Japan

by Walter G. Dickson

Taikosama was feeling his way in the novel position in which he found himself after Nobu nanga’s death. The Jesuits did not know how their position might be affected. They had basked in the sunshine of court favor for some years past; that might now be clouded over. The bozangs, or native Buddhist priesthood, had been standing in the cold shade for some years; they had everything to hope for in a change. There was not much to be feared from Sanhoshi, the infant grandson of Nobu nanga, as a claimant to the throne. Mowori in the west was quiet. Iyeyas in the east was occupied in attacking Hojio of Odawara, who was supposed to be in opposition to the government. Hojio was superior in the number of his forces, but inferior in the ability of his commanders. The proverbial saying of an “Odawara Hio jio”—that is, an Odawara deliberation—took its origin in the councils of war of Hojio at this time, which, with superior forces, were protracted till Iyeyas attacked, defeated him, and took the Castle of Odawara.

In the year 1583 the Jesuit fathers prevailed upon the Christian converts Arima and Omura and Owotomo Boongo no kami to send some young lords on a visit to the Pope. Four were sent, two of them being relatives of these lords, and the other two sons of nobles. They were all four boys of the age of from fifteen to sixteen. They took letters with them to Pope Gregory XIII. Leaving Japan on February 22, 1583, they, going by Macao and Goa, reached Lisbon on August 10, 1584, and after an interview with Philip at Madrid, arrived in Rome on March 20, 1585, where they were received by the Pope, and kissed his feet. They re-embarked at Lisbon the last day of April, 1586, with seventeen religious of the Society, reaching Goa on May 29, 1587, and finally arrived in Japan in 1590, “eight years from their first setting out,” bringing with them an Arabian horse, which had been presented to them by the Viceroy of India.

In 1583 Taikosama finished the fortress of Osaka, a work which consumed a great deal of money and occupied a great number of men, and which, when finished, covered a much larger space of ground than that upon which the castle now stands. During this year the island of Kiusiu was the theater of war. Riozoji held an office, now done away with, as governor of the island. He had formerly been a vassal of the small lordship of Arima, but now had large landed possessions in the island: and being too desirous of extending his own territory at his neighbors’ expense, they joined together and rooted him out.

In 1585 Taikosama received from the Emperor the family name of Toyotomi. He called himself Fusiwara, and insisted on the Emperor appointing him Kwanbakku. He had now had sufficient time to feel himself settled in his position; but he thought the native monasteries were still too powerful, notwithstanding the demolition of Hiyayzan, the large monastery near Miako, and the slaughter of great numbers of priests by Nobu nanga, together with the appropriation as a castle of the large monastery in Osaka. The sect of Negoros [Negroes in the Church of Japan] at Kumano, in the province of Kii, occupied a very large monastery, to which the whole of the province belonged in territorial right, the military retainers of the monastery being noted for prowess and skill in fighting. Taikosama having found or made some cause of quarrel moved against them, defeated them, and destroyed the monastery. Most of these retainers were removed to Yedo, where to this day they form part of the guard of the Shiogoon.

This year Taikosama sent Nobuwo to order Iyeyas to come to Miako. He refused to come until it was arranged that Taikosama’s mother should come to Yedo as a hostage during his absence, when Iyeyas went to pay his respects to the Emperor. Mowori, lord of the western provinces, was also ordered to come to Miako to acknowledge Taikosama as his superior, an order which he found it prudent to obey. In 1586 Iyeyas married the youngest sister of Taikosama.

A persecuting spirit showed itself among the Jesuits very soon after the departure of Francis Xavier. “Sumitanda,” they write, “King of Omura, who had become a Christian in accordance with a promise to that purpose in case his wife should have a child, about the year 1562, or only thirteen years after the first arrival of a missionary in the country, declared open war against the devils. He dispatched some squadrons through his kingdom to ruin all the idols and temples, without any regard to the bonzes’ rage.” All this, doubtless, was done by the advice and at the instigation of his instructors; and “in 1577 the lord of the island of Amacusa issued his proclamation, by which all his subjects—whether bonzes, gentlemen, merchants or tradesmen—were required either to turn Christians or to leave the country the very next day. They almost all submitted, and received baptism, so that in a short time there were more than twenty churches in the kingdom. God wrought miracles to confirm the faithful in their belief.”

