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Oratio Story (2)

The Ban on Christianity and the Secret Transmission of the Faith

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1797 Migration from Sotome to the remote islands gets underway.

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  • Japanese Forms of Faith Based on Tradition and Local Social Customs

    Despite the severity of the repression, Hidden Christians existed throughout Japan until the mid-seventeenth century. However, a series of campaigns of detection and persecution in the 1650s and 1660s in Kōri (Nagasaki), Bungo (Ōita), and Nōbi (Gifu/Aichi prefectures) left the Hidden Christian population limited principally to the Nagasaki region.

    Under the guidance of lay leaders and in line with the church calendar, the Hidden Christians observed feast days and penitential days and conducted rites such as baptisms and funerals. Since they had no churches, they would gather secretly in the houses of religious leaders known as chōkata (“official of the book”) and mizukata (“water official”) and conduct prayers and rituals, while venerating the places where their ancestors had been martyred or were buried.

    While the faith was maintained, it was gradually influenced by native Japanese traditions. The pronunciation of the Latin and Portuguese prayers (oratio) that had been brought to Japan in the sixteenth century became garbled, and certain prayers and ceremonies were altered by the influence of folk religions as they were transmitted from generation to generation.

    © Shoji Yoshitaka

  • Hidden Christian Villages Take Shape in the Gotō Islands

    From the 1630s, the prophecies of the Japanese evangelist Bastian spread throughout the Sotome region of Nagasaki. Among the prophecies was this belief: “When seven generations pass, priests will appear and the day will come when you can be open about your faith.” Other ideas that were transmitted orally include the contents of a pamphlet providing guidance on contrition when priests were not available for confessions, and a catechistic book on the Old Testament, called Concerning the Creation of Heaven and Earth. These traditions show the symbiotic relationship that developed between Christianity and Japanese culture and how certain beliefs were passed down to later generations.

    Toward the end of the eighteenth century, peasants from Sotome in the Ōmura domain migrated to the Gotō Islands at the request of the Gotō domain. Since many of these peasants were Hidden Christians, their migration resulted in the text of Concerning the Creation of Heaven and Earth also being transmitted to the Gotō Islands. The settlers who clustered in family units to cultivate the cramped hillsides formed Hidden Christian communities throughout the Gotō Islands.

    Thanks to the detailed instructions provided by the missionaries when Christianity first reached Japan, the Hidden Christians were well equipped to keep their faith going in a systematic way.

    © Shoji Yoshitaka

Related persons and terms（By hovering your mouse pointer over an item, explanation of the item are displayed.）

Oratio

［Oratio］ Oratio is a collective term for prayer chants of Latin/Portuguese origins introduced to Japan in the 16th century.

Kuzure

［Kuzure］ Kuzure is the destruction of the faith-based organization of Kirishitans (Christians) due to strict control or informing during the forbidden period. The term refers to large-scale arrests of Kirishitans in an area, including the Omura county kuruze, the first to fourth Urakami kuruze, and the Goto kuruze.

Martyrdom

［Martyrdom］ Martyrdom is the act of choosing death and giving one's life to God rather than abandoning Christian faith and morals.

Senpuku Kirishitan

［Senpuku Kirishitan］ Senpuku Kirishitan (hidden Christians) lived ostensibly as Buddhists during the ban on Christianity but secretly carried on their faith.

Baptism

［Baptism］ Baptism is a Christian rite of admission and adoption into Christianity, and receiving a baptismal name (Christian name) such as "Mary" or "Francis."

Oppression

［Oppression］ Repression is the suppression of an activity by a ruler through power. In the history of Christianity, repression refers to religious persecution using various means to compel people to quit or abandon their faith.

Choukata

［Choukata］ Choukata is a role that presides over ceremonies based on the church calendar in the faith-based organization of Senpuku Kirishitans (hidden Christians.)

Bastian

［Bastian］ Bastian was a Japanese evangelist who was active in the Sotome area during the period of the ban on Christianity. He left behind a church calendar (higuri), essential for keeping the faith alive, and prophecies that gave hope to the Senpuku Kirishitans (hidden Christians.) His achievements have been passed down from generation to generation by the people of Sotome, Urakami, and Goto.

Higuri

［Higuri］ Higuri is a church calendar based on the lunar calendar of 1634 used by Senpuku Kirishitans (hidden Christians.) It is also called the Bastian calendar because Bastian handed it down. It was used for Christmas, Easter, and other holidays and kept the faith alive during about 250 years of the ban on Christianity.

Mizukata

［Mizukata］ Mizukata is a role of baptizer in the faith-based organization of Senpuku Kirishitans (hidden Christians). In the Sotome area, it is sometimes concurrently charged with Choukata. In Ikitsuki, Hirado, it is called Mizu no Yaku.

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