Missionary work in 16th and 17th Century Japan was marred with incidents of persecution. Different sources ascribe these persecutions to a number of varying reasons. In the article “Myth, Missions, and Mistrust: the fate of Christianity in 16th and 17th Century Japan” John Nelson writes about the missionaries’ movement in Japan. He claims that the missionaries misread and misunderstood Japanese culture and authority, which lead to their expulsion and persecution. This paper shall review three research sources that examine the factors behind the failure of missionaries in Japan in the 16th and 17th Centuries and explain the reasons for the subsequent persecution of missionaries.
In a prior article, “Myth, Missions, and Mistrust,” John Nelson briefly states that Buddhism monks interfered with the politics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. This resulted in them being persecuted extensively by the ruler Nobunaga. When a new power took control of Japan, the situation was reversed in favor of the Buddhism monks. Some of these monks became the advisors of the Shogunate and passed judgment on Christians.
The article “A 17th Century Buddhist Treatise Refuting Christianity” by Pinto dos Santos gives in-depth information on the relationship that existed between the Buddhists and Japanese authorities. The Buddhists’ attitude toward Christians has also been articulated and the extent to which the Buddhists were responsible for the persecution of missionaries in the 16th and 17th century highlighted. To begin with, Santos claims that Christians brought a profound and undeniable impact on Japanese society.
As a result of this, they were seen as a threat by the already existing religion—Buddhism. The author reinforces this claim by pointing out that sometimes people had to get rid of their old beliefs and cultures in order to accept the new ones. Santos then reveals that Buddhist clergies had been Japanese rulers’ political and diplomatic advisors since Daimyo times. Therefore, their ideas influenced the rulers and by extension affected the whole nation. The Buddhists naturally held an anti-Christian attitude from the onset to the very end.
The author examines the Buddhists’ attitude toward Christians by analyzing a famous Buddhism treatise “Taiji Jashu-ron”. This treatise was by the revered Buddhist clergy, Sesso Sosai, who had many successors that became advisors to the daimyo and shogun. They, therefore, controlled the licensing of foreign commerce and held powerful political rights such as setting up feudal institutions. Santos suggests that the book influenced the Buddhist clergies, who were most likely to become advisors to the rulers.
In the treatise, Sesso made several accusations against the Christians. First, he claimed that before Christians spread their own religion, they defamed the other religions. Secondly, Sesso said that the Christian missionaries tricked Buddhist monks into enlightening them on Buddhism’s doctrine by sending them presents. This ploy was meant to give the Christians an overall understanding of Buddhism’s doctrine after which they added material to the ideas they had stolen and pretended that it was their religion. They then persuaded the locals to believe in their religion. Thirdly, the Christians were accused of spreading defamatory rumors about Buddhism.
These rumors suggested that Buddhism was unclear and the missionaries went on to claim that several branches of Buddhism did not even focus on the sound practice of the doctrine of Buddhism. Instead, all they cared about was casting spelling. Moreover, Christians stated that Buddhism was blurred and hard to understand and the Buddhists themselves lacked knowledge on the religion. Finally, Sesso claimed that Christians used heterodoxy to win people’s hearts and induced people to convert.
By listing the accusations, the author highlighted the conflict and misunderstanding that existed between the two religions. The religions judged each other by the little surface information they knew about each other. Each religion denied the legitimacy of the other since they believed their own religion was the only true one. The two proceeded to demonstrate hatred towards each other since each wanted their religion to become the only faith of the land.
The hatred developed into persecution of the other party. This article gives a background of the role of Buddhists in Japanese society, which adds information and adequately explains the real reason behind the persecution of the Christians by Hideyoshi as mentioned in John Nelson’s article.
The second resource is the first chapter, Historical Sketch, from the book “The Evolution of New Japan” by Joseph Henry Longford. The chapter gives a detailed background on Japanese culture and the common characteristics of Japanese people. It also describes the political and authority system of old Japan. The article gives some explanation about the reasonthe behind the Japanese’s resistance and persecution toward missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The author starts by introducing Japan’s hierarchy system. He demonstrates that Japan was divided into two classes: upper and lower. The Upper class was daimyos and later shoguns while the lower class were the others including Samurai and peasants. The author implied that in this historic period, the lower class people always showed their submission and obeyed the upper class absolutely. The daimyo and shogun were seen as “the constructive statesman of the highest order of genius” (Longford 3). In addition to this, the lower class never thought of turning against their rulers; there was unquestioning obedience instead of insurrection.
