Of Nippon, at least equal in extent to Great Britain, and with a population nearer, it would seem, to that of Great Britain now than to what that island could boast in the reign of Elizabeth, the missionaries were as yet acquainted only with the southwestern part—their establishments being confined to the kingdom of Nagato, at its western extremity, where it is separated from Shimo by a narrow strait, and to the great cities of Miyako, Ōsaka, and Sakai, situated towards the middle of the southern coast. Many princes, nobles, and large landed proprietors had fallen under the influence of the Jesuits, and had professed the new faith; but it does not appear that either in Nippon or in the adjoining island of Shikoku (about equal in extent to Sicily) any considerable progress had been made in converting the rural population. It was in the island of Shimo, the westernmost in situation and the second in size (two-thirds as large as Ireland), that the new religion had taken the firmest root. The kingdom of Bungo, indeed almost the whole of the eastern portion of that island, was thoroughly indoctrinated with the new faith; and such was still more the case with the kingdom of Arima and the principality of Ōmura, embracing that great southwestern peninsula itself, divided into three smaller peninsulas by two deep bays, one opening to the south and the other to the west, at the head of the latter of which is situated the city of Nagasaki.
Painting of Taikō Sama
Founded in 1579 by converts to the new faith, and made the centre of the Portuguese trade to Japan, as well as of the Jesuit missions, Nagasaki had grown up with great rapidity; nor was any other worship practised in it except that of the new religion. It had become the largest and most important town in Shimo; and, since the recent subjection of that island to the imperial authority, according to the new policy of weakening the local princes, the emperor had assumed the appointment of its governor,—Nagasaki being placed, along with Miyako, Ōsaka, and Sakai in the list of imperial towns.
At the date of the edict, so unexpectedly issued in 1587, for the banishment of the Jesuits, there were in Japan three hundred members of the company, a novitiate, a college, two preparatory seminaries for the education of young nobles designed for the church, two hundred and fifty churches, and a number of converts, amounting, probably, to between two and three hundred thousand, though the estimate of the Jesuits was much larger. Notwithstanding the apostasy of Yoshimune, the young king of Bungo (whose father, Civan, had died just before the emperor’s edict had appeared), the numerous converts in that kingdom remained firm in the faith. That zealous Catholic, the prince of Ōmura, had also lately deceased; but the young prince, his only son and successor, who had been educated by the Jesuits, was hardly less zealous than his father had been. The king of Arima also continued steady in the faith. It was this king who, along with the deceased king of Bungo and the deceased prince of Ōmura, had sent the ambassadors to the Pope, of whose visit to Europe an account has been given in a preceding chapter, and whom the last chapter left at Macao, on their return to Japan, in company with Father Valignani, who had been deputed by the viceroy of Goa as his ambassador to the emperor.
It was at Macao that Valignani and his companions learned the news of the edict for the banishment of the Jesuits. It was said at Macao that the emperor was a good deal mollified, and seemed inclined to wink at the general disregard of his edict; yet as Valignani was himself a Jesuit, and had once already visited Japan in that character, he did not judge it best to proceed to Japan till he had first obtained express permission to do so. On the representations of the Christian princes, who put forward Valignani’s character as ambassdor, the emperor readily consented to receive him; and, accompanied by the returning Japanese envoys and some twenty Jesuits, he landed at Nagasaki, in June, 1590, where he was received with great affection by the converted princes of Shimo, and by Father Gomez, who, on the death of Cuello, had succeeded to the post of vice-provincial. The emperor, in the late redistribution of the kingdoms of that island, had liberally provided for Konishi Settsu-no-kami, the grand admiral, and for Kodera, his general of horse, both of whom, notwithstanding their continued adhesion to the new faith, still retained his favor. To Konishi he had given the kingdom of Higo, and to Kodera that of Buzen, so that almost the whole of the island of Shimo was now ruled by converted princes. Even the changeable Yoshimune, not finding his apostasy so advantageous as he had expected, soon sought and presently obtained a reconciliation to the church. The king of Hirado was not friendly, but he was kept in check by the number of converts among his subjects, especially by a very zealous converted wife, a sister of the prince of Ōmura—whom he complained of as having more influence over his kingdom than himself,—and also by his fear of driving off the Portuguese merchants, who still occasionally visited his island.
