_New Edict for the Deportation of the Jesuits—Its Partial Evasion—New
Correspondence between the Philippines and Japan—Taikō-Sama’s
Justification of his Recent Proceedings—New Destruction of
Churches in Shimo—Taikō-Sama’s Death—His Preceding Efforts to
secure his own Deification and the Succession of his Infant Son
Hideyori—Regency—Iyeyasu, its Head, with the Title of Daifu-Sama—A. D.
1597-1599._
Even a more serious blow than the execution of the first martyrs,
which seems rather to have warmed than to have cooled the zeal of the
converted Japanese, was an order from the emperor to the governor of
Nagasaki to collect all the missionaries, and to ship them off to
China, except only his interpreter, Rodriguez, and two or three other
Jesuits, who might be permitted to remain at Nagasaki for the benefit
of the Portuguese traders.
There were still in Japan as many as a hundred and twenty-five members
of the Company, of whom forty-six were priests. To blind the emperor
by an apparent submission to his will, it was agreed that the newly
arrived bishop of Japan (the fourth appointed to this diocese, but the
first who had arrived there) should depart in the same vessel in which
he had come, especially as he might improve his absence to represent to
the viceroy of the Indies the pressing necessities of his diocese. The
novitiate, the college in the island of Amakusa,[62] and the seminary
for young nobles hitherto kept on foot in Arima, were all given up,
and most of the fathers connected with them set out for Nagasaki. Of
the whole number, however, there remained behind eight in the island
of Amakusa, twelve in Arima and Ōmura, four in Bungo, and as many more
in Hirado and Gotō, while two others passed into Corea; but it was
understood that these priests thus left behind, while ministering to
the faithful, should avoid doing anything that might draw attention
upon them.
The aged Father Gnecchi, with two priests and five or six other
Jesuits, remained at Miyako, Father Matthew de Couros being appointed
to fill the place of Father Louis Froez, lately deceased, in the
office of sending to Rome memoirs for the history of Japan. With these
exceptions all the rest of the Jesuits assembled at Nagasaki, making
a show of getting ready to depart. Indeed, the poop of a Portuguese
vessel, which sailed shortly after, appeared to be full of them; but
most of these seeming Jesuits were only Portuguese merchants, dressed
for the occasion in the habit of the order; while, to account for the
staying behind of any who might happen to be detected in the provinces,
it was given out that some had been left because the vessel was not
large enough to take all.
Soon after the departure of this vessel, a Spanish gentleman arrived
from Manila with presents and a letter to the emperor from a new
governor of the Philippines, remonstrating, though in measured terms,
against the confiscation of the “San Philip” and the execution of
the Spanish ecclesiastics, several of whom had entered Japan in the
character of envoys from his predecessor. The letter requested the
bodies of those martyrs, and, for the future, safety and kind treatment
to all Spanish vessels driven accidentally to Japan. Taikō-Sama, in
reply, justified his proceedings against the missionaries, not only
because they had disregarded his repeated orders to leave Japan, but
because, insinuating their creed into the minds of his subjects, they
designed finally to get possession of the country as the Spaniards had
done of Manila. His excuse for the confiscation of the “San Philip” was
that she had attempted to enter a port of Japan in violation of law.
He refused to give up any part of her cargo, but offered to restore a
number of slaves which had belonged to her, at the same time expressing
a willingness to consent to a regulated trade with the Spaniards,
provided they would promise to bring no priests.
A report that the emperor was about to visit Nagasaki led to the
destruction in the adjoining provinces of not less than a hundred
and thirty-seven churches and of many houses which had belonged to
the Jesuits; and, to appease the authorities, a new embarkation of
missionaries became necessary, limited, however, by reason of the
smallness of the vessel, to eleven persons.
[Illustration: FEUDAL STRONGHOLDS: HIMEJI CASTLE; NAGOYA CASTLE]
In the midst of these alarms news arrived that the emperor had been
seized with a sudden and violent sickness, apparently a dysentery,
which, after two months’ struggles against it, brought him to his end.
He died in September, 1598, at the age of sixty-four, retaining his
absolute authority to the last. During his latter years two thoughts
seem principally to have engrossed him,—the securing divine honors
to himself, and the transmission of his authority to his infant
son, Hideyori, not yet above three or four years old. With the first
object in view, though really (at least, so the missionaries concluded)
without any religion at all, he had rebuilt, in a magnificent manner,
many temples and Buddhist monasteries destroyed by Nobunaga, by
himself, or by the accidents of war. He also had erected, in a new
quarter which he had added to Miyako, a splendid temple, which he
caused to be consecrated to himself in the character of the new
Hachiman, that being the title of a Kami celebrated for his conquests,
and regarded as the god of war.
To secure the succession of his infant son, the expiring emperor
established, on his death-bed, a council of regency, composed of nine
persons, at the head of which he placed Tokugawa Iyeyasu, king of
the Bandō, which, besides the five provinces of the Kwantō, in which
were the great cities of Suruga and Yedo, embraced, also, three other
kingdoms. Iyeyasu had been king of Mikawa, a more westerly province,
which he had lost by adhering to the fortunes of the third son of
Nobunaga, he being allied to that family by marriage. But afterwards,
by some means, he had recovered the favor of Taikō-Sama, who had even
bestowed upon him the newly conquered Bandō, and who, the better to
secure his fidelity, had caused his infant son and destined successor
to be married to a young granddaughter of Iyeyasu.
The strong castle of Ōsaka had been chosen by Taikō-Sama as the
residence of his son during his minority, and there he dwelt with his
baby wife, in charge of his mother, while the administration of affairs
passed into the hands of Iyeyasu, who, as head of the regency, governed
with the title of Daifu-Sama.