十Christian Japan
Theme

The Rulers and the Church: From Nobunaga to Iemitsu

How the lords and unifiers of Japan received, used, tolerated and finally banned the Church, from Xavier's audience in Satsuma to the closed country.

10 pages

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Start with these pages, then explore any part below.

  1. 1Oda Nobunaga and the Church: The Warlord Who Opened the CapitalThe warlord who began the unification of Japan (1534 to 1582) never became a Christian, but for thirteen…
  2. 2Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537? to 1598)The soldier of humble birth who united Japan first welcomed the Jesuits at Osaka Castle, then ordered them…
  3. 3Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Church: Years of Toleration, Then the BanThe founder of the Tokugawa shogunate (1543 to 1616) tolerated the missionaries for more than a decade after…
  4. 4Nationwide Ban and Expulsion, 1614On October 15, 1614, the Dominican friars of Nagasaki consumed the last of the Blessed Sacrament in their…

Short history

On September 29, 1549, Shimazu Takahisa, lord of Satsuma, received Francis Xavier12. In March 1569 Wada Koremasa presented Luís Fróis to Oda Nobunaga in Kyoto3, and the Jesuit told the warlord that if only one Christian were left in Japan he would stay to teach him4.

On May 4, 1586, Toyotomi Hideyoshi received the head of the Jesuit mission, Gaspar Coelho, at Osaka Castle and promised with a laugh that he would leave Nagasaki to the Church5. The next year his officers had the town's bastions torn down and ended the Jesuits' lordship there5. The edict of 1587 was never revoked, but after the Taikō's death in 1598 no one enforced it6. In 1602 Tokugawa Ieyasu reaffirmed a prohibition on noblemen embracing Christianity, even while allowing much missionary activity to continue7.

In the eighth month of 1616 the second shogun, Hidetada, ordered that the ban be enforced down to the level of the farmers9. In the north, Date Masamune did not put the law of 1614 into effect until 162010, when, under pressure from Edo, he turned against the Christians11. After the Jesuit Provincial was arrested at Kuchinotsu in 1625, Matsukura Shigemasa ordered strict enforcement in Shimabara12. Iemitsu, the Kodansha dictionary says, tightened the control of Christians and of trade after the Shimabara rising and "completed the closed country"13.

01

The first lords

2 pages
LifeOda Nobunaga and the Church: The Warlord Who Opened the CapitalThe warlord who began the unification of Japan (1534 to 1582) never became a Christian, but for thirteen…LifeShimazu TakahisaShimazu Takahisa (1514 to 1571), the lord who reunited the Shimazu house and laid the foundations of its…
02

Hideyoshi

2 pages
LifeToyotomi Hideyoshi (1537? to 1598)The soldier of humble birth who united Japan first welcomed the Jesuits at Osaka Castle, then ordered…EventHideyoshi's Expulsion Edict, 1587At Hakozaki on Tenshō 15.6.19 (July 24, 1587) Toyotomi Hideyoshi declared Japan "the land of the gods"…
03

The Tokugawa shoguns

4 pages
LifeTokugawa Ieyasu and the Church: Years of Toleration, Then the BanThe founder of the Tokugawa shogunate (1543 to 1616) tolerated the missionaries for more than a decade…LifeTokugawa HidetadaTokugawa Hidetada (1579 to 1632), the second Tokugawa shogun, remembered as a dutiful son who kept his…LifeTokugawa Iemitsu (1604 to 1651): The Shogun of the Closed CountryThe third Tokugawa shogun, whose reign opened with the burning of fifty Christians in Edo in 1623 and…EventNationwide Ban and Expulsion, 1614On October 15, 1614, the Dominican friars of Nagasaki consumed the last of the Blessed Sacrament in…
04

Lords under the shogunate

2 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…LifeMatsukura Shigemasa: Lord of ShimabaraMatsukura Shigemasa, lord of Shimabara and Arima from about 1616 until his death in 1630, at first…
Sources

Footnotes

  1. 1 Georg Schurhammer SJ, St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle of India and Japan, trans. F. J. Eble (St. Louis: Herder, 1928), ch. XXX "Kagoshima", pp. 210 to 217. (from people/shimazu-takahisa, note 6)
  2. 2 Kadota Akira, 「ザビエルと島津貴久」 (鹿児島とキリスト教 11), Kagoshima Catholic diocesan bulletin, March 2007. https://kagoshima-catholic.jp/kagoshima-and-christianity/696.html/ (checked October 20, 2026) (from people/shimazu-takahisa, note 8)
  3. 3 Hubert Cieslik SJ, "Father Louis Frois: Historian of the Mission," Early Missionaries in Japan 4, digital edition by Francis Britto SJ (Jesuits of Japan), from Britto's All about Francis Xavier. (from people/oda-nobunaga, note 1)
  4. 4 James Murdoch, A History of Japan, vol. 2 (Kobe, 1903), ch. "The Jesuits, the Bonzes, and Nobunaga," pp. 155 to 158. Used for Fróis's reported words; Murdoch's judgements attributed. (from people/oda-nobunaga, note 6)
  5. 5 Reinier H. Hesselink, The Dream of Christian Nagasaki (McFarland, 2016), timeline (1585 to 1598 entries) and the chapters on Coelho, the 1587 edict and its aftermath, quoting Fróis and the Jesuit letters. (no page numbers in the text copy). (from people/toyotomi-hideyoshi, note 1)
  6. 6 João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, "Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Christian Daimyó during the Crisis of 1600," Bulletin of Portuguese-Japanese Studies 7 (Dec 2003): 45 to 71, quoting ARSI Jap-Sin letters of Peres, Pasio, Valignano and Cerqueira and the annual letter of October 25, 1600. http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=36100703 . (from people/tokugawa-ieyasu, note 1)
  7. 7 Solier tome 2, p. 251 (from people/tokugawa-ieyasu, note 32)
  8. 9 Kotobank, キリシタン禁制: Heibonsha Sekai Daihyakka (old ed.), from its article 鎖国. https://kotobank.jp/word/キリシタン禁制 (checked October 20, 2026) (from people/tokugawa-hidetada, note 8)
  9. 10 Morris thesis, p. 132 & n. 587 (from people/date-masamune, note 6)
  10. 11 Murdoch 1903, p. 607 (from people/date-masamune, note 7)
  11. 12 Murdoch 1903, p. 647 (from people/matsukura-shigemasa, note 5)
  12. 13 Kotobank, "徳川家光": Takagi Shōsaku in Nihon Daihyakka Zensho (Nipponica); Asao Naohiro in Kaitei shinpan Sekai Daihyakka Jiten (Heibonsha); Digital Daijisen; Digital-ban Nihon Jinmei Daijiten+Plus (Kodansha); Yamakawa Nihonshi Shōjiten. https://kotobank.jp/word/徳川家光 (checked October 20, 2026) (from people/tokugawa-iemitsu, note 1)

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