_Recapitulation—Extent of the Japanese Empire—Valignani arrives
at Nagasaki—Progress hitherto of the Catholic Faith—The Emperor’s
Projects against China—Valignani’s Visit to the Emperor at
Miyako—Ukondono—The returned Japanese Ambassadors—Audience given
to Valignani—The Viceroy’s Letter—The Interpreter Rodriguez—A. D.
1588-1593._
The Japanese islands had been found by Xavier and his successors
divided into numerous principalities, which, though they acknowledged
a nominal subordination to one imperial head, were substantially
independent, and engaged in perpetual wars with each other. The
superior abilities of two successive military usurpers,—Nobunaga,
who ruled from 1567 to 1582, and Hashiba Hideyoshi, who took first
the title of Kwambacudono, and subsequently that of Taikō-Sama—had
consolidated these numerous states into a real empire, embracing then
as now the three principal islands of Nippon, Shimo (or Kiūshiū), and
Shikoku, with many smaller ones, and some claims also of authority over
parts, at least, of the large northerly island of Matsumaye, or Yezo,
the latter the aboriginal name.
Among the dependencies, at present, of the Japanese empire, are
reckoned at the north, besides this island, the southern half of the
large island or peninsula of Sakhalin, called by the Japanese Oku Yezo
(upper Jeso), or, as Siebold says, Karafuto, and the three smaller
Kurile islands, Kunajiri, Etoropu, and Uruppu, numbered on the Russian
charts as the 20th, 19th, and 18th Kurile islands, and the two latter
called by the Dutch _State’s Island_ and _Company’s Island_. On the
south, the Lew Chew Islands form, or did form (for the Japanese seem
lately to have renounced their claim of sovereignty), a dependency
of the kingdom of Satsuma. But all these are of comparatively recent
acquisition, subsequent to the accession of Hashiba. It is said,
indeed, on Japanese authority, that Yezo was first invaded in 1443 by
the Japanese family of Matsumae; but it is apparent from missionary
letters that in 1620 it was a recent settlement. The Japanese annals
date the conquest of the Lew Chew Islands from the year 1610; and,
according to Golownin, the Japanese settlements on Sakhalin have been
subsequent to the voyage of La Perouse in 1782.
Of Nippon, at least equal in extent to Great Britain, and with a
population nearer, it would seem, to that of Great Britain now
than to what that island could boast in the reign of Elizabeth,
the missionaries were as yet acquainted only with the southwestern
part—their establishments being confined to the kingdom of Nagato, at
its western extremity, where it is separated from Shimo by a narrow
strait, and to the great cities of Miyako, Ōsaka, and Sakai, situated
towards the middle of the southern coast. Many princes, nobles, and
large landed proprietors had fallen under the influence of the Jesuits,
and had professed the new faith; but it does not appear that either in
Nippon or in the adjoining island of Shikoku (about equal in extent
to Sicily) any considerable progress had been made in converting the
rural population. It was in the island of Shimo, the westernmost in
situation and the second in size (two-thirds as large as Ireland), that
the new religion had taken the firmest root. The kingdom of Bungo,
indeed almost the whole of the eastern portion of that island, was
thoroughly indoctrinated with the new faith; and such was still more
the case with the kingdom of Arima and the principality of Ōmura,
embracing that great southwestern peninsula itself, divided into three
smaller peninsulas by two deep bays, one opening to the south and the
other to the west, at the head of the latter of which is situated the
city of Nagasaki.
[Illustration: PAINTING OF TAIKŌ SAMA]
Founded in 1579 by converts to the new faith, and made the centre of
the Portuguese trade to Japan, as well as of the Jesuit missions,
Nagasaki had grown up with great rapidity; nor was any other worship
practised in it except that of the new religion. It had become the
largest and most important town in Shimo; and, since the recent
subjection of that island to the imperial authority, according to the
new policy of weakening the local princes, the emperor had assumed the
appointment of its governor,—Nagasaki being placed, along with Miyako,
Ōsaka, and Sakai in the list of imperial towns.
At the date of the edict, so unexpectedly issued in 1587, for the
banishment of the Jesuits, there were in Japan three hundred members
of the company, a novitiate, a college, two preparatory seminaries for
the education of young nobles designed for the church, two hundred
and fifty churches, and a number of converts, amounting, probably, to
between two and three hundred thousand, though the estimate of the
Jesuits was much larger. Notwithstanding the apostasy of Yoshimune,
the young king of Bungo (whose father, Civan, had died just before the
emperor’s edict had appeared), the numerous converts in that kingdom
remained firm in the faith. That zealous Catholic, the prince of
Ōmura, had also lately deceased; but the young prince, his only son
and successor, who had been educated by the Jesuits, was hardly less
zealous than his father had been. The king of Arima also continued
steady in the faith. It was this king who, along with the deceased king
of Bungo and the deceased prince of Ōmura, had sent the ambassadors
to the Pope, of whose visit to Europe an account has been given in a
preceding chapter, and whom the last chapter left at Macao, on their
return to Japan, in company with Father Valignani, who had been deputed
by the viceroy of Goa as his ambassador to the emperor.
