To the readers of the story of Japan the most interesting episode is that
of the introduction and subsequent extirpation of Christianity. We have
therefore given an account of the first arrival of the Jesuit missionaries
with the sainted Xavier at their head, and we have seen their labors
crowned with a very wide success. During the times of Nobunaga and
Hideyoshi the question had assumed something of a political aspect. In
several of the provinces of Kyūshū the princes had become converts and had
freely used their influence, and sometimes their authority, to extend
Christianity among their subjects. In Kyōto and Yamaguchi, in Ōsaka and
Sakai, as well as in Kyūshū, the Jesuit fathers had founded flourishing
churches and exerted a wide influence. They had established colleges where
the candidates for the church could be educated and trained. They had
organized hospitals and asylums at Nagasaki and elsewhere, where those
needing aid could be received and treated.
It is true that the progress of the work had met with a severe setback in
A.D. 1587, when Taikō Sama issued an edict expelling all foreign religious
teachers from Japan. In pursuance of this edict nine foreigners who had
evaded expulsion were burnt at Nagasaki. The reason for this decisive
action on the part of Taikō Sama is usually attributed to the suspicion
which had been awakened in him by the loose and unguarded talk of a
Portuguese sea captain.(203) But other causes undoubtedly contributed to
produce in him this intolerant frame of mind. Indeed, the idea of
toleration as applied to religious belief had not yet been admitted even
in Europe. At this very time Philip II., who had united in his own person
the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, was endeavoring to compel, by force of
arms, the Netherlands to accept his religious belief, and was engaged
throughout all his immense dominions in the task of reducing men’s minds
to a hideous uniformity.
Even in several of the provinces of Japan where the Jesuits had attained
the ascendancy, the most forcible measures had been taken by the Christian
princes to compel all their subjects to follow their own example and adopt
the Christian faith. Takeyama, whom the Jesuit fathers designate as Justo
Ucondono, carried out in his territory at Akashi a system of bitter
persecution. He gave his subjects the option of becoming Christians or
leaving his territory. Konishi Yukinaga, who received part of the province
of Higo as his fief after the Korean war enforced with great persistency
the acceptance of the Christian faith, and robbed the Buddhist priests of
their temples and their lands. The princes of Ōmura and Arima, and to a
certain extent the princes of Bungo, followed the advice of the Jesuit
fathers in using their authority to advance the cause of Christianity. The
fathers could scarcely complain of having the system of intolerance
practised upon them, which, when circumstances were favorable, they had
advised to be applied to their opponents. It was this impossibility of
securing peace and harmony, and the suspicion of the territorial ambition
of Spain and Portugal, which drove Taikō Sama to the conclusion that the
foreign religious teachers and the faith which they had so successfully
propagated, were a source of imminent danger to his country. To him it was
purely a political question. He had no deep religious impressions which
had led him to prefer the precepts of the old Japanese faith to those of
Christianity. These systems could not apparently live together, and it
seemed to him the safest and most sensible way to extinguish the weaker
and most dangerous before it became too strong. Hence he began that policy
of repression and expulsion which his successor reluctantly took up.
During the first years of Ieyasu’s supremacy the Christians were not
disturbed. He was too much occupied with the establishment of the new
executive department which he had planned. In 1606 the Portuguese resident
bishop, Father Louis Cerqueria, was received by Ieyasu at Kyōto. The
fathers speak of this audience with great hopefulness, and did not seem to
be aware that the court which most of the Christian princes were at that
time paying to Hideyori was likely to prejudice Ieyasu against them. Again
in 1607 Ieyasu, who was then at Kofu in the province of Kai awaiting the
completion of his castle at Yedo, expressed a desire to see the
Provincial. Accordingly when he waited on Ieyasu he was received very
cordially. The Christian fathers were much encouraged by these indications
of the favor of Ieyasu. But whatever they may have been, they cannot be
interpreted as showing any intention on his part to promote their
religious proselytism. Even in the very midst of these assumed favors he
issued in 1606 what may be called a warning proclamation,(204) announcing
that he had learned with pain that, contrary to Taikō Sama’s edict, many
had embraced the Christian religion. He warned all officers of his court
to see that the edict was strictly enforced. He declared that it was for
the good of the state that none should embrace the new doctrine; and that
such as had already done so must change immediately.
