The Buddhist temples compiled written records of their parishioners, and these formed the census records of the period. Every year the parishioners of village temples were required to come before the village headman and attest that they were Buddhists, not Christians. Buddhist clerics were called upon to certify that there were no Christians among the parishioners of their temples. In effect, the shogunate required that the people as a whole become attached to Buddhist temples as a means to ensure that no one would be a Christian. The prohibition on Christianity was continued by Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) and the Tokugawa shogunate that ruled Japan from 1600 until the Meiji period (1868-1912). Thereafter the remaining Christians either recanted or went underground to become “Hidden Christians.” The Christians’ last stand came during the Shimabara Rebellion (1637-1638), which resulted in the annihilation of the Christian rebels who had barricaded themselves in the Shimabara castle. The missionaries were forced out of the country, and many were martyred, as were Japanese Christians who refused to recant their beliefs. He worried that the people might be more loyal to the pope in Rome than to their Japanese overlords and thus began a persecution of Christianity. Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598), a powerful warlord at the end of the sixteenth century, had originally been friendly with the Jesuits, but when after he toured Christian sites in Kyūshū, especially in Nagasaki, he became alarmed at the extent of the religion’s spread. They baptised believers and provided religious education through the churches, as well as establishing the means for lay brothers to spread Jesuit teachings.īut in spite of Christianity’s early successes, prohibitions on the religion began to be issued from 1587. Jesuits established schools, hospitals, seminaries, and printing presses, as well as churches. Although the coercive nature of these early conversions might suggest that Christianity was perhaps not widely accepted, in fact it established deeply committed believers in significant numbers. During Japan’s “Christian century,” converted daimyō typically decreed that people living in their territories would also convert to Christianity, and thus by the end of the sixteenth century it is estimated that there were as many as 300,000 Christians in Japan. 1 Christian missionaries were initially welcomed as part of Portuguese trading missions, and a number of feudal lords ( daimyō) converted. Initially Portuguese Jesuits were the majority of the missionaries they were joined later by Franciscan and Domincan friars. The prohibition itself requires some explanation before we can move on to the way that the people were subsequently made to become parishioners of Buddhist temples.įrancis Xavier had brought Christianity to Japan in 1549, and Christian communities were established in Kyûshû and around Kyoto through the 16th century. This arrangement was part of the shogunate’s prohibition on Christianity. During that time, it was legally required that everyone be a parishioner of a Buddhist temple. Japan has maintained statistics on religious affiliation in different forms going back to the Edo period (1600-1868). Historical Patterns of Religious Affiliation in Japan Let us examine these several facets of the question before reaching conclusions. Social attitudes towards religion in general are also important, and it is important to recognize that attitudes can be shaped significantly by recent events. We also need to know something about the different religions represented in Japan and how their patterns differ. We need to know something about the country’s historic patterns of religious belonging, practice, and belief in order to answer the question. It is important to be clear about what we are asking in the question whether the Japanese are religious. They often emphasize the view they wish to convey through denying that Japan is religious, but it is not the case that religion can be reduced to superstition and irrationality. Elites want the world to know that Japan is a modern nation where the people value rational thinking and reject superstition. In many cases, these views reflect a pervasive secularism among elites, their opinions regarding how Japan ought to be, rather than the attitudes of society as a whole. Certainly these attitudes reflect something important about contemporary Japan, but they may not reflect the whole society or tell the whole story. Are the Japanese people religious? This is a question that arises for anyone who has visited this vibrant country where educators, government representatives, businessmen, and many educated persons as well, are quite likely to remark to visitors that they personally do not regard religion as playing a central role in their own lives or in Japan’s public life.
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