• Tempukuji Temple, founded in 1688 under the “terauke seido,” a system that forced people to be registered in any one of several designated temples to prove their Buddhist faith, accepted Underground Christians as Buddhist parishioners, and supported them during the times when Christianity was prohibited. Most people in “Shitsu village in the Sotome area” (one of the component parts of the World Heritage Site), an outland of the Fukahori territory of the Saga Domain, belonged to Tempukuji Temple in the territory. The fact that Hidden Christians could continue to practice their faith for as long as 250 years was attributed to the relationships of trust and coexistence between the Hidden Christians and the temple. Thus, Tempukuji Temple played an important role in the history of Christians in the Sotome area.
• Exhibited in the entrance hall of Tempukuji Temple are rosaries and medal-like holy objects secretly held by Hidden Christians, and the Maria Kannon (a Buddhist statue of Kannon in the likeness of the Virgin Mary) which, according to legend, was carried by Hidden Christians in Urakami, who considered that it was difficult to continue to keep it secretly, to Higashi Kashiyama via Nameshi Mountain Pass.