This proclamation of Ieyasu did not, however, prevent the Catholics at
Nagasaki from celebrating in a gorgeous manner the beatification(205) of
Ignatius Loyola, the founder and first General of the Society of Jesus.
The bishop officiated in pontifical robes, and the members of the society,
together with the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians, made a solemn
procession through the city. This celebration was in distinct
contravention of the orders which had been issued against such public
displays. It was made more emphatic by being also held on the same day in
the province of Arima, whose daimyō was an ardent advocate of the
Christian doctrine. These open and determined infractions of the
directions of the government provoked Ieyasu to take severe measures. He
began by punishing some of the native Christians connected with his own
court, who were charged with bribery and intrigue in behalf of the daimyō
of Arima. A number of these accused Christians were banished and their
estates confiscated.
In the meantime both the English and Dutch had appeared on the scene, as
will be more fully detailed in the next chapter. Their object was solely
trade, and as the Portuguese monopoly hitherto had been mainly secured by
the Jesuit fathers, it was natural for the new-comers to represent the
motive of these fathers in an unfavorable and suspicious light. “Indeed,”
as Hildreth(206) says, “they had only to confirm the truth of what the
Portuguese and Spanish said of each other to excite in the minds of the
Japanese rulers the gravest distrust as to the designs of the priests of
both nations.”(207)
Whether it is true as charged that the minds of the Japanese rulers had
been poisoned against the Jesuit fathers by misrepresentation and
falsehood, it may be impossible to determine definitely; but it is fair to
infer that the cruel and intolerant policy of the Spanish and Portuguese
would be fully set forth and the danger to the Japanese empire from the
machinations of the foreign religious teachers held up in the worst light.
During the latter years of Ieyasu’s life, after he had settled the affairs
of the empire and put the shōgunate upon a permanent basis, we see growing
evidence of his prejudice against Christianity. That he had such prejudice
in a very pronounced form is clear from his reference to the “false and
corrupt school” in chapter xxxi. of the _Legacy_. And he had inherited
from Taikō Sama the conviction that the spread of this foreign faith was a
menace to the peace of the empire. The instructions(208) which were issued
to the members of the Society of Jesus, however, forbade any father to
meddle in secular affairs or to interfere in any way with the political
concerns of the government in which they were laboring. That there were
occasional instances of the disregard of this regulation by the
enthusiastic members of the order may be supposed, but it will be unjust
and unfounded to attribute to this society a settled policy of
interference in the affairs of the nations where they were employed as
missionaries.
Ieyasu, evidently having made up his mind that for the safety of the
empire Christianity must be extirpated, in 1614 issued an edict(209) that
the members of all religious orders, whether European or Japanese, should
be sent out of the country; that the churches which had been erected in
various localities should be pulled down, and that the native adherents of
the faith should be compelled to renounce it. In part execution of this
edict all the members of the Society of Jesus, native and foreign, were
ordered to be sent to Nagasaki. Native Christians were sent to Tsugaru,
the northern extremity of the Main island. Takeyama, who had already been
banished by Taikō Sama to the province of Kaga, was ordered to leave the
country. He was sent in a Chinese ship to Manila, where he soon after
died. In order to repress any disturbance that might arise from the
execution of this edict, ten thousand troops were sent to Kyūshū, where
the converts were much the most numerous, and where the daimyōs in many
cases either openly protected or indirectly favored the new faith.
