十Christian Japan
Theme

The Christian Lords (Kirishitan Daimyō)

The lords of Ōmura, Bungo, Arima and Takatsuki, the admiral Konishi Yukinaga and the Hosokawa household: who took baptism, what they did for the mission, and what it cost them.

13 pages

Start here

Start with these pages, then explore any part below.

  1. 1Ōmura Sumitada, Dom Bartolomeu (1533 to 1587)The lord of Ōmura, a small domain on Ōmura Bay, who became the first Japanese lord to be baptized (1563)…
  2. 2Ōtomo Sōrin (Don Francisco)The lord of Bungo who welcomed St. Francis Xavier in 1551, protected the missionaries for twenty-seven years…
  3. 3Blessed Justo Takayama Ukon, the Lord Who Gave Up His CastleA samurai lord baptized at twelve who made Takatsuki a Christian town, helped build the seminary at Azuchi…
  4. 4Konishi Yukinaga (Dom Agostinho): Admiral, Protector, and the Block at RokujōA Catholic merchant's son from Sakai (about 1555 to 1600) who rose to be Hideyoshi's admiral and lord of…

Short history

Ōmura Sumitada took the name Bartolomeu at his baptism and became the first Christian lord in Japan123. In 1564, at the age of twelve, Takayama Ukon was baptized at his father's castle of Sawa and given the name Justo45, and in 1573 the young man and his father became lords of Takatsuki, between Kyoto and Osaka46. In Bungo, Francisco Cabral baptized Ōtomo Sōrin and his new wife on August 28, 15787, and the lord took the name Francisco8. Arima Harunobu, in Oliveira e Costa's words, was one of the main supports of the Church for three decades, 1580 to 161112.

When Hideyoshi died in 1598, Konishi Yukinaga was the most powerful Christian daimyō, and he set out to make his domain a Christian land13. Between February 1599 and October 1600 the mission recorded about 70,000 baptisms across Japan, a figure the same historian credits above all to the admiral's "diligent efforts"13. Then he lost everything at Sekigahara141315. Hosokawa Gracia, daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide16, had her ladies-in-waiting go to the church and be baptized17.

The end came hard. In 1612, exiled in the mountains of Kai, Harunobu answered the officers sent to put him to death that suicide was forbidden to Christians18. The same year in Kanazawa, Ukon told the lord of Kaga, who urged him to give up his faith, that he held the one truth and that at his age a man did not change19.

01

Ōmura

2 pages
LifeŌmura Sumitada, Dom Bartolomeu (1533 to 1587)The lord of Ōmura, a small domain on Ōmura Bay, who became the first Japanese lord to be baptized…PlaceŌmura: The First-Born of the FaithŌmura, a small domain in Hizen beside Nagasaki, became the first wholly Christian state in Japan under…
02

Bungo and the Ōtomo

5 pages
LifeŌtomo Sōrin (Don Francisco)The lord of Bungo who welcomed St. Francis Xavier in 1551, protected the missionaries for twenty-seven…LifeŌtomo Yoshimune: The Lord of Bungo Who Fell and RepentedŌtomo Yoshimune, son and heir of Ōtomo Sōrin, was baptized Constantine in 1587, turned persecutor within…LifeJusta, daughter of Ōtomo SōrinJusta was the eldest daughter of the Christian lord Ōtomo Sōrin. She was baptized in the early 1580s…PlaceBungo: The Ōtomo Domain and Its ChristiansBungo, the domain of the Ōtomo, was the Jesuits' base from 1556 to 1562 and home to one of Japan's…PlaceFunai and the Ōtomo, ŌitaIn 1551 a young lord of twenty-one invited Francis Xavier to his capital on the Bungo coast.…
03

Arima

1 page
LifeArima Harunobu (Dom João Protásio)The Christian lord of Arima in Shimabara (1567 to 1612) who was baptized by Valignano, gave the Jesuits…
04

Takayama Ukon

3 pages
LifeBlessed Justo Takayama Ukon, the Lord Who Gave Up His CastleA samurai lord baptized at twelve who made Takatsuki a Christian town, helped build the seminary at…PlaceTakatsuki: Blessed Justo Takayama Ukon's Christian Castle TownUnder two metres of Edo-period earth beside a shrine in Takatsuki, archaeologists found the graves of a…PlaceKanazawa: Justo Takayama Ukon's Twenty-Six Years in KagaBeside the bronze statue of Ukon at Kanazawa's Catholic church lies a garden stone of good Tomuro…
05

Konishi and the Hosokawa household

2 pages
LifeKonishi Yukinaga (Dom Agostinho): Admiral, Protector, and the Block at RokujōA Catholic merchant's son from Sakai (about 1555 to 1600) who rose to be Hideyoshi's admiral and lord of…LifeHosokawa Gracia (1563 to 1600): The Lady of TangoAkechi Mitsuhide's daughter Tama, wife of the daimyo Hosokawa Tadaoki, was baptized secretly by her…
Sources

