What brought Christianity to Japan… November 23, 4:08
How did Christianity come to Japan? I summarized the history.
It was Francisco Xavier that brought Christianity to Japan.
In 1549 during the Muromachi period, I came to Kagoshima as a missionary and started missionary activities.
Since then, many missionaries have been dispatched to Japan to increase the number of believers through the construction of churches and the opening of schools and hospitals. “Kirishitan Daimyo” was also born.
However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued a “ban on expulsion of veterans” that bans Christian missions during the Azuchi Momoyama period, and Ieyasu Tokugawa issued a ban on the Edo period, and Japanese Christians are in severe persecution.
It was not until the Meiji period that the 300-year ban was lifted.
The history of persecution is known worldwide, and in 2016, the novel “Silence” by Shusaku Endo was made into a movie in Hollywood, and last year in Nagasaki Prefecture and Kumamoto Prefecture, “Hidden Christianity in Nagasaki and Amakusa region” Related Heritage "has been registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In the Catholic Church, the Roman Pope sends the titles "Saint" and "Fukuya" to those who have followed faith, and in Japan, Francisco Xavier and the Japanese who martyred in Nagasaki " In addition to being recognized as a “Saint”, the “Fukuya” are recognized as the right-handed Christian Daimyo Takayama, who was expelled from the Edo Shogunate and moved to Manila, the Philippines, and the first Japanese pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There are currently about 440,000 Catholics in Japan.