In accordance with this edict, as many as three hundred persons are said
to have been shipped from Japan October 25, 1614. All the resident Jesuits
were included in this number, excepting eighteen fathers and nine
brothers, who concealed themselves and thus escaped the search. Following
this deportation of converts the most persistent efforts continued to be
made to force the native Christians to renounce their faith. The accounts
given, both by the foreign and by the Japanese writers, of the
persecutions which now broke upon the heads of the Christians are beyond
description horrible. A special service was established by the government
which was called the Christian Enquiry,(210) the object of which was to
search out Christians in every quarter and drive them to a renunciation of
their faith. Both the foreign priests who had remained in the country in
spite of the edict and the native converts were hunted down and punished
with the most appalling tortures. Rewards were offered for information
involving Christians of every position and rank, even of parents against
their children and of children against their parents. At what time this
practice began it is difficult to say, but that rewards were used at an
early period is evident from the re-issue of an edict in 1655, in which it
is stated(211) that formerly a reward of 200 pieces of silver was paid for
denouncing a father (_bateren_) and 100 for denouncing a brother
(_iruman_); but from this time the rewards should be: for denouncing a
father, 300 pieces; a brother, 200 pieces; and a catechist, 50 pieces. In
1711 this tariff was raised, for denouncing a father to 500 pieces, a
brother to 300 pieces, and a catechist to 100 pieces; also for denouncing
a person who, having recanted, returned to the faith, 300 pieces. These
edicts against Christianity were displayed on the edict-boards as late as
the year 1868.
The persecution began in its worst form about 1616. This was the year in
which Ieyasu died, but his son and successor carried out the terrible
programme with heartless thoroughness. It has never been surpassed for
cruelty and brutality on the part of the persecutors, or for courage and
constancy on the part of those who suffered. The letters of the Jesuit
fathers are full of descriptions of the shocking trials to which the
Christians were subjected. The tortures inflicted are almost beyond
belief. Mr. Gubbins, in the paper(212) to which reference has already been
made, says: “We read of Christians being executed in a barbarous manner in
sight of each other, of their being hurled from the tops of precipices, of
their being buried alive, of their being torn asunder by oxen, of their
being tied up in rice-bags, which were heaped up together, and of the pile
thus formed being set on fire. Others were tortured before death by the
insertion of sharp spikes under the nails of their hands and feet, while
some poor wretches by a refinement of horrid cruelty were shut up in cages
and there left to starve with food before their eyes. Let it not be
supposed that we have drawn on the Jesuit accounts solely for this
information. An examination of the Japanese records will show that the
case is not overstated.”(213)
The region around Nagasaki was most fully impregnated with the new
doctrine, and it was here that the persecution was by far the most severe.
This was now an imperial city, governed directly by officers from the
government of Yedo. The governor is called Kanwaytsdo by Warenius, relying
on Caron and Guysbert, but I have been unable to identify him by his true
Japanese name. Beginning from 1616 there was a continuous succession of
persecutions. In 1622 one hundred and thirty men, women, and children were
put to death, among whom were two Spanish priests, and Spinola an Italian.
The next year one hundred more were put to death. The heroism of these
martyrs awakened the greatest enthusiasm among the Christians. In the
darkness of the night following the execution many of them crept to the
place where their friends had been burnt and tenderly plucked some charred
fragments of their bodies, which they carried away and cherished as
precious relics. To prevent the recurrence of such practices the officers
directed that the bodies of those burnt should be completely consumed and
the ashes thrown into the sea. Guysbert in his account mentions that among
those executed at Hirado was a man who had been in the employ of the Dutch
factory and his wife. They had two little boys whom the factor offered to
take and have brought up by the Dutch. But the parents declined, saying
that they preferred to have the boys die with them. A plan was devised by
which the heads of households were required to certify that none of their
families were Christians, and that no priests or converts were harbored by
them.
All this terrible exercise of power and the constantly recurring scenes of
suffering were more than the governor could endure, and so we find him at
last complaining that he could not sleep and that his health was impaired.
