十Christian Japan
Place

The Lost Churches of Japan

The churches, chapels and seminaries of the first mission, almost all destroyed under the ban, region by region.

8 pages

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  1. 1The Lost Churches of NagasakiBefore 1614 Nagasaki had about fifteen churches and chapels, almost all purpose-built; between 1614 and 1620…
  2. 2The Nanbanji: The Jesuit Church of the Assumption in KyotoThe Nanbanji was the three-storey Jesuit church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Kyoto, built by Christians…
  3. 3Santo Domingo Church Site, NagasakiUnder a primary school in the middle of Nagasaki lies the floor of a church that stood for only five years.…
  4. 4Funai and the Ōtomo, ŌitaIn 1551 a young lord of twenty-one invited Francis Xavier to his capital on the Bungo coast. Twenty-seven…

Short history

In Bungo a church known as the Deus-dō was built at Funai in 15531. The first Jesuit church in Kyoto was a house that Fr Gaspar Vilela began to use about 1560234. At Yokoseura, under the agreement concluded with Fr Cosme de Torres in July 1562, Ōmura Sumitada allowed Christianity to be preached and a church to be built5. In May 1580 Oda Nobunaga granted a site beside his castle at Azuchi for a church67.

By 1614 Nagasaki had about fifteen churches and chapels, most of them built by the Jesuits89. The great Jesuit church on the Morisaki point was enlarged four or five times into the largest church of premodern Japan10. Between 1614 and 1620 all of them were pulled down111213. The Dominican church of Santo Domingo was levelled with the church of St Peter between November 12 and 14, 16141415, and in 1619 the magistrate Suetsugu Heizō built his residence on its ground161718. Santa Clara at Urakami survived 1614 but was pulled down in the second wave from late 161919.

Little is left to go on. No floor plans or drawings of the Nagasaki churches have been found, and the only pictures are on folding screens20. Nobody knows exactly where the Arima seminary stood21. Yet more than two centuries after Santa Clara was destroyed, the Christians of Urakami still remembered it2223.

01

Nagasaki

3 pages
ThemeThe Lost Churches of NagasakiBefore 1614 Nagasaki had about fifteen churches and chapels, almost all purpose-built; between 1614 and…PlaceSanto Domingo Church Site, NagasakiUnder a primary school in the middle of Nagasaki lies the floor of a church that stood for only five…PlaceSanta Clara Church, UrakamiSanta Clara was the church of the Urakami villages near Nagasaki from 1603 until it was destroyed around…
02

Kyoto and the capital region

2 pages
PlaceThe Nanbanji: The Jesuit Church of the Assumption in KyotoThe Nanbanji was the three-storey Jesuit church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Kyoto, built by…PlaceThe Azuchi Seminary, Japan's First Christian School in the Capital RegionBeneath Oda Nobunaga's castle on Lake Biwa, an Italian Jesuit built a three-story school roofed in the…
03

Smaller regions: Bungo, Ōmura and Arima

3 pages
PlaceFunai and the Ōtomo, ŌitaIn 1551 a young lord of twenty-one invited Francis Xavier to his capital on the Bungo coast.…PlaceYokoseuraYokoseura was the Portuguese trading port that replaced Hirado.PlaceThe Arima seminaryIn 1580, under the protection of Arima Harunobu, Alessandro Valignano opened at Arima on the Shimabara…
Sources

Footnotes

  1. 1 Ōita City, "大友宗麟とその時代" (Ōtomo Sōrin promotion), https://www.city.oita.oita.jp/o157/bunkasports/citypromotion/1369370791117.html (checked October 19, 2026) Date: Tenshō 15.5.23 = June 28, 1587 (NAOJ calendar database). (from sites/oita-funai, note 1)
  2. 2 Elison 1973 Deus Destroyed, p. 479 (from articles/nanbanji-kyoto, note 1)
  3. 3 Cieslik n.d. Soldo Organtino: The Architect of the Japanese Mission, PDF 41 (from articles/nanbanji-kyoto, note 2)
  4. 4 Arimura 2014, Catholic Architecture, p. 65 (from articles/nanbanji-kyoto, note 3)
  5. 5 City of Nagasaki, Nagazine, "長崎から世界の宝へ: 長崎の教会群とキリスト教関連遺産の世界遺産登録を目指して", page 1 of 3, keyword 2 ("大村純忠"). https://www.city.nagasaki.lg.jp/nagazine/hakken1204/index.html. Our translation. (from sites/yokoseura, note 1)
  6. 6 Site plaques "セミナリヨの由来" and "安土セミナリヨと三木パウロ" (stone dated May 31, 1981), as transcribed by Kojodan, "セミナリヨ跡 | 安土城のガイド". https://kojodan.jp/castle/19/memo/1233.html (checked October 20, 2026) (from articles/azuchi-seminary, note 1)
  7. 7 Hubert Cieslik SJ, "Alessandro Valignano: Pioneer in Adaptation", Early Missionaries in Japan 5, in Francis Britto, All about Francis Xavier. (from articles/azuchi-seminary, note 3)
  8. 8 Hesselink 2016 (complete), p. 149 (from articles/nagasaki-lost-churches, note 1)
  9. 9 Vieira thesis, p. 39 (from articles/nagasaki-lost-churches, note 2)
  10. 10 Hesselink 2016, PDF p. 74 (from articles/nagasaki-lost-churches, note 3)
  11. 11 Tronu thesis, p. 224 (from articles/nagasaki-lost-churches, note 22)
  12. 12 Tronu thesis, p. 226-227 (from articles/nagasaki-lost-churches, note 17)
  13. 13 Cooper (ed.) 1965 They Came to Japan, p. 388 (from articles/nagasaki-lost-churches, note 23)
  14. 14 Vieira thesis, p. 166 n. 4 (from sites/santo-domingo, note 22)
  15. 15 Ávila Girón, cap. 18.7 (from sites/santo-domingo, note 23)
  16. 16 Nagasaki Prefecture, おらしょ こころ旅, "サント・ドミンゴ教会跡" (asset page, glossary, access, address), https://oratio.jp/p_resource/santo-domingokyokai (from sites/santo-domingo, note 1)
  17. 17 Nagasaki City, Nagazine, "発見！長崎の遺跡" part 2, "勝山町遺跡　江戸初期、ここには教会があった！," https://www.city.nagasaki.lg.jp/nagazine/hakken0504/index2.html (checked October 19, 2026) (from sites/santo-domingo, note 3)
  18. 18 Carla Tronu Montane, Sacred Space and Ritual in Early Modern Japan: The Christian Community of Nagasaki (1569 to 1643), PhD thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2012, http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/13820. Tronu dates the dismantling to 1615. (from sites/santo-domingo, note 6)
  19. 19 Hesselink 2016 (complete), p. 186 (from articles/santa-clara-urakami, note 3)
  20. 20 Vieira thesis, p. 3 (from articles/nagasaki-lost-churches, note 21)
  21. 21 Japan Tourism Agency multilingual commentary database, R2-00437, "Site of the Arima Seminary" (2020, Nagasaki and Amakusa heritage committee). https://www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db/R2-00437.html (checked October 20, 2026) (from articles/arima-seminary, note 1)
  22. 22 Spinola 1868, p. 24 (from articles/santa-clara-urakami, note 4)
  23. 23 Marnas 1897 vol. 1, p. 522 (from articles/santa-clara-urakami, note 5)

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