Footnotes

  1. 1 Ōmura City, "大村純忠終焉の居館跡（大村純忠史跡公園）【市指定史跡】" (updated March 7, 2024). https://www.city.omura.nagasaki.jp/kankou/kanko/spot/rekishi/shiseki/sumitadashisekikoen.html (checked October 19, 2026) (from people/omura-sumitada, note 2)
  2. 2 Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Commentary Database, "Yokoseura Park" (R2-00477, 2020). https://www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db/en/R2-00477.html (checked October 19, 2026) (from people/omura-sumitada, note 5)
  3. 3 Nagasaki Prefecture, Cultural Properties Database, "南蛮船来航の地" (prefectural historic site, designated January 17, 1941). https://www.pref.nagasaki.jp/bunkadb/index.php/view/35 (checked October 19, 2026) (from people/omura-sumitada, note 7)
  4. 4 Takatsuki City Tourism Association, "高山右近を訪ねて". https://www.takatsuki-kankou.org/takayama-ukon/ (checked October 19, 2026) (from people/takayama-ukon, note 1)
  5. 5 Kanazawa Catholic Church, "金沢市内にある キリシタン大名 高山右近にゆかりの地のご案内". https://church-kanazawa.sakura.ne.jp/ukon/relatedplace.html (checked October 19, 2026) (from people/takayama-ukon, note 2)
  6. 6 Takatsuki City, History and Cultural Properties Office, "高槻城跡". https://www.city.takatsuki.osaka.jp/site/history/4558.html (checked October 19, 2026) (from people/takayama-ukon, note 3)
  7. 7 James Murdoch, A History of Japan, vol. 2 (1903), pp. 58 to 61, 75, 102 to 108, 113 to 116, 222 to 225. Used for dated facts; his own judgements are not used. (from people/otomo-sorin, note 4)
  8. 8 Kotobank, 大友宗麟: デジタル大辞泉; 精選版 日本国語大辞典; 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), Akutagawa Tatsuo; 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, Kimura Tadao; 百科事典マイペディア; 山川 日本史小辞典; ブリタニカ国際大百科事典; 講談社 日本人名大辞典+Plus. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A4%A7%E5%8F%8B%E5%AE%97%E9%BA%9F (from people/otomo-sorin, note 1)
  9. 12 João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, "Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Christian Daimyó during the Crisis of 1600," Bulletin of Portuguese-Japanese Studies 7 (2003): 45 to 71, note 58 and pp. 63 to 64. http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=36100703 . (from people/arima-harunobu, note 3)
  10. 13 João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, "Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Christian Daimyó during the Crisis of 1600," Bulletin of Portuguese-Japanese Studies 7 (2003): 45 to 71, including note 40 (biography of Konishi) and the annual letter of October 25, 1600. http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=36100703 . (from people/konishi-yukinaga, note 1)
  11. 14 City of Uto: "小西行長" https://www.city.uto.lg.jp/article/view/1101/1792.html ; "宇土城跡" https://www.city.uto.lg.jp/article/view/1102/1805.html ; Uto City Museum, "宇土城跡（城山）" https://www.city.uto.lg.jp/museum/article/view/46/305.html and tour report https://www.city.uto.lg.jp/museum/article/view/7/358.html (all checked October 20, 2026, via search extracts). (from people/konishi-yukinaga, note 5)
  12. 15 Kotobank, "小西行長": 日本大百科全書 Nipponica (by Matsuda Kiichi, 2018), 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (Heibonsha, by Tani Naoki), 山川 日本史小辞典, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典, 百科事典マイペディア, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus (Kodansha). https://kotobank.jp/word/小西行長 (checked October 20, 2026) (from people/konishi-yukinaga, note 2)
  13. 16 Kotobank, "細川ガラシャ": Matsuda Kiichi in Nihon Daihyakka Zensho (Nipponica) (Shogakukan, 2018); Digital Daijisen; Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten; Britannica Kokusai Daihyakka Jiten; Hyakka Jiten Mypedia (Heibonsha). https://kotobank.jp/word/細川ガラシャ (checked October 20, 2026) (from people/hosokawa-gracia, note 1)
  14. 17 Takagi Yōtarō, "細川ガラシャ," Kaitei shinpan Sekai Daihyakka Jiten (Heibonsha), via Kotobank (same page). (from people/hosokawa-gracia, note 2)
  15. 18 Léon Pagès, Histoire de la religion chrétienne au Japon depuis 1598 jusqu'à 1651, part 1 (Paris, 1869), pp. 114 to 115 (Arima in 1605), pp. 185 and 193 to 194 (1610 to 1611: the hospital, the Madre de Deus order, the Okamoto intrigue), pp. 197 to 198 (Arima college, 1611), pp. 207 to 209 (exile and death) and pp. 213 to 215 (Michel and the persecution in Arima), citing the annual letters of 1611 and 1612 and Cerqueira's letter of October 26, 1613. Archive.org histoiredelarel02paggoog (from people/arima-harunobu, note 5)
  16. 19 Louis Charles Profillet, Le martyrologe de l'Église du Japon, 1549 to 1649, vol. 3 (Paris), "Les pieux", entry "Oucondono, Juste", pp. 256 to 261, https://archive.org/details/lemartyrologedel03prof (from sites/ukon-kanazawa, note 6)

Image credits

  • No images on this page yet.