At his earnest petition he was relieved and a new governor appointed in
1626. He signalized his entrance upon his duties by condemning thirteen
Christians to be burnt, viz.: Bishop Franciscus Parquerus, a Portuguese,
seventy years old; Balthazar de Tores, a Dominican, fifty-seven years old,
together with five Portuguese and five Japanese laymen. When it came to
the crisis the five Portuguese renounced their faith and escaped death. On
the twelfth of July nine more were executed, five by burning and four by
beheading. On the twenty-ninth of July a priest was caught and executed
who had concealed himself in a camp of lepers, and who had hoped in that
way to escape detection.
The governor exerted himself to bring about recantations on the part of
those who had professed themselves Christians. He promised special favors
to such as would renounce their faith, and in many cases went far beyond
promises to secure the result. He set a day when all the apostates dressed
in their best clothes should present themselves at his office. Fifteen
hundred appeared on this occasion, and were treated with the greatest
kindness and consideration. But the officers began to see that putting
Christians to death would not prevent others from embracing the same
doctrine. There grew up such an enthusiasm among the faithful that they
sought rather than avoided the crown of martyrdom. As Guysbert points out,
the knowledge of the Christian religion possessed by these converts must
have been exceedingly small; they knew the Lord’s prayer and the _Ave
Maria_, and a few other prayers of the Church, but they had not the
Scriptures to read, and many of them could not have read them even if they
had been translated into their own language. And yet these humble and
ignorant people withstood death, and tortures far worse than death, with a
heroism worthy of all praise.
On the eighth of February, 1627, twelve persons were captured in a
hiding-place about a mile from Nagasaki; they were first branded with a
hot iron on the forehead, and then on each cheek; then because they would
not recant they were burnt to death. Subsequently forty more were
captured, among whom were a father and mother with their three young
children. The children were frightened at the dreadful preparations, and
would have recanted, but their parents refused to permit them to take
advantage of the offers of clemency. After the branding and beating, those
who were not yet driven to recant were sent off to the boiling springs of
Onsen in Arima. Here they were tortured by having the boiling water of the
springs poured upon them, and by being compelled to breathe the
suffocating sulphurous air which these springs emitted.
On the fourteenth of the following May, nine martyrs suffered all the
torments which could be contrived and finally were drowned. August
seventeenth five Christians were burnt and eighteen otherwise put to
death, of whom one was a Franciscan monk and the rest were natives.
October twenty-sixth three Japanese magnates who had joined Hideyori
against Ieyasu were discovered to be Christians, and were shipped off to
Macao. In the following year, 1628, it is said that three hundred and
forty-eight persons were tortured for their faith, including torture by
the boiling springs, beating with clubs, and burning. It had been reduced
to such a science that when they saw a subject becoming weak and likely to
die, they suspended their torments until he revived. Whenever a priest was
captured in any household the whole family by whom he had been concealed
were put to death.
Another new governor was sent to Nagasaki on the 27th of July, 1629. He
came with the high purpose of rooting out every vestige of Christianity.
He set about his work in the most systematic manner. Nagasaki, it must be
understood, is laid out in streets which can be closed up by gates. Each
street had its head man, and every five houses in each street were under
the special charge of a separate overseer. These overseers were
responsible as to what occurred and who were concealed in each of the
houses under his charge. The gates were all closed at night and opened
again in the morning.
The governor went through these streets house by house, and examined every
person in every house. If the occupants were not Christians, or if they
renounced their Christianity, they were allowed to go undisturbed; but if
any one persisted in the new doctrine he was sent off to be tortured by
hot water at the boiling springs. This torture was now improved by
requiring the victim to have his back slit open and the boiling water
poured directly on the raw flesh. He used the most monstrous means to
force the people to renounce their faith. He compelled naked women to go
through the streets on their hands and knees, and many recanted rather
than suffer such an ordeal. Other cases are recorded too horrible to be
related, and which only the ingenuity of hell could have devised. That any
should have persisted after such inhuman persecutions seems to be almost
beyond belief. Guysbert says that in 1626 Nagasaki had forty thousand
Christians, and in 1629 not one was left who acknowledged himself a
believer. The governor was proud that he had virtually exterminated
Christianity.