It was at Macao that Valignani and his companions learned the news of
the edict for the banishment of the Jesuits. It was said at Macao that
the emperor was a good deal mollified, and seemed inclined to wink
at the general disregard of his edict; yet as Valignani was himself
a Jesuit, and had once already visited Japan in that character, he
did not judge it best to proceed to Japan till he had first obtained
express permission to do so. On the representations of the Christian
princes, who put forward Valignani’s character as ambassdor, the
emperor readily consented to receive him; and, accompanied by the
returning Japanese envoys and some twenty Jesuits, he landed at
Nagasaki, in June, 1590, where he was received with great affection
by the converted princes of Shimo, and by Father Gomez, who, on the
death of Cuello, had succeeded to the post of vice-provincial. The
emperor, in the late redistribution of the kingdoms of that island,
had liberally provided for Konishi Settsu-no-kami, the grand admiral,
and for Kodera, his general of horse, both of whom, notwithstanding
their continued adhesion to the new faith, still retained his favor.
To Konishi he had given the kingdom of Higo, and to Kodera that of
Buzen, so that almost the whole of the island of Shimo was now ruled
by converted princes. Even the changeable Yoshimune, not finding his
apostasy so advantageous as he had expected, soon sought and presently
obtained a reconciliation to the church. The king of Hirado was not
friendly, but he was kept in check by the number of converts among
his subjects, especially by a very zealous converted wife, a sister
of the prince of Ōmura—whom he complained of as having more influence
over his kingdom than himself,—and also by his fear of driving off the
Portuguese merchants, who still occasionally visited his island.
Notwithstanding the emperor’s edict of expulsion, there still remained
in Japan a hundred and forty Jesuits, including those lately brought
by Valignani. The seminary of nobles at Ōsaka had been broken up, most
of the pupils retiring with their teachers; but the other seminary
in the kingdom of Arima was still maintained, being, for greater
security, removed to a retired spot surrounded with wood. The college
and novitiate, for similar reasons, were transferred to the island
of Amakusa. Besides these, the Jesuits had twenty other houses of
residence. Those districts in which the missionaries had no settled
establishments they supplied by frequent journeys, which they made
secretly, and generally in disguise, being assisted also by a great
number of adroit and zealous native catechists, who not only maintained
the fervor of the old converts, but daily added new ones to the number.
This employment of catechist was held in great honor in the church of
Japan. None were admitted into it except persons of approved virtue,
generally young men of family and promise, devoted by their parents
from their infancy to a service upon which they entered for life,
being ordained with much ceremony, and wearing a garb similar to that
of the missionaries with whom they lived in community, observing the
same rules. Conversions still continued to be made among the upper
as well as among the lower classes, and the numerous adherents to
the new faith, or favorers of it, in the court and household of the
emperor, including even the empress, carefully watched and reported
to the missionaries every word or hint dropped by him, from which his
disposition and intentions might be conjectured.
At this moment the emperor’s thoughts seemed a good deal withdrawn from
domestic affairs, being engrossed by a war, which he had determined to
commence by invading Corea, a dependency of the Chinese empire, and the
part of the continent of Asia nearest to Japan. For this purpose he was
constructing a fleet at a port of Shimo, on the strait of Corea. Not
long after Valignani’s arrival at Nagasaki, leave was obtained for him
to visit the emperor’s court at Miyako; but his friends there advised
that, instead of ecclesiastics, his retinue should be composed as much
as possible of Portuguese merchants. The merchants at Nagasaki entered
zealously into the affair, and not less than twenty-seven of them
accompanied Valignani, in the style of great lords, sparing no expense
to give magnificence to the ambassador’s train. He took with him also
four priests, some young Japanese Jesuits not yet ordained, and the
four returned youthful ambassadors. These ambassadors had learned to
sing in the European style, and chanted church music tolerably well.
They also had with them a great show of maps, globes, clocks, watches,
and other European curiosities, which attracted much attention. Their
description of what they had seen and heard made a deep impression
upon the princes and nobles, who flocked from all quarters to see them.
And there was ample leisure for this, as the approach of the ambassador
to Miyako was delayed for more than two months by the death of the
emperor’s only son.
In this interval Valignani had the pleasure of a visit from the
disgraced Ukondono, whose face he was rejoiced to see lighted up with
an air of content rarely seen among those on whom the favors of fortune
are most prodigally showered. He protested that the happiest day in
his life was that on which he had lost everything for Jesus Christ. He
communicated to Father Valignani a design he had formed of quitting
the world altogether, and consecrating himself entirety to the service
of God; but besides that he had a wife and a numerous family, whom his
retreat would have left without resource, the father considered that
he was much younger than the emperor; that if reëstablished in his
offices and his possessions, he might render much greater services to
the church by remaining in the world than by quitting it, and on that
ground he advised Ukondono not to withdraw from that station in life in
which Providence had placed him.
