_Evacuation of Corea—Return of the Converted Princes—Favorable
Disposition of Daifu-Sama—Third Visit of Father Valignani—Civil
War between Daifu-Sama and his Co-regents—His Triumph—Disgrace and
Execution of Settsu-no-Kami—Daifu-Sama takes the Title of Ōgosho-Sama
and still favors the Converts—Influx of Dominican and Franciscan
Friars—Flourishing Condition of the Church—Local Persecutions—A. D.
1599-1609._
The first act of the regency was to put an end to the war in Corea.
That country was abandoned,[63] and the return of so many converted
princes greatly strengthened the lately suffering church. Father
Rodriguez had always been on good terms with Daifu-Sama, with whom he
had become acquainted at the court of the late emperor. This head of
the regency was even thought to be well disposed to the new religion,
and the converted princes, in conjunction with Father Valignani,
who, just before the death of Taikō-Sama, had reached Japan for the
third time, in company with a new bishop, proceeded gradually and
unostentatiously to re-establish the missionaries, to rebuild the
churches, and to set up again the college and seminaries, till soon
the Catholic faith seemed to be replaced on almost as firm a basis as
ever. For a time, indeed, things were thrown into confusion by a civil
war which soon broke out between Daifu-Sama and his co-regents. Some of
the Catholic princes lost their provinces as adherents of the defeated
party, and among the rest, that distinguished pillar of the church,
Konishi Settsu-no-Kami, the grand admiral, king of Higo and conqueror
of Corea, who, for his share in this business, perished by the hand
of the executioner,—his religious opinions not allowing him to adopt
the Japanese alternative of cutting himself open. But the victorious
regent, who presently took the title of Ōgosho-Sama, and with it the
entire imperial authority (though the boy, Hideyori, still enjoyed the
title of Kubō-Sama), showed himself so far favorable to the Jesuits
(to the headship of whom Father Francis Pazio had lately succeeded
as vice-provincial) as to permit their reëstablishment at Nagasaki,
Miyako, and Ōsaka. Yet an edict of his, restraining the missionaries
to their ancient seats, and forbidding the accession of new converts,
though little regarded, showed the necessity of caution.
Pope Clement VIII, having promulgated a bull in December, 1600, by
which all the mendicant orders were allowed to go as missionaries
to Japan, provided they proceeded by way of Portugal, and not by
the Philippines, Dominican and Franciscan friars took advantage of
this favorable disposition of the emperor to enter that empire, the
Franciscans reoccupying their old station at Miyako, and setting up a
new one at Yedo, where the Jesuits had never been. This was the seat
of the emperor’s son, whom, according to the Japanese custom, he had
associated with him in the empire. He himself had his residence at
Suruga, no great distance to the west. The young Hideyori, the titular
Kubō-Sama, still dwelt in the castle of Ōsaka, Miyako being given up
exclusively to the Dairi, or ecclesiastical emperor. The prohibition to
pass from the Philippines to Japan was little regarded. As there was
no civil arm to enforce it, the friars laughed at the excommunication
denounced by the Pope’s bull. The Jesuits, on the other hand, did not
submit to this invasion without loud complaints.
In the Tenza, or five provinces[64] nearest to Miyako, and including,
also, the cities of Sakai and Ōsaka, the ancient imperial domain, the
adherents of the new religion were seldom molested, and the governor
of Miyako even built a magnificent church for the Jesuits in the upper
city, in addition to one which they already possessed in the lower
city. An observatory at Ōsaka had gained additional credit for their
religion by displaying their scientific knowledge. A seminary for
nobles was reopened at Nagasaki, and, by the special zeal of Father
Gnecchi, hospitals for lepers, which had been from the first a favorite
charity, were set up at Ōsaka and in several other cities. By the favor
of particular princes, Jesuit missionaries even penetrated into the
more remote and hitherto unvisited provinces. Persecution, however,
still went on within the jurisdiction of several of the local rulers,
especially in the island of Shimo; and some of the converted princes,
having apostatized, became themselves persecutors. But the bishop,
having made a journey to Miyako in 1606, was very favorably received
by the Kubō-Sama,—a circumstance not without its influence in all the
local courts.
Such was the state of things in Japan when the hold of the Portuguese
and the Jesuits upon that country, already shaken by the consolidation
of the empire under one head, and by the intrusion of Dominican and
Franciscan friars and Spanish merchants and negotiators, encountered
a still more alarming disturbance from the appearance of the Dutch flag
in the eastern seas.[65]
[Illustration: IMAGE OF IYEYASU
From _Official History of Japan_]