十Christian Japan
Theme

Christians of the North: Tōhoku and Ezo

The Christians of Sendai, Mizusawa, Akita, Yonezawa, Tsugaru and Ezo, their missionaries and their martyrs.

12 pages

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  1. 1Date Masamune: The Lord of Sendai and the ChristiansDate Masamune was the powerful daimyo of Sendai who welcomed Franciscan missionaries and sent an embassy to…
  2. 2Fukuhara, Mizusawa: Gotō Juan and the Canal That Bears His NameWater still runs through the rice fields of the Isawa plain in a canal called Juan-zeki, said to be the only…
  3. 3Blessed Jerónimo de Angelis SJ: Apostle of the NorthA Sicilian Jesuit who reached Japan in 1602, carried the Gospel through the northern provinces, became the…
  4. 4The Tsugaru Exiles: Christians Banished to the Far NorthIn 1614 about seventy noble Christians of Kyoto and Osaka chose exile in far northern Tsugaru over giving up…

Short history

In 1613 Date Masamune, lord of Ōshū, sent an embassy to the king of Spain and to Pope Paul V1. He did not put the shogunate's law of 1614 into effect in his domain2. That year about seventy noble Christians of Kyoto and Osaka were banished to Tsugaru, at the far northern end of Japan345. Under Gotō Juan his lands at Mizusawa were entirely Christian, and the Jesuits made them the center of their mission in the north6. From there the priests went out to Tsugaru, Akita, Nanbu, Mogami and Yonezawa7. The Sicilian Jesuit Jerónimo de Angelis became the first missionary to cross from Japan to Ezo8910, and in 1620 Diogo de Carvalho said the first Mass ever offered in Hokkaido11. At Yonezawa, Uesugi Kagekatsu esteemed Christianity and never persecuted12.

The peace ended in stages. In 1620, under pressure from Edo, Masamune turned against the Christians13. In January 1624, given a pointed hint by the shogun Iemitsu, the lord of Sendai ordered them hunted down11. In Akita, on February 9, 1624, two men, John and Louis, were beheaded for the faith at Kubota14. On December 22, 1628, Kagekatsu's successor at Yonezawa gave a written order to kill all who followed "the law of Yémoné"15. After the Shimabara rising, from 1639, Christians were hunted everywhere16, and in Ezo 106 died17.

01

Sendai and Mizusawa

6 pages
LifeDate Masamune: The Lord of Sendai and the ChristiansDate Masamune was the powerful daimyo of Sendai who welcomed Franciscan missionaries and sent an embassy…EventThe Keichō Embassy: Hasekura Tsunenaga's Journey to Spain and RomeIn 1613 Date Masamune, lord of Sendai, sent his retainer Hasekura Tsunenaga and the Franciscan Luis…LifeBlessed Luis Sotelo: Franciscan, Ambassador and MartyrA Franciscan friar from Seville who worked in Japan from the early 1600s, led Date Masamune's embassy to…PlaceHirose River, Sendai: Blessed Diogo Carvalho and the Martyrs in the WaterIn February 1624, as snow fell on Sendai, nine Christians were tied to stakes in a pool of freezing…PlaceFukuhara, Mizusawa: Gotō Juan and the Canal That Bears His NameWater still runs through the rice fields of the Isawa plain in a canal called Juan-zeki, said to be the…PlaceKurusuba Bridge, MizusawaLocal tradition holds that Blessed Petro Kasui Kibe was arrested on this bridge, beside the Kurusuba…
02

The missionaries of the north

2 pages
LifeDiogo de Carvalho SJ: Apostle of the North and Martyr of SendaiDiogo de Carvalho, a Portuguese Jesuit from Coimbra, helped found the Cochinchina mission, said the…LifeBlessed Jerónimo de Angelis SJ: Apostle of the NorthA Sicilian Jesuit who reached Japan in 1602, carried the Gospel through the northern provinces, became…
03

Exiles and martyrs

4 pages
EventThe Akita Martyrs: Kubota and Senboku, 1624In 1624 the lord of Akita in northern Japan turned against the Christians of his domain, and more than a…EventThe Tsugaru Exiles: Christians Banished to the Far NorthIn 1614 about seventy noble Christians of Kyoto and Osaka chose exile in far northern Tsugaru over…EventThe Yonezawa Martyrdom of 1629In January 1629, in the snows of Yonezawa in Dewa, the lord's vassals Louis Amakasu Uemon and Paul…EventSengendake and the Martyrs of Ezo, 1639In the gold fields of the far north, where Christians fleeing persecution had gone to dig for gold, the…
Sources

Footnotes

  1. 1 Profillet v1, p. 321 (from articles/keicho-embassy, note 1)
  2. 2 Morris thesis, p. 132 & n. 587 (from people/date-masamune, note 6)
  3. 3 Morris thesis, p. 132 (from articles/tsugaru-exiles, note 1)
  4. 4 Bartoli C (Libro 3), p. 407 (from articles/tsugaru-exiles, note 2)
  5. 5 Bartoli C (Libro 3), p. 409 (from articles/tsugaru-exiles, note 3)
  6. 6 Hubert Cieslik SJ, "Father Diego Carvalho (1578 to 1624), a Sendai Martyr," Early Jesuit Missionaries in Japan 9, reprinted in Francis Britto, All about Francis Xavier (Sophia University).pdf (from sites/mizusawa-juan, note 5)
  7. 7 Yamaguchi Yōichi, "日本キリスト教史における東北," 聖学院大学総合研究所紀要 54 (2013): 116 to 127, https://serve.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/1414/files/4327.pdf (from sites/mizusawa-juan, note 7)
  8. 8 Profillet v1, p. 210 (from people/jeronimo-de-angelis, note 1)
  9. 9 Boero 1869, p. 106 (from people/jeronimo-de-angelis, note 2)
  10. 10 Boero 1862, p. 176 (from people/jeronimo-de-angelis, note 3)
  11. 11 Hubert Cieslik SJ, "Father Diego Carvalho (1578 to 1624), a Sendai Martyr," Early Jesuit Missionaries in Japan 9, reprinted in Francis Britto, All about Francis Xavier (Sophia University).pdf (from sites/sendai-hirosegawa, note 4)
  12. 12 Charlevoix 1828 v2, p. 387 (from articles/yonezawa-martyrs-1629, note 10)
  13. 13 Murdoch 1903, p. 607 (from people/date-masamune, note 7)
  14. 14 Bartoli A (Libro 4), p. 312 (from articles/akita-martyrs, note 22)
  15. 15 Profillet v2, p. 546 (from articles/yonezawa-martyrs-1629, note 20)
  16. 16 葉葉 (Yōyō), "蝦夷キリシタン: 106名の殉教者をしのぶ千軒岳巡礼", 祝祭の日 (2020, revised 2025), expanded from 聖母の騎士, July 2009, "蝦夷キリシタンの殉教から370年". Quotes Carvalho's and Angelis's letters from H. Cieslik, ed., 北方探検記. https://syukusai.com/christan-history-ezo-christan/ (checked October 20, 2026) (from articles/sengendake-martyrs-1639, note 1)
  17. 17 Sapporo City Central Library, 新札幌市史デジタルアーカイブ, timeline, entries for 1618, 1620, 1621 and 1639. https://adeac.jp/sapporo-lib/timeline/tm000001 (checked October 20, 2026) (from articles/sengendake-martyrs-1639, note 2)

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