At last the emperor consented to admit Valignani to an audience, but
only on condition that he should say nothing about religion or the
revocation of the edict against the Jesuits. Through the care of
Kodera, to whom that business had been entrusted, the embassy was
received at Miyako with all honor, and was able to make a display
which strongly impressed the inhabitants, and even the emperor in its
favor. On the day of audience, Gon-dainagon Hidetsugu, the emperor’s
nephew and presumptive heir, attended by a great number of lords,
met the ambassador, and conducted him to the hall of audience. This
hall, which opened upon a magnificent balcony, before which spread a
parterre of great beauty, consisted of five several divisions, rising,
like steps, one above the other. The first served as an antechamber, or
hall of waiting, for the gentlemen in attendance. In the two next were
assembled the lords of the court and the great officers of the empire,
arranged in order, according to their rank. In the fourth, there were
only two persons, a priest who held the first dignity in the household
of the Dairi, and the chief counsellor of that same dignitary; by the
side of whom Gon-dainagon also took his place, after introducing the
ambassador to the fifth and highest apartment, in which the emperor was
seated alone, on his heels, in the Japanese fashion upon an elevated
throne, approached by steps on all sides. Father Valignani was preceded
by one of the Portuguese gentlemen of his suite, bearing the letter of
the Indies, written in gilded letters upon fine vellum, with a golden
seal attached to it, the whole enclosed in a little box beautifully
wrought. That letter was as follows:
LETTER OF THE VICEROY OF GOA TO THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN.
“MOST SERENE EMPEROR: Though the great space that separates us has
not hitherto allowed me much communication with your majesty, yet
fame and the religious men who labor in your empire to make known
the law of the true God to your subjects, have informed me of the
great deeds done by you, and of the victories which have made you
the greatest monarch who has reigned in Japan for ages; and I have
therefore thought it my duty to congratulate your majesty on the happy
successes with which the God of heaven has favored you. The same
religious men, who are, for the most part, natural-born subjects of
the great prince whom the Indies obey, and who go through the earth
with a truly heroical courage to teach men to know and to adore the
Author of nature, have also informed me of the distinguished favors
with which your majesty has uniformly honored them, and have begged me
to convey to you their thanks, which I willingly do, conjointly with
my own; and that, indeed, is the particular object of this embassy,
with which I have charged the Father Alexander Valignani, who has the
honor to be already known to you. After rendering to your majesty
his humblest thanks for your past favors, he will supplicate you, in
my name, to vouchsafe to continue them; and I dare to assure your
majesty that subjects for your favors cannot be found who will merit
them better. Favors to them I shall esteem as favors to me, and shall
take every opportunity to acknowledge them as such. I have charged my
ambassador to present you with two Arabian genets, with their housings
and harness, two swords, and two guns of a new fashion, two webs of
tapestry embroidered with gold, and two complete suits of wrought
steel armor, a dagger, which serves also as a pistol, and a tent for
country excursions.
“At Goa, this year of Redemption, 1587.
DOM EDWARD DE MENESEZ.”[51]
The presents seemed greatly to please the emperor, by whom they were
carefully examined. A signal being given, Valignani was led up the
steps of the throne to the emperor’s feet, whom, on bended knee, he
saluted, after the European fashion, by kissing his hand,—a privilege
to which all the members of his suite were admitted in succession, the
ambassador being meanwhile seated in the third compartment among the
grandees of the court. Tea was then served to the emperor in a gilded
cup, which, after sipping from it a little, he sent to the ambassador,
who, at the same time, received, by way of present, a hundred silver
platters and four silk dresses. Presents were also distributed among
the members of his suite. The emperor then retired, first directing his
nephew to entertain the ambassador at dinner, which he did, but with
more of ceremony than good cheer. The guests consisted of three members
of the imperial family and eight other great lords, all eating, each
from his own little table or salver, in profound silence, many persons
of inferior rank standing about them. The ambassador’s suite were
entertained at the same time in a separate apartment.
After dinner the emperor again made his appearance in undress, and,
seating himself beside Father Valignani, conversed with him for some
time. He also conversed freely with the four returned Japanese, and
seemed much pleased at hearing them sing and play in the European
fashion. He made great offers to one of them; but they had all made up
their minds to enter the company of the Jesuits, which, in spite of a
good deal of opposition on the part of their friends and relations,
they presently did.[52] Passing into the hall where the ambassador’s
suite had dined, the emperor addressed them with great familiarity,
and they improved the opportunity to complain of some oppressions, on
the part of the collector of the port of Nagasaki, which he promised
should be redressed.[53] In the evening, Rodriguez, a young Portuguese
Jesuit, who acted as one of Valignani’s interpreters, was sent for
to show the emperor how to wind up a clock which the ambassador had
presented to him. The emperor seemed much pleased with Rodriguez’s
conversation, detaining him till late at night. On dismissing him he
bade him say to Father Valignani that he was at liberty to remain at
Miyako or wherever he pleased, till an answer to the viceroy’s letter
was prepared, but that he must take care that the ecclesiastics who
accompanied him comported themselves with discretion, so as not to
drive him into striking disagreeable blows. Not long after Rodriguez
was selected as the emperor’s interpreter, in which capacity he became
attached to the court, and, by his access to the emperor and influence
with him, had opportunities of rendering essential service to his
order.