Saifullah Samurai
Samurai for Allah
- 26 Feb 2007
- 35
- 1
- 18
For more than 50 years Christianity was a leading religion in feudal Japan. Along with the muskets brought by Portuguese traders in the mid-1500s came Jesuit missionaries, who spread the Christian word to the poorest farmers as well as samurai barons eager to gain access to foreign guns and trade. In 1559 a Jesuit father traveled to Kyoto , the capital, and convinced Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru to grant protection and freedom from taxes to the missionaries throughout the country. Christianity thrived under Oda Nobunaga, one of Japan's great samurai leaders, and by 1580 there were an estimated 150,000 converts. Churches and seminaries sprang up in the larger towns, and samurai were seen carrying rosaries in the streets. In battle, the Christian warlords wore crosses on their helmets and, as swords clashed, cries of "Jesu" and "Santa Maria" echoed over the battlefield.
Those cries were dampened in 1587 when Nobunaga's successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, ordered the Jesuit fathers out of the country within 20 days and banned their religion outright. The reason for his sudden edict is unclear. He may have felt threatened by powerful Christian warlords. Although many Jesuit priests did leave, the ban was largely unenforced. Dozens of fathers continued to quietly preach to as many as 300,000 followers, including some of Hideyoshi's most trusted lieutenants. This look-the-other-way attitude continued until 1611, when officials of Tokugawa Ieyasu denounced the Christian faith again. Within three years churches were destroyed, missionaries jailed, and Christian warlords exiled. Many Christian samurai lost their lands and their status, though their faith endured until the Shimabara Revolt in 1637-38. A group of landless Christian samurai joined in a peasant rebellion against a harsh overlord in western Japan. About 20,000 held out for months in an abandoned castle against a government force thought to be 100,000 strong. After losses in the thousands, the government was forced to ask Dutch warships to fire on the castle. Christian banners imprinted with the names of saints and "praise to the blessed sacrament" fell, the rebels were slaughtered, and the Christian samurai were finally defeated.
Those cries were dampened in 1587 when Nobunaga's successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, ordered the Jesuit fathers out of the country within 20 days and banned their religion outright. The reason for his sudden edict is unclear. He may have felt threatened by powerful Christian warlords. Although many Jesuit priests did leave, the ban was largely unenforced. Dozens of fathers continued to quietly preach to as many as 300,000 followers, including some of Hideyoshi's most trusted lieutenants. This look-the-other-way attitude continued until 1611, when officials of Tokugawa Ieyasu denounced the Christian faith again. Within three years churches were destroyed, missionaries jailed, and Christian warlords exiled. Many Christian samurai lost their lands and their status, though their faith endured until the Shimabara Revolt in 1637-38. A group of landless Christian samurai joined in a peasant rebellion against a harsh overlord in western Japan. About 20,000 held out for months in an abandoned castle against a government force thought to be 100,000 strong. After losses in the thousands, the government was forced to ask Dutch warships to fire on the castle. Christian banners imprinted with the names of saints and "praise to the blessed sacrament" fell, the rebels were slaughtered, and the Christian samurai were finally defeated.