But the extermination had not yet been attained. The severity of the
measures adopted in Nagasaki had indeed driven many into the surrounding
provinces, so that every place of shelter was full. They awaited in terror
the time when they too should be summoned to torture and death. Usually
they had not long to wait, for the service of the Christian Enquiry was
active and diligent. New refinements of cruelty were constantly invented
and applied. The last and one of the most effectual is denominated by the
foreign historians of these scenes the _Torment of the Fosse_. Mathia
Tanner, S. J., in his _History of the Martyrs of Japan_, published in
Prague, 1675, gives minute accounts of many martyrdoms. His descriptions
are illustrated by sickening engravings of the tortures inflicted. Among
these he gives one illustrating the suspension of a martyr in a pit on the
16th of August, 1633. The victim is swathed in a covering which confines
all parts of the body except one hand with which he can make the signal of
recantation. A post is planted by the side of the pit, with an arm
projecting out over it. The martyr is then drawn up by a rope fastened to
the feet and run over the arm of the post. He is then lowered into the pit
to a depth of five or six feet and there suffered to hang. The suffering
was excruciating. Blood exuded from the mouth and nose, and the sense of
pressure on the brain was fearful. Yet with all this suffering the victim
usually lived eight or nine days. Few could endure this torture, and it
proved a most effectual method of bringing about recantations. Guysbert
says that he had many friendly conversations with those who had
experienced the torture of the _Fosse_. They solemnly assured him “that
neither the pain caused by burning with fire, nor that caused by any other
kind of torture, deserves to be compared with the agony produced in this
way.” Not being able longer to endure the suffering, they had recanted and
been set free. Yet it is told as a miraculous triumph of faith that a
young girl was submitted to this torture, and lived fifteen days without
recanting and at last died.
It is surely not unnatural that human nature should succumb to such
torments. Even the well seasoned nerves of the Jesuit fathers were not
always able to endure to the end. The enemies of the Jesuits delight in
narrating the apostasy of Father Christopher Ferreyra, seventy years old,
a Portuguese missionary and the provincial of the order. He was captured
in Nagasaki, 1633, and was tortured by suspension in the _Fosse_. After
five hours he gave the signal of recantation and was released. He was kept
for some time in prison and compelled to give information concerning the
members of his order in Japan. He was set at liberty and forced to marry,
assuming the Japanese dress and a Japanese name. There was a report set on
foot by the Jesuits that in his old age when on his death-bed he recovered
his courage and declared himself a Christian, whereupon he was immediately
carried off by the Japanese officers to the torture of the _Fosse_, where
he perished a penitent martyr.
It was at this time that the method of trial called _E-fumi_,(214) or
trampling on the cross, was instituted. At first pictures on paper were
used, then slabs of wood were substituted as more durable, and finally in
the year 1660 an engraver of Nagasaki, named Yusa, cast bronze plates from
the metal obtained by despoiling the altars of the churches. These plates
were about five inches long and four inches wide and one inch thick, and
had on them a figure of Christ on the cross. We take from the French
edition of Kæmpfer’s _History of Japan_(215) an account of what he calls
“this detestable solemnity.” It was conducted by an officer called the
_kirishitan bugyō_, or Christian inquisitor, and began on the second day
of the first month. In Nagasaki it was commenced at two different places
at once, and was carried on from house to house until the whole city was
finished. The officers of each street were required to be present. The
metal plate on which was a figure of the Saviour upon the cross was laid
upon the floor. Then the head of the house, his family, and servants of
both sexes, old and young, and any lodgers that might be in the house,
were called into the room. The secretary of the inquisitor thereupon made
a list of the household and called upon them one by one to set their feet
on the plate. Even young children not able to walk were carried by their
mothers and made to step on the images with their feet. Then the head of
the family put his seal to the list as a certificate to be laid before the
governor that the inquisition had been performed in his house. If any
refused thus to trample on the cross they were at once turned over to the
proper officers to be tortured as the cases required.
