おらしょ こころ旅

Registered asset

Shimabara/Amakusa

Sakitsu church

  • A church built in a small fishing village on Shimoshima island in Amakusa (which is part of Kumamoto prefecture).
  • After the ban on Christianity was lifted, the Hidden Christians in Sakitsu chose to formally rejoin the Catholic Church. In 1880, a wooden church was constructed adjacent to Sakitsusuwa shrine.
  • The present church was constructed in 1934 under the guidance of Father Halbout. It stands where the residence of the village headsman once was, which is where e-fumi ceremonies were performed during the ban on Christianity. These ceremonies involved having to trample on an image of Christ or the Virgin Mary (known as a fumie) in order to prove that you were not a Christian.
  • The inside of the church has a tatami floor, giving it the air of a traditional Japanese house.

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

Efumi

［Efumi］ E-Bumi is a method used to search for suspected Kirishitans (Christians), and force them to apostatize, by stepping on holy images, medals, crosses, etc., during the period of the ban on Christianity. The pictures or images stepped on were called Fumi-e (tread pictures.)

Discovery of Hidden Christians

［Discovery of Hidden Christians］ The Discovery of Hidden Christians is an event in which several Senpuku Kirishitans (hidden Christians) in Urakami confessed their faith to a priest for the first time in about 250 years, in 1865, even when the ban on Christianity had not yet been lifted. This historical event happened at the Oura Cathedral built in the foreign settlement of Nagasaki.

Senpuku Kirishitan

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

Yosuke Tetsukawa

［Yosuke Tetsukawa］ Yosuke Tetsukawa was a master builder and architect from Kamigoto. He received instruction in church architecture from Father Marc Marie de Rotz.　Yosuke was later involved in constructing many church buildings on his own, mainly in Nagasaki.

Augustin Halbout

［Augustin Halbout］ Augustin Halbout came to Japan in 1889 as a Paris Foreign Missions Society missionary. After serving in Nagasaki, Amami, and Oita, he was assigned to Sakitsu in Amakusa in 1927. For the next 17 years, he was the parish priest of the Sakitsu Church. He built the current church on the former site of the village headman's house, where the E-Bumi (stepping on holy images) was done during the ban on Christianity.

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