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Oura Catholic Church, Nagasaki. The oldest and national treasure church in Japan. In 1981, John Paul II visited here.
Today I want to talk about the Japan and Christianity. In 1549, a Jesuit, Francisco Xavier visited to Japan in order to engage in mission work at the far East country (1). After him, many priest came to Japan and preached, soon a lot of Japanese became Christian. But Hideyoshi Toyotomi formally expelled the missionaries in 1587. There are various theories about the issuing of this Expelling edict and the cause could be that Coelho, Vice-Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Japan at that time boasted as if the Spanish Armada was under his command in front of Hideyoshi during the expedition to Kyusyu, that the Christian feudal lords such as ARIMA and OMURA in Kyushu destroyed shrines and temples as well as persecuted monks and made huge donations to the churches, and that the Society of Jesus did not obey when he tried to apply the policy to Nagasaki, the domain of the Society, they dissolved the old domains of temples and shrines inherited from Nobunaga ODA and place them under a unified regime, and that some of the missionaries conducted human trafficking (selling the Japanese to outside Japan as slaves). After Hideyoshi, Tokugawa shogunate prohibited Christianity in 1612. After Shimabara Rebellion against the Shogunate in Nagasaki 1637, 40,000 Christian were killed (most of rebel were Christian), moreover they were suffered nationwide persecution and extermination. People who refused to abandon their faith were executed (3). Some missionary committed apostasy after torture. If you are interested about it, please read Shusaku Endo’s novel “The Silence”. I believe that is one of the best masterpiece in modern Japanese literature.
At the end of Edo Tokugawa shogunate, French missionary Bernard-Thadée Petitjean was forgiven to come to Japan in 1862, and constructed the church for French residence at Nagasaki in 1864, this was Oura Catholic church (Oura Tenshu Do). March 7th 1865, Yuri Sugimoto and some Hidden Christian (Kakure Kirishitan) visited this church, and whispered to him “Our hearts are as same as yours.” It was the moment that Hidden Christian was discovered after 300 years tolerate and hide their believes (2). This news was astonished and moved in Europe, and after Meiji Restoration 1867-, European countries applied pressure against Japanese Meiji government to forgive the belief of Christianity, finally in 1873 Meiji government forgave the Christianity in Japan.
from “Seibo no kishi” magazine 2012 Spring/Summer
From 1930 to 1936, Maksymilian Maria KolbeBetween took a series of missions to Japan, published “Seibo no Kishi” magazine and founded a monastery at Nagasaki (4). During the World War II, he volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi German concentration camp of Auschwitz (5). Oura Catholic church still now publishes and distributes “Seibo no kishi” magazine.
Seibo no kishi magazine
the Virgin Mary, Oura Catholic church, Nagasaki
the Virgin Mary, Oura Catholic church, Nagasaki
Oura Catholic church (back), Nagasaki
Oura Catholic Church, a theological school
I did read about the Christians in Japan so long ago.
There are many tragedies of Christians in Japanese history. It is good opportunity for me to visit and see some Christians relic at Nagasaki.
Thank you for this description of the church and mission in Oura. I was happy to hear that “Kishi” is still being published. I am editing a translation into English of the works of St Maximilian Kolbe, whom you mention in the blog, and needed to check up some information about Oura.
I hope you find it informative from my post!
Thank you for the informative synopsis of Christianity in Nagasaki. I have just returned from Japan and was surprised that Nagasaki was a focus for Christianity in the country. Although I was familiar with Maximilian kolbe I did not know of his sojourn in Nagasaki. Oura church is beautiful.
Thank you for this article. I would like to review Oura Church as well, after I visited it last month. The church was beautiful, and the more I read the story about this church and Saint Kolbe, the more I fall in love with this “French Temple”. Nice article!^^