Notwithstanding the emperor’s edict of expulsion, there still remained in Japan a hundred and forty Jesuits, including those lately brought by Valignani. The seminary of nobles at Ōsaka had been broken up, most of the pupils retiring with their teachers; but the other seminary in the kingdom of Arima was still maintained, being, for greater security, removed to a retired spot surrounded with wood. The college and novitiate, for similar reasons, were transferred to the island of Amakusa. Besides these, the Jesuits had twenty other houses of residence. Those districts in which the missionaries had no settled establishments they supplied by frequent journeys, which they made secretly, and generally in disguise, being assisted also by a great number of adroit and zealous native catechists, who not only maintained the fervor of the old converts, but daily added new ones to the number. This employment of catechist was held in great honor in the church of Japan. None were admitted into it except persons of approved virtue, generally young men of family and promise, devoted by their parents from their infancy to a service upon which they entered for life, being ordained with much ceremony, and wearing a garb similar to that of the missionaries with whom they lived in community, observing the same rules. Conversions still continued to be made among the upper as well as among the lower classes, and the numerous adherents to the new faith, or favorers of it, in the court and household of the emperor, including even the empress, carefully watched and reported to the missionaries every word or hint dropped by him, from which his disposition and intentions might be conjectured.
At this moment the emperor’s thoughts seemed a good deal withdrawn from domestic affairs, being engrossed by a war, which he had determined to commence by invading Corea, a dependency of the Chinese empire, and the part of the continent of Asia nearest to Japan. For this purpose he was constructing a fleet at a port of Shimo, on the strait of Corea. Not long after Valignani’s arrival at Nagasaki, leave was obtained for him to visit the emperor’s court at Miyako; but his friends there advised that, instead of ecclesiastics, his retinue should be composed as much as possible of Portuguese merchants. The merchants at Nagasaki entered zealously into the affair, and not less than twenty-seven of them accompanied Valignani, in the style of great lords, sparing no expense to give magnificence to the ambassador’s train. He took with him also four priests, some young Japanese Jesuits not yet ordained, and the four returned youthful ambassadors. These ambassadors had learned to sing in the European style, and chanted church music tolerably well. They also had with them a great show of maps, globes, clocks, watches, and other European curiosities, which attracted much attention. Their description of what they had seen and heard made a deep impression upon the princes and nobles, who flocked from all quarters to see them. And there was ample leisure for this, as the approach of the ambassador to Miyako was delayed for more than two months by the death of the emperor’s only son.
In this interval Valignani had the pleasure of a visit from the disgraced Ukondono, whose face he was rejoiced to see lighted up with an air of content rarely seen among those on whom the favors of fortune are most prodigally showered. He protested that the happiest day in his life was that on which he had lost everything for Jesus Christ. He communicated to Father Valignani a design he had formed of quitting the world altogether, and consecrating himself entirety to the service of God; but besides that he had a wife and a numerous family, whom his retreat would have left without resource, the father considered that he was much younger than the emperor; that if reëstablished in his offices and his possessions, he might render much greater services to the church by remaining in the world than by quitting it, and on that ground he advised Ukondono not to withdraw from that station in life in which Providence had placed him.
At last the emperor consented to admit Valignani to an audience, but only on condition that he should say nothing about religion or the revocation of the edict against the Jesuits. Through the care of Kodera, to whom that business had been entrusted, the embassy was received at Miyako with all honor, and was able to make a display which strongly impressed the inhabitants, and even the emperor in its favor. On the day of audience, Gon-dainagon Hidetsugu, the emperor’s nephew and presumptive heir, attended by a great number of lords, met the ambassador, and conducted him to the hall of audience. This hall, which opened upon a magnificent balcony, before which spread a parterre of great beauty, consisted of five several divisions, rising, like steps, one above the other. The first served as an antechamber, or hall of waiting, for the gentlemen in attendance. In the two next were assembled the lords of the court and the great officers of the empire, arranged in order, according to their rank. In the fourth, there were only two persons, a priest who held the first dignity in the household of the Dairi, and the chief counsellor of that same dignitary; by the side of whom Gon-dainagon also took his place, after introducing the ambassador to the fifth and highest apartment, in which the emperor was seated alone, on his heels, in the Japanese fashion upon an elevated throne, approached by steps on all sides. Father Valignani was preceded by one of the Portuguese gentlemen of his suite, bearing the letter of the Indies, written in gilded letters upon fine vellum, with a golden seal attached to it, the whole enclosed in a little box beautifully wrought. That letter was as follows: