Christians vs. Samurai: What Caused the Bloodiest Riot in Japanese History

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Japan is traditionally associated with two religions - Shinto and Buddhism. But in fact, Christianity has existed in it for several centuries. True, the relationship between Japan and Christianity is very complex, and, probably, the peak of the complexity was the events known as the Shimabara Uprising - after which Shinto Christians were presented as bloody rebels, and Christians blamed Shinto for their brutally tortured co-religionists.

Daeusu's Coming to the Islands

Christianity arrived in Japan with the Portuguese. Until the sixteenth century, Japan lived for a long time practically in isolation from world processes (although, for example, the Mongols tried to conquer it - they treated ships much worse than horses). And in the sixteenth century, two very important events happened: the rise of the warlike Oda Nobunaga and the acquaintance with the Europeans.

Who knows what would have happened if the Portuguese had sailed in some other period, but Oda Nobunaga's political plans included weakening the power of the Buddhist clergy, trade with the big world and all sorts of reforms and innovations that he was going to borrow from the big world. So the Portuguese, together with the Christian missionaries, came in very handy with them.

True, the preachers faced a number of problems caused by the total difference in mentality. There were also purely linguistic problems. Since there was no suitable word in Japanese to denote an omnipotent deity, not comparable to any animated trees, the Jesuits simply used the Latin word "deus", pronouncing it "in the Japanese way" - "deusu". Ironically, this word was very consonant with the word "lie", so until you figure it out, it seems as if you are listening to the glorification of vice - well, as if in Europe preached to the glory of a god named Sin.

Nevertheless, the missionaries were so successful that by the time of the death of Nobunaga (whom the Buddhists, without obedience, called a demon), the Shimabara principality on the island of Kyushu had become practically a stronghold of Christianity. A monastery and a seminary were built there, and the number of local Catholics was estimated at seventy thousand people. By 1614, there were already half a million Catholics in Japan.

Trample icons

Soon after the death of Nobunaga, his projects began to be scrapped. To begin with, considering the Christian principality too independent, the military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned the spread of Christianity in Japan and declared the Portuguese priests to be carriers of a dangerous false teaching. They were ordered to leave the country with their servants on pain of death. Within twenty days. In addition, Hideyoshi destroyed several large churches.

The Portuguese left, but managed to inform the flock that Hideyoshi hates Christianity because of his irrepressible lust: they say, Christian commoners refuse to rejoice when this pagan drags them into his bed, and it jars him. However, for some time after the expulsion of the missionaries, Christians were not subjected to special persecution. But in 1597, the authorities went into open conflict, killing twenty-six Christians, moreover - painfully.

First, they chopped off one ear at a time, then they forced them to follow the path of shame through the streets and, finally, they crucified them on crosses. Their death was long, but one of the crucified began to preach, and, fearing a riot, the authorities gave an order to urgently stab those hanging on the crosses. The clothes of the murdered were immediately ripped off by the crowd: people were in a hurry to preserve the holy relics, because before them, no doubt, were blessed martyrs for the faith.

In 1614, having learned about half a million Catholics, Hideyosi forbade not only preaching, but also professing Christianity. Massive persecutions began. People, under threat of imprisonment or execution, were forced to renounce the faith and trample on icons (according to legend, the most cunning walked over the icons without desecrating their faces, and thus could consider themselves Christians further). The most persistent were dressed in straw and set on fire.

A surprising coincidence: shortly after the persecution began, natural disasters hit Japan. Typhoons and crop failures led to massive devastation and famine; then the authorities increased taxes, which were already difficult to pay. People do not become kinder from malnutrition and poverty, and Christians saw in what happened also a sign of God's punishment. Desecration of shrines, destruction of churches, murder of believers had to be stopped. And more taxes. Taxes should have been stopped too. All this led to the Shimabar Uprising in 1637.

Headless Buddhas

Headless statues of Buddhas in Kyushu are still reminded of this explosion of popular indignation - the rebels decapitated "pagan idols", who for them also personified the authorities supported by the Buddhist clergy. According to various estimates, more than twenty thousand people took part in the uprising. There were men and women, peasants and ronins (samurai without a suzerain). Their leader was a sixteen-year-old boy named Jerome. At least they baptized him with Jerome. In the world his name was Amakusa Shiro, and he was, of course, a noble family.

The followers saw in Jerome a new saint, another messiah, told miracles about him: that birds flew to him and sat on his hand, like a dove perched on Christ, that he could walk on water and breathe fire. Jerome denied everything except one: he is ready to lead the people to fight.

The ruler of Nagasaki urgently sent against the rebels - this motley crowd of noble and lower - three thousand professional samurai. After the clash with the rebels, about two hundred survived, fleeing back to Nagasaki. I had to ask for reinforcements. It arrived on time, and the rebels were driven away from the city. They lost about a thousand people.

And the headless people

The rioters changed their tactics. They laid siege to and took the castle of Hara and turned it into a Catholic stronghold. The walls of the castle were decorated with crosses. The ruler of Nagasaki gathered several nearly fifteen hundred samurai to take this stronghold. And not only samurai - the Dutch were on his side. They were Protestants and did not see a great sin in shooting at Catholics.

The Dutch fired at the castle from the ship, prudently not landing on the shore - so as not to lose their own. But the rebels managed to shoot the sailor sitting on the mast, he fell and crushed his comrade to death below. “Too many casualties,” the Dutch decided, and the ship sailed away. The enthusiastic rebels took it as a sign. They again told each other miracles about the boy Jerome: supposedly the ball from the ship flew so close near him that it tore off his sleeve, but he himself remained unharmed.

But the miracle did not last long. Hordes of samurai gathered from all over the shogunate to the castle. According to legend, during the storming of the castle, 10,000 of them were killed by the rebels. Then the castle was taken. 37,000 Christians - including those who did not participate in the uprising - were beheaded on the island of Kyushu. Jerome's head was set up in Nagasaki. In Japan, Christianity was once again banned, including the Europeans who professed it. For two hundred years, the country plunged into voluntary isolation.

Imagine the surprise of the Europeans when, having rediscovered Japan for themselves, they found Christians there. And what was, I must say, the surprise of Japan. A handful of survivors refused to renounce their faith and continued to secretly pray, be baptized and married. There are now two and a half million Catholics in Japan.

I wonder if Nobunaga lost, how would the history of Christianity go in his country? The art of frying fish and wearing shirts: with him, medieval Japan almost turned to face Europe.