All this time one of the most zealous as well as influential among the Christian converts was he who was known as Justo Ucondono, or Takayama oo konyay no kami. His seat was Takaski, in the province of Setsu, where “he labored with a zeal truly apostolical to extirpate the idolaters out of his states, where the number was now fallen to 30,000. He sent word that they should either receive the faith or be gone immediately out of his country, for he would acknowledge none for his subjects but such as adored the true God. This declaration obliged them all to accept of instruction, which cut out work enough for all the fathers and missionaries at Meaco.” Taikosama still continued his wonted favors to the Christians, “saying one day, in a familiar way, that he would willingly become a Christian himself if they could dispense with him in polygamy.” In this way the Roman Catholics set the example of intolerance, driving those opposed to them in religious belief out of the country. True disciples, and breathing the spirit of the Inquisition, then in full blow in Spain and Portugal, they would not allow within their own states that freedom under which the tree planted by them had taken root and was flourishing.

Takayama brought over as a convert, among others, the young admiral of Taikosama’s fleet—Don Austin, as he is known to the Jesuits; Konishi, Setsu no kami, Yuki Naga, as his title is in native history. He and his father and mother were baptized in 1584.

Taikosama, wishing to keep Takaski, gave Takayama in its stead another estate, Akashi, in Harima; and as “soon as Justo had taken possession of it, his first thoughts were to reduce it under the obedience of Christ. The bonzes, smelling his design, with their idols went to cast themselves at the Queen’s feet. The Queen, touched with an ardent zeal for her religion, spoke to the King in their behalf. But Faxiba, who was no bigot, answered her briskly that he had absolutely given Justo that place in change of Tacacuqui; and for the rest, every one was free to dispose of his own. Let the bonzes, if the idols be troublesome, drown them in the sea, or dry them for fuel. Don Justo, much pleased with Faxiba’s answer, took then a resolution to oblige all his subjects to become Christians,” and thus first taught them a lesson which they afterward practiced upon himself. Justo had the merit, in his religious zeal, of being unconnected with any seaport town. All the other lords who had been brought over to the Roman Church were competing more or less for foreign trade—Boongo, Arima, Omura, Firando, Grotto; and though some of them seem to have been sincere converts, others wavered with the rise and fall of exports and imports. Such, for example, may the King of Boongo be called, when he returned the following answer to the bozangs: “These good fathers have been thirteen or fourteen years in my kingdom. At their arrival I had only three kingdoms; they are now swelled to five. My treasury was exhausted; it now exceeds any other prince in all Japan. I had no male issue to succeed me, but now Heaven has blessed me with heirs. Everything has succeeded and prospered since they came among us. What blessing did I ever receive from your gods since I began to serve them? Begone! and never speak ill those I love and respect.” This Boongo no kami on one occasion during war destroyed a most prodigious and magnificent temple with a colossal statue, burning 3,000 monasteries to ashes. “This ardent zeal of the prince is an evident instance of his faith and charity,” says the Jesuit writer.

This year, upon the occasion of the arrival of the Father Provincial of Japan at Osaka, Justo and Austin demanded an audience for him with Taikosama. “To make the way more easy, he exposed, according to the custom of the country, his presents for the King and Queen. He was introduced (his majesty accepting the presents) to Taikosama seated on a magnificent throne, and was received by him with the most marked kindness and condescension. He commended them for taking so long a voyage to publish in those parts the law of their God. He gave them supper. After the collation he entertained them with a long discourse about his government, told them he intended to make one-half of Japan embrace the Christian religion, and that he had thoughts of passing into China, not to pillage and plunder the country, but to reduce it under the sweet yoke of his obedience. To this end he intended to put to sea with a fleet of 200 men-of-war. Moreover (and this is the gist of the conversation), he desired to hire upon any terms two stout ships of Portugal, well armed and manned, and by means of the fathers made himself sure of gaining this point. After the conquest of China, he would build temples to the true God in all the cities and towns through his empire, and withal oblige his subjects universally by public edict to become Christians.