A HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN Christian World Mission Books Richard H. Drummond, A History of Christianity in Japan Justo L. Gonzalez, The Development of Christianity in the Latin Caribbean Stephen Neill, The Story of the Christian Church in India and Pakistan Jane M. Sales, The Planting of the Churches in South Africa R. Pierce Beaver, All Loves Excelling Elizabeth Kelsey Kinnear, She Sat Where They Sat: A Memoir of Anna Young Thompson Kenneth Strachan, The Inescapable Calling William J. Danker, Profit for the Lord A. Theodore Eastman, Chosen and Sent: Calling the Church to Mission Donald C. Lord, Mo Bradley and Thailand Paul B. Pedersen, Batak Blood and Protestant Soul: The Development of National Batak Churches in North Sumatra David M. Stowe, Ecumenicity and Evangelism R. Pierce Beaver, To Advance the Gospel: The Collected Writings of Rufus Anderson R. Pierce Beaver, Pioneers in Mission James A. Scherer, Justinian Welz: Essays by an Early Prophet of M ission Max A. C. Warren, To Apply the Gospel: Selections from the Writings of Henry Venn A HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN RICHARD HENRY DRUMMOND William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan Copyright 1971 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company All rights reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-78022 Printed in the United States of America To Pearl who also loves the people and the land of Japan Grateful acknowledgement is given to Burns and Oates Ltd., London. England, for permission to quote from Saint Francis Xavier by James Broderick. S.J. CONTENTS Editorial Foreword 9 Preface 11 I. The Background of Land and People 13 II. The Early Roman Catholic Movement, 1549-1859 27 A. Francis Xavier and the Beginnings of the Christian Mission 29 B. The Growth of the Church 45 C. The Persecutions: Their Reasons, Extent and Consequences 73 D. The Sempuku Kirishitan 109 E. Contributions of the Kirishitan 117 III. The Changed Political and Social Situation 127 IV. Protestantism in Japan 137 A. Early Protestant Missions and Churches 139 B. The Period of Resurgent Nationalism and Emerging Japanese Christian Leadership 196 C. Kozaki Hiromichi and Uchimura KanzO 202 D. Uemura Masahisa 208 E. Kagawa Toyohiko and Social Christianity 220 F. Events and Organizations, 1900-1945 241 G. The Postwar Period 269 V. The Roman Catholic Church from 1859 299 A. The Period of Rediscovery and Persecutions, 1859-1873 301 B. The Period of Relative Tolerance, 1873-1915 308 C. Expansion and Crisis, 1915-1945 320 D. The Postwar Period 327 VI. The Orthodox Church 337 VII. Epilogue 361 Bibliography 367 Indexes 377 5 O N EDITORIAL FOREWORD None of the generalizations usually made about the Chris­ tian churches in Asia or about the past experience of overseas mission agencies applies to Japan; Japan as a nation and people defies generalization. The primitive, ancient, medieval, mod­ ern, and contemporary all exist in Japan in a marvelous modus vivendi with one another that is matched nowhere else. Japan has modernized and industrialized without breaking cultural and religious continuity with its ancient heritage. The arts and individual craftsmanship have not been destroyed by high scientific and technological achievement nor by mass produc­ tion. The course of the planting and development of the churches has been unique, and determined in large measure by the peculiar social and political events and trends of the times as well as by unchanging aspects of the Japanese character. There are more puzzles and problems about Japanese Chris­ tianity than about any other Christian community in Asia or Africa, and these are intimately related to the local situation. This church is predominantly urban, not rural as elsewhere in Asia, and almost confined to a narrow stratum of the middle class. Only now is it beginning to reach out more widely into society. Although a small church, it has tremendous influence in national life, and it may have a nebulous constituency of ten times its actual formal membership. The main Protestant churches from the beginning were under indigenous leader­ ship, and escaped the usual stifling missionary paternalism. It is the bodies created since World War II which have had such an experience. Yet Japanese Christianity looks exceedingly 10 A HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN Western, although some evidence of adaptation is to be found. This is the one younger church which has long had a super­ abundance of clergy and has been theologically mature, al­ though perhaps more in a European than a Japanese manner. New life now appears to be emerging. Illumination on all these and other unique features of Japa­ nese Christianity is brought out by Professor Drummond in this book. He has attempted an outline history of the totality of Christianity in Japan — Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox — from the sixteenth century to the present, and to have all of this brought to a reader in one volume is a genuine contribution. The author has been forced to deal with each major branch of the church separately since each was hitherto self-contained in its own history and there was little interaction. Fortunately, as the sections on the present period reveal, the churches are now drawing together in ecumenical brotherhood and common action, and the next period of history will be that of the church, rather than the churches, in Japan. Pro­ fessor Drummond draws on the fruits of Japanese scholarship as well as the works of Western missionaries and scholars, and he brings to the task a personal understanding and competence gained in many years of residence and service in Japan. A History of Christianity in Japan is a CHRISTIAN WORLD MISSION BOOK, belonging to the series on “Dis- cipling the Nations,” which relates to fruits of the mission out of the Western nations in the great era of world mission now ended. The seven series deal with every aspect of the world mission of the church of Christ — history, theory, methods, functional approaches, regional studies, biography, and source materials of exceptional value to students. The authors are recruited from many nations and churches. R. Pierce Beaver Editor