This same method of trial was used in the provinces about Nagasaki, the
governor lending to the officers the plate which they might use.
Without following the entire series of events which resulted in the
extirpation of Christianity, it will be sufficient to give a brief
narrative of the closing act in this fearful tragedy. It is just, however,
to explain that the Shimabara rebellion was not due to the Christians
alone, but that other causes contributed to and perhaps originated it. In
view, however, of the cruel persecutions to which the Christians were
subjected, it is not surprising that they should have been driven to
engage in such a rebellion as that in Arima.(216) The wonder rather is
that they were not often and in many places impelled to take up arms
against the inhumanities of their rulers. The explanation of this absence
of resistance will be found in the scattered condition of the Christian
communities. Nowhere, unless it might be in Nagasaki, was the number of
converts collected in one place at all considerable. They were everywhere
overawed by the organized power of the government, and the experience of
those who joined in this Arima insurrection did not encourage a repetition
of its horrors.
The beginning of the revolt is traced to the misgovernment of the daimyō
of Arima. The original daimyō had been transferred by the shōgun to
another province, and when he removed from Arima he left nearly all his
old retainers behind him. The newly instituted daimyō, on the contrary,
who came to occupy the vacated province brought with him a full complement
of his own followers. To make room for these new retainers the old ones
were displaced placed from their dwellings and holdings, and compelled to
become farmers or to take up any other occupation which they could find.
Like the _samurai_ of other parts of Japan who had been unaccustomed to
any calling except that of arms, these displaced retainers proved very
unsuccessful farmers, and were of course very much dissatisfied with the
new course of things. The daimyō was a cruel and inconsiderate man, who
made small account of the hardships and complaints of the _samurai_
farmers. The taxes were made heavier than they could pay, and when they
failed to bring in the required amount of rice, he ordered them to be
dressed in straw rain-coats which were tied around their neck and arms.
Their hands were fastened behind their backs, and in this helpless
condition the rain-coats were set on fire. Many were fatally burned, and
some to escape the burning threw themselves into the water and were
drowned.
This senseless cruelty awakened an intense feeling of hatred against the
daimyō. And when his son who succeeded him was disposed to continue the
same tyrannical policy, the farmers rose in insurrection against their
lord. The peasants of the island of Amakusa, which lies directly opposite
to the province of Arima, also joined in this rising, owing to their
discontent against the daimyō of Karatsu.
The Christians, who had so long groaned under the persecutions of their
rulers, seized this opportunity to rise, and joined the farmers. They
declared that the time had now come for them to avenge the innocent blood
of Christians and priests who had perished throughout the empire. The
rising of the Christians began at the village of Oyei in Amakusa, October,
1637. The excitement was intense, and in a few days it is said that eight
thousand three hundred men and one thousand women were assembled at this
village. They chose as their chief Shirō Tokisada, the son of the head man
of the village of Hara, who proposed to march immediately upon Nagasaki
and open negotiations with foreign nations, and if possible obtain from
them the help of troops. He was an enthusiast and without experience in
war. The leading spirit in the insurrection seems to have been a
_rônin_(217) named Ashizuka, who recommended that the insurgents should
cross over to Shimabara. But Shirō and his enthusiastic followers resolved
to attack the castle of Tomioka situated on the north-west coast of
Amakusa. They were, however, unable to make any impression upon it, and
were obliged to withdraw. Ashizuka and a few followers succeeded in
breaking into the castle of Shimabara and seizing the arms and ammunition
and provisions which were stored there. The government rice stores were
seized both on the mainland and on the island of Amakusa. All the
insurgents, including men, women, and children, then gathered into a
deserted castle at Hara, which was capable of holding 40,000 to 50,000
persons. It was supposed to be impregnable, and was put in order and
provisioned for a long siege. The number gathered here is estimated by the
Japanese writers at 40,200, but this number without doubt is an
exaggeration.