The author illustrated his point by giving an example of Samurai who obeyed and respected their ruler absolutely. In their point of view, no one could take over their ruler’s authority and as such, if anyone challenged their ruler’s authority, the Samurai would crush them. Longford notes that “their whole spirit was that the emperor is the true and only legitimate sovereign, the lineal descendant of the Gods of Heaven by whom Japan was created, the first and best of all the lands on earth” (Longford 17). The Japanese, therefore, treated their ruler as a divine object, and the ruler was on top of everything, which illustrates the point that no one could challenge the ruler’s authority since he was believed to be divine.
These claims by Longford explain one of the reasons behind the persecution of missionaries in the article by John Nelson. When the missionaries spread their religion on the land with their zeal, they were perceived to be a threat to the superior power by Samurais and the rulers, which led to their subsequent expulsion and persecution. The natives were not friendly with foreigners since they believed that “Japan is the land of the Gods, and only those who are children of the God are worthy to dwell in it, that the presence of outer Barbarians is sacrilege to be avoided at all cost and at all risks” (Longford 19).
The Japanese had rooted the idea that foreigners should not appear on their land and spread their ideas, not even trade. Foreigners were seen as the ones who would pollute their otherwise pure land if allowed. In addition, the author claimed that the general characteristics of Japanese people were not likely to change. They were traditional and they liked to remain rooted in their ancient religionand overall inn overall, Longford gives background and history of Japanese people and system, which explains the misunderstanding mentioned in John Nelson’s article. This misunderstanding by the early missionaries came from their ignorance of the history and institution of Japan.
The third source is the article “Early Modernity and the State’s Policies Toward Christianity in 16th and 17th Century Japan” by Peter Nosco. This article explains Japan’s authoritarian attitude toward Christianity by examining its attitude toward other religions in Japan. The article also reveals the reason behind the Japanese ruler’s antilogy and vacillation when they dealt with Christians as mentioned in John Nelson’s research.
The article by Nosco corroborates John Nelson’s claim that Nobunaga’s attack on Buddhism did not come from the hatred toward them. The collusion with Nobunaga’s military and political rivals and the frequent interference with military and politics were the real reasons for the persecution against Buddhism. The circumstance that led to persecution was Japan’s feudal system. The system made Daimyos sensitive to any actions that involved authority or power. This resulted in suspicion of any actions or movements related to politics and power which were viewed as obstacles on his way to obtain the power; Nobunaga eliminated the obstacles by attacking them.
On the other hand, Christians won Nobunaga’s favor during the regime because Christianity had the power in the place in which Nobunaga was weakest. The author implied that in order to gain more power, Nobunaga allied himself to the Christians and benefited from it. The material givens detailed accounts of the rise of Christianity as mentioned in Nelson’s article. Nosco claimed that Japanese ruler’s attitude toward Christians and other religions depended on different political system and circumstances.
Under feudal system, Daimyos were feuding for the power. Every daimyo wanted to gain more power and as a result of this, they favored the religion which could benefit them and help them gain more power. The religion which was seen as a threat to their power and authority was crushed. Nosco claims that the attitude towards Buddhists and Christians changed dramatically when Japan’s political system became “Bakufu in power” which means there was a leading family rule Japan, and later “shogun,” Japanese rulers’ as opposed to when the system was feudal.
The author implied that since there was a central and supreme power rule Japan, other feudal leaders would listen to their supreme power, and they did not need civil wars any more. Under such circumstances, the Christians continued their missionary work and somehow interfered with politics; as a result, they were executed and expulsed from the land. The author illustrated that ignoring the current circumstances and different political systems and strategies was a factor that lead to the missionaries’ expulsion.
All the three sources give a further understanding on the persecution of missionaries in 16th and 17th century Japan. A particularly recurrent theme is that the Buddhist monks had been involved in advising the ruler for a long time and their ideas influenced the ruler. This resulted in Christians, who were their rivals, being persecuted and expelled. The Christians’ misunderstanding came from their ignorance of the history and political system in Japan.
The misunderstanding and misread led missionaries to the wrong path, and finally resulted in their persecution. Through learning and analyzing these three extra sources, I have learned that the failure of missionaries’ activities was not entirely the missionaries’ fault although they did misread and misunderstand the local “signs” at some point. The local people resistance to accepting the new religion and the local religion and institution’s block toward Christians made the missionaries way hard and faltering.
Buddhist played a large part in the persecution of Christians; moreover, at some point the Buddhist monks influenced the Japanese society greatly with their economic and social power. The Japanese people’s common characteristics, that is their traditional and stubborn nature, were another reason behind the failure of spread of Christianity in Japan.
References
Longford, Henry. The Evolution of New Japan. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009. Print.
Nelson, John. Myths, Missions, and Mistrust: the Fate of Christianity in 16th and 17th Century Japan. History and Anthropology, 2002 Vol 13 (2), pp. 93-111.
Nosco, Peter. Early Modernity and the State’s Policies Towards Christianity in 16th and 17th Century Japan. BPJS, 2003, 7, 7-21.