Samurai's Hearing about Europe
Giovanni Battista Sidotti (1668–1714), an Italian Jesuit priest who sneaked into Japan as a one-man Christian mission but was arrested by samurai authorities, started to undergo a trial by elite samurai bureaucrat/scholar Arai Hakuseki in 1709.
At the time, almost for a century the door to Japan had been closed by the samurai government led by the shogun from the Tokugawa clan. It was because samurai leaders found that Christian missions from Spain, Portugal, or the Vatican were dangerous for their reign. Those western missionaries turned Japanese farmers, townsmen, and even samurais to a Japanese-version of Christians, called Kirishitans, who sometimes came to deny the samurai authority. Kirishitans did not pay respect for traditional religion Buddhism. They were suspected to think they belonged to the Pope but not the shogun. And the samurai government assumed that Spain or Portugal were actually trying to cause an uprising or a revolution in Japan using those Kirishitans and then finally invade Japan.
So in 1612 the Tokugawa shogun issued a decree to forbid Christianity. It is estimated that at the time there were 750,000 Kirishitans. Indeed those Christian missionaries were very successful since Francisco de Xavier visited Japan 1549 as the first Christian missionary to Japan.
So in 1612 the Tokugawa shogun issued a decree to forbid Christianity. It is estimated that at the time there were 750,000 Kirishitans. Indeed those Christian missionaries were very successful since Francisco de Xavier visited Japan 1549 as the first Christian missionary to Japan.
After imposing the ban on Christianity, the samurai government succeeded in terminating Christian movement in Japan and forcing Kirishitans to abandon their faith by imposing heavy penalties, including death penalty. Western missionaries were forbidden even to enter Japan. Diplomatic relations between Japan and Spain/Portugal were cut off. Only the Netherlands (having no intention to propagate Christianity in Japan) and China (the Qing dynasty) were allowed to continue trade with Japan in restricted ports.
But finally Kirishitans in west Japan launched a desperate war against the government in Edo (currently Tokyo) in 1637, though their motive was not 100% religious, since these rebellious Kirishitans were actually poor farmers and samurais not hired by samurai seigniors. In this Shimabara Rebellion, a Kirishitan ad-hoc legion more than 30,000 strong stood firmly against about 130,000 samurai-government troops. Battles continued for four months in the Shimabara peninsula in Kyusyu, 1000 km west of Tokyo. Finally the Tokugawa regime killed almost all these insurgents, but it gave a great shock to elite samurais in Edo as 8,000 or so samurais were killed in this civil war. Christianity gave great fighting spirit to those poor farmers and failed samurais who called themselves Kirishitans. Accordingly the samurai government all the more strictly prohibited Christianity. And as time went by, no western missions even tried to land on Japan. Finally no Christians or Kirishitans came to exist on the surface of the Japanese society governed by the elite samurai.
But 70 years after the Shimabara Rebellion, a strange missionary priest sailed from the Philippines to Japan on board a ship tailored for him. Italian Giovanni Sidotti landed on an island in southern Kyusyu in 1708. Though he disguised himself as a Japanese samurai, he was caught out and sent to Edo for trial.
High-ranking samurai politicians in Edo put Sidotti in custody in some premises, but they could not easily decide what to do with him eventually. So, notable samurai Arai Hakuseki, a politician and a Confucian scholar trusted by the shogun, took charge of conducting an investigation into the Sidotti case. Hakuseki asked Sidotti about the essence of his religion.
Sidotti explained, "The universe was created by the God." But Hakuseki gave Sidotti argument, saying, "Then who created the God. If the God had spontaneously emerged, there is no wonder if the universe spontaneously emerged, too. The universe could be created without the God."
Arai Hakuseki further told his opinion, "You said that the God felt pity for mankind, so that He sent His Son to the world to have Him atone for the wrong mankind did. But it sounds so childish."
Finally Hakuseki recommended the samurai government not to execute Sidotti but retain him in custody in the premises without sending him back to overseas. Samurai bureaucrats followed this advise but forbade Sidotti to try to convert any Japanese to Christians.
So, a wife and husband whose deceased parents had been Kirishitans were assigned to a job of taking care of Sidotti in the premises. But they were secretly taught Christian creeds by Sidotti. And seven moths or so later, as they came to be suspected, the Japanese servants confessed their sin, namely becoming Christians, to supervisors. Then the three, Sidotti, the husband, and the wife, were separately put in jails. A few weeks later they all died of illness, probably because conditions of the jails were so bad.
Arai Hakuseki then wrote some books about situations in Europe based on information he got through the trial and conversations with Giovanni Sidotti. These books became a great help for samurais in the late 19th century when they were forced to open the nation as the global situation changed so much due to the Opium War and so on.
Seiyo-Kibun (Hearing about Europe) by Arai Hakuseki
http://twinning.nagaokaut.ac.jp/ud/?p=481
Sidotti explained, "The universe was created by the God." But Hakuseki gave Sidotti argument, saying, "Then who created the God. If the God had spontaneously emerged, there is no wonder if the universe spontaneously emerged, too. The universe could be created without the God."
Arai Hakuseki further told his opinion, "You said that the God felt pity for mankind, so that He sent His Son to the world to have Him atone for the wrong mankind did. But it sounds so childish."
Finally Hakuseki recommended the samurai government not to execute Sidotti but retain him in custody in the premises without sending him back to overseas. Samurai bureaucrats followed this advise but forbade Sidotti to try to convert any Japanese to Christians.
So, a wife and husband whose deceased parents had been Kirishitans were assigned to a job of taking care of Sidotti in the premises. But they were secretly taught Christian creeds by Sidotti. And seven moths or so later, as they came to be suspected, the Japanese servants confessed their sin, namely becoming Christians, to supervisors. Then the three, Sidotti, the husband, and the wife, were separately put in jails. A few weeks later they all died of illness, probably because conditions of the jails were so bad.
Arai Hakuseki then wrote some books about situations in Europe based on information he got through the trial and conversations with Giovanni Sidotti. These books became a great help for samurais in the late 19th century when they were forced to open the nation as the global situation changed so much due to the Opium War and so on.
http://twinning.nagaokaut.ac.jp/ud/?p=481
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Mar 9:3 And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.
Mar 9:4 And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus.