In 1543 the first Christian missionaries arrived in Japan—Portuguese Catholics.

In 1543 the first Christian missionaries arrived in Japan—Portuguese Catholics. With a few decades the religion was thriving in Japan, with hundreds of thousands of converts.

 Fearful of the growing influence of the faith, and of the perception that Christians placed loyalty to Christ above loyalty to the Shogunate, in 1587 Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned propagation of Christianity, declaring that Shintoism and Buddhism were the only permissible religions in Japan.

 Enforcement of the degree was lackadaisical, however, and Christian missionaries continued to arrive and were generally tolerated—until an incident in 1596 sparked severe persecution.

In late 1596 the Spanish ship San Felipe was shipwrecked on the coast of Japan, carrying a cargo worth over a million pesos. When the local Japanese authorities began confiscating the ship’s cargo, the Spanish captain protested and the matter was sent to Hideyoshi for resolution, in the capital city of Kyoto. While the negotiations were ongoing, one of the Japanese commissioners, Mashita Nagamori, befriended some of the Spanish crew. When he asked one of the ship’s officers to tell him more about his country, the officer pulled out a map of the world and proudly showed Nagamori the extent of the Spanish empire.

 He also insinuated that the way Spain grew its empire was by first infiltrating foreign populations and converting them to Christianity, then later conquering them. Nagamori reported the conversation to Hideyoshi, who interpreted it as confirmation of his fear that Christian missionaries were part of plot to take over his country. He immediately ordered that the immediate arrest of Christian leaders in Kyoto.

Twenty-six Christians--four Spaniards, one Mexican, one Portuguese Indian, and twenty Japanese, were arrested. To intimidate the Christian population, the arrested men were forced to march from Kyoto to Nagasaki (600 miles). Once there, all twenty-six were tortured and crucified. They were killed with lances while hanging on their crosses. 

Following the “San Felipe Incident” and the execution of the missionaries, all Christian churches in Japan were destroyed, and practice of the Christian faith was made punishable by death. For centuries, suspected Christians were required to step on an image of Christ or the Virgin Mary (something the Japanese authorities believed no believer would do). 

Over the next 250 years, hundreds more Christians and missionaries were tortured and executed in Japan, many of whom were subsequently canonized. The persecution of the Church finally ended with the Meiji Restoration in 1868. During the time that Christianity was illegal and Christians were being persecuted, the faith survived in Japan, being kept alive by Kakure Kirishitan, “Hidden Christians.” When the persecution ended, over 20,000 “Hidden Christians” revealed themselves.

 

In 1862 the “26 Martyrs of Japan” were canonized by Pope Pius IX. In Nagasaki today there is a Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum and Monument, erected in 1962.

The “26 Martyrs of Japan” were crucified on February 5, 1597, four hundred twenty-seven years ago today.

The image is a 1628 engraving of the execution of the 26 Martyrs.