Hildreth's "Japan as It Was and Is": A Handbook of Old Japan, Volume 1 (of 2)

by Richard Hildreth

CHAPTER XVIII

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.

Himeji Castle

Nagoya Castle
Feudal Strongholds

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.