The local rulers finding themselves unable to cope with the rebellion, and
seeing its proportions swelling every day, appealed to Yedo for help. The
shōgun at this time was Iemitsu, the son of the preceding shōgun, and
grandson of Ieyasu. He possessed many of the good qualities of his
grandfather, and is looked upon, with the exception of Ieyasu, as the
greatest of the Tokugawa line. He had imbibed all the prejudices of his
predecessors against foreigners and against the religion of the
foreigners. He feared that this rebellion was begun at their instigation,
and would be carried on with their encouragement and help. He prepared
therefore for a sharp and desperate struggle, which he was determined
should be carried out to the bitter end.
Itakura Naizen was sent down as commander-in-chief, and given full powers.
Under his direction the siege of the castle, in which the rebels were
gathered, was commenced on the 31st of December, 1637. The daimyōs of
Kyūshū, on the demand of the government, sent additional troops, so that
the besieging army amounted to 160,000 men. Yet with all this force, urged
on by an ambition to end this rebellion, no serious effect had yet been
produced on the castle. The attacks which had been made had produced no
breach in its walls. We have no information concerning the progress of
affairs among the inmates. It must be remembered that a part of the rebels
were _samurai_ farmers, who were inured to arms, and who knew perfectly
that neither consideration nor mercy would be shown them or their families
in case the castle were taken. The remainder of the besieged force were
the Christian insurgents, who had been driven to this rebellion by their
cruel persecution. Nothing could be worse than what they had already
endured, and they had no expectation that if they were beaten in this
contest any pity would be shown to them. Despair made the attitude of both
divisions of the rebels one of determined resistance, and their obstinacy
led the besiegers to put forth every effort.
[Illustration]
Pleasure Yacht.
[Illustration]
Pleasure Yacht.
[Illustration]
Merchant Vessel.
One step which they took in this matter led to much discussion and to the
widening of the breach between the Dutch and the Portuguese. On the 11th
of January, 1638, the besiegers applied to the Dutch at Hirado for a
supply of gunpowder, which request was complied with, and at the same time
an apology was tendered that no larger quantity could be sent. Again, on
the 15th of February a request for cannon to be used in the siege was
received, and the guns were sent. Mr. Koeckebacker says: “We gave the
largest and most uniform guns in our possession.”(218) Finally, on the
19th of February, Mr. Koeckebacker was asked to send one of the Dutch
ships(219) then at Hirado to the assistance of the besiegers. The _de Ryp_
was accordingly sent, and Mr. Koeckebacker himself accompanied her. The
guns which had been first sent were mounted as a land battery, and the
guns of the _de Ryp_ from her anchorage in the bay were trained on the
castle. It was a new experience for the Japanese to see cannon used in the
siege of a castle, but the effect was much less than had been expected. No
practicable breach was made, and the final result seemed as far off as
ever. “During the fifteen days from the 24th of February to the 12th of
March, there were thrown into the camp of the enemy four hundred and
twenty-six cannon balls from the twenty guns of the ship _de Ryp_.”(220)
In the meantime the Japanese officers began to feel that it was not a
dignified proceeding to call upon a foreign nation to help them to put
down a local rebellion. Even the insurgents had shot an arrow into the
imperial camp to which a letter was attached, deriding them for calling
for assistance when there were so many courageous soldiers in Japan.
