with the importance that may attach to such details in an Eastern country - related to the dress of the missionary: should this be of cotton or of silk? Cabral held that cotton was more in accordance with evangelical poverty; Valignano decided in favour of silk, and there can be little doubt that in the circumstances of the time he was right, since a missionary dressed in cotton was inevitably associated in local opinion with the poorer classes and denied access to the wealthy and the influential.

Secondly, Valignano decided that the time had come when selected Japanese should see for themselves the glories of the Christian world of which they had heard from the missionaries. Four young men of noble family in Kyushu were selected to make the hazardous journey to Europe, and set out in 1582 under the care of Valignano and of a Jesuit Father who travelled with them as their tutor. It was not until the year 1590 that they returned to Japan. In the course of their travels they were received by King Philip of Span and by Pope Gregory XIII; such an unusual group of travellers attracted great attention throughout the Christian world.

In the third place Valignano held the view that the time had come for Japanese to be admitted to the priesthood. IN this, needless to say, he was opposed by the redoubtable Cabral. The Japanese, affirmed Cabral, are naturally proud; if they are put on the same level as the Europeans through admission to the priesthood, they will be swept away with intolerable arrogance. But Valignano had his way. A seminary was opened; the statistics for the year 1593 show that in that year fifty-six European priests and eleven lay brothers were active in the mission, and that the seminary had eighty-seven students together with five novices. Most of those who had attached themselves to the Jesuit Order served as dojuku, catechists of a higher order; only those were admitted to this rank who had taken the vow of celibacy and had pledged themselves to serve the mission till the end of their lives. In 1601 there were no less than 250 dojuku, but none had yet been ordained to the priesthood, for the simple reason that there was no bishop in Japan. A Jesuit had been appointed Bishop of Funai in 1587, but had died on the way. His successor, Pedro Martinez, arrived in Nagasaki on 14 August 1596, but found the mission in such confusion, through rivalries between between the Portuguese and the Spaniards who had recently come in from Manila, that he decided to return to Rome and seek guidance, and died on the voyage. Fortunately he had been provided with a suffragan bishop, Luiz de Cerquira, and it was he who on 22 September 1601 carried out the first ordination of Japanese priests. One was a secular; two were Jesuits - Sebastian Chimura, and Aloysius Niabara from Nagasaki; of these the former died as a martyr on 10 September 1622.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

For in the meantime a complete change had taken place in the political situation of Japan, and also in the situation of the Christian Church, which by the end of the century was reckoned to have 300,000 baptized believers. The chaos of the period of the daimyos was about to pass away. By about 1590 the first of the new centralizing rulers, Hideyoshi, had managed to subject the whole of Japan to his control, and was thus the first ruler for 500 years to bring the country once again to unity. He was followed after the brief reign of his son Hiyadori, by Ieyasu (1542-1616) and Iemitsu (1603-51), under whom persecution of the Christians reached such a level of ferocity that the flourishing work of half a century was demolished and the Christian problem solved by the death or apostasy of almost all the believers." (134-6)

Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. London: Penguin Books, 1990.