Whatever may have been the cause, the Dutch received notice on the 12th of
March that their ship was no longer required, and accordingly they
returned to Hirado. The castle was taken by assault on the 12th of April,
1638, after a siege which had lasted one hundred and two days, and about
seven months from the breaking out of the rebellion. By special orders
from Yedo the insurgents captured in the castle were to the last man,
woman, and child put to death.(221) The father of Shirō, the young leader,
was crucified, and Shirō himself was decapitated, and his head exposed for
seven days on the great pier at Nagasaki. The daimyō, whose misgovernment
had brought on this rebellion in Amakusa, was stripped of most of his
territories, and he was so intensely hated in what remained to him that he
committed _hara-kiri_. The daimyō of Arima, whose misconduct and neglect
had driven the _samurai_ farmers into their fatal rising, was also
permitted to take his own life.
The help, which the Dutch rendered in this siege, exposed them to much
vituperation. Naturally, the Jesuit historians have taken a very
unfavorable view of the Dutch share in this sad transaction. Dr. Geerts in
his defence of the Dutch argues: “Koeckebacker did no more than any one
else of any nationality would probably have done in the same difficult
position.... His endeavor was to preserve from decline or destruction the
interests intrusted to him, and this was done at the smallest possible
price.... Moreover, the letters of Koeckebacker clearly show that the
Japanese government did not ask the aid of the Dutch in the persecution of
Christians, as has often been asserted by foreign authors, who have not
taken the trouble to inform themselves thoroughly on the subject, but they
requested the guns and the aid of the Dutch vessel for the purpose of
subduing rebellious subjects.... There could be no valid reason for
Koeckebacker to refuse the pressing request for aid, and consequently he
agreed to give assistance, as every wise man would have done in his
place.... Koeckebacker did not take part in the general massacre which
followed on the 11th of April, when the fortress of the rebels was taken
by the imperial troops, as he left with his ship for Hirado on the 12th of
March, leaving the guns behind in Arima. Had it been in his power to
prevent such a general massacre after the fortress had been taken, and the
rebels were prisoners, he would no doubt have done so.”(222)
This frightful termination to the rebellion, followed as it was by severe
and persistent measures against Christians everywhere, was apparently the
death-blow to the church in the empire. No further efforts were made,
either by the daimyōs of provinces or by the heads of the church, to make
open headway against the determined efforts of the government. Whatever
was done was in secret, and every means was tried on the part of those who
still clung to the Christian belief, and especially of those who were
still daring enough to try to minister to them, to conceal their locality
and their identity.(223)
The history of Christianity in Japan from this time downward was that of a
scattered and dismembered remnant struggling for existence. A long line of
edicts reaching to modern times was directed against “the corrupt sect,”
repeating again and again the directions for its suppression. The
_kirishitan bugyō_, or Christian inquisitor, had his office in Yedo, and
under him was a numerous and active corps of assistants. Inouye
Chikugo-no-Kami for a long time held this position. A place is still
pointed out called _Karishitan Zaka_, or Christian Valley, where once
stood the house in which were confined a number of the foreign priests.
Here may be seen the grave of Father Chiara, who had under torture abjured
his faith, and remained a prisoner for forty years, dying 1685.(224)
Professor Dixon says that “there are two bamboo tubes inserted in sockets
in front of the tomb, which I have never found empty, but always full of
flowers in bloom. No one knows who offer these flowers, but they must be
descendants of the Doshin Christians, or believers in Christianity, or
worshippers of Koshin.” Here also was confined Father Baptiste Sidotti, a
Sicilian Jesuit who ventured to enter Japan in 1707 with the purpose of
resuming the work of the Jesuits which the persecution had interrupted.
And yet with all this vigilance and severity on the part of the
government, what was the amazement of the Christian world to learn that
the old faith still survived! In the villages around Nagasaki there were
discovered in 1865,(225) not only words and symbols which had been
preserved in the language, but even communities where had been kept alive
for more than two centuries the worship bequeathed to them by their
ancestors. We shall have occasion hereafter to refer to this interesting
memento of the Christianity of the seventeenth century.