Heir of the Ōtomo
Ōtomo Yoshimune (大友義統) was the eldest son and heir of Ōtomo Sōrin (大友宗麟), the lord of Bungo whom the missionaries called Don Francisco.He was born about 1558.As early as 1562 Almeida (アルメイダ) praised the boy, then five years old.
In 1576, it is said, he ordered a debate between a Christian and the opponents of Christianity and declared the Christian the winner.In 1578 he asked Brother Juan de Torres to instruct him and his wife, and questioned him about the soul, its immortality and the creation of the angels.He spent whole nights until dawn at Usuki (臼杵) listening to Luís Fróis (フロイス), who was attached to him to guide his progress.Offered the baptismal name of King João III of Portugal, he declined it as vain and asked only for the name of a saint.
As a catechumen the prince had statues of the kami and Buddhas destroyed, temples razed and monasteries closed, and gave their revenues to young vassals, claiming to imitate Nobunaga (信長).According to one account, he also refused the customary Ōtomo alms to the Kumano (熊野) yamabushi and the Hachiman procession at Funai (府内).When news came that Nobeoka (延岡) had been taken, he dismounted, knelt and thanked God, and sent word to the Jesuits that the victory came through their prayers.
Pulled two ways
After Sōrin abdicated in his favour, the heir wavered for years, pressed by his mother, known in the mission sources as Jezebel, to favour the Buddhists.When Fróis had everything ready to baptize the young princess, the mother won at the last moment, and the priest had to be content with a sung Mass in the new palace chapel.
After a heavy defeat in war, the young king at first wrote that it changed nothing and wore his rosary openly.Then a leading baron of Hizen (肥前), prompted by bonzes, warned him that the gods he had insulted were making war on him.The prince publicly swore by the gods and signed a pledge to restore the bonzes, the kami and the Buddhas, their festivals and their temples.Through 1579 he never touched the Fathers' church, and he secretly sent word that he was still a Christian at heart.In 1580 Tachibana Dōsetsu (立花道雪) wrote to thirteen of the young lord's senior retainers condemning the destruction of temples, insisting that "Japan is the land of the kami".
It is said that Sōrin fell ill with sorrow and foretold that the kingdom of Bungo and the family that had ruled it for nearly 500 years would end with this son.The old lord refused to receive his son, daughter-in-law and their baby until the Fathers pleaded for them, and said he would not count him a son until he saw him a Christian.
In 1584, after his father rebuked him for trusting a sorcerer bonze, the prince banished the man and declared everyone free to become Christian.He made exceptions, though: his councillors, governors, principal barons and some close courtiers.
War and baptism
In 1586, with the young king back in power and neighbours leagued against Bungo, the army of Satsuma (薩摩) struck.Pagan lords would not fight unless he swore by the kami to restore the old worship, and he took the oath.It did not help: the Satsuma forces drove him from city to city.After Funai fell he fled to Nakatsu (中津) in Buzen (豊前), where Kuroda (黒田) urged him to become a Christian.Hideyoshi (秀吉) had sent an army under this Christian commander to restore him.
On April 27, 1587, Pedro Gomez baptized him with the name Constantine.His wife, three children and several retainers were baptized with him.The missionaries chose the name in the hope that he would lead Japanese Christianity as his namesake, the emperor, had done.He was baptized before his father died, so that the succession would not pass to a pagan heir.
Apostasy and persecution
About two months after his baptism, when Hideyoshi's decree of 1587 began the persecution, Constantine apostatized and took back his old name.He later pleaded that he had been a Christian only two months when the persecution began, just after his father's death, and that fear of losing his kingdom had overcome him.His uncle Cicatondono, who resented Sōrin's repudiation of his sister, persuaded him to expel the missionaries and to make all his subjects swear Hideyoshi's oath of fealty on the kami and Buddhas.He wore a small idol at his neck as a sign of apostasy, and back in Bungo he built temples and instituted public festivals for the idols.
The young lord was the only feudal lord who actively persecuted Christians after the edict.In 1588 or 1589 two catechists were killed at Funai and Notsu (野津) by his order.The old Christian Joram (Jean Nakama) was crucified, and Joachim Nimura was lured into a forest and killed.Suspecting his brother Sebastian of siding with Satsuma, the king stripped him of his goods and left him to die in misery.
His stepmother Julia, the first ordered to wear the idol, refused outright.His sister Maxentia warned him that it was strange for Sōrin's son to be the first to shed Christian blood.A noble lady faced him with a rosary at her neck and said that he himself had given it to her: "I show my appreciation of your gift by wearing it where all may see it."Summoned to Osaka (大坂), he appeared with his idol, and Hideyoshi received him badly while honouring the Christian lords of Arima (有馬) and Ōmura (大村), who wore gold crosses.
Penitent and dispossessed
Constantine came to regret his persecution and wrote asking forgiveness for his great sin.At Murotsu (室津) in 1591 he came to Valignano (ヴァリニャーノ) "more in the character of a penitent than of a prince".His cousin Mancio Itō (伊東マンショ), who had brought him the Pope's letters and gifts, at first refused even to see him, then had Francesco Pasio plead his case.After a public confession, Valignano received him back into the Church, for his father's merits and the good of the Christians of Bungo.He promised that if the persecution went on he would keep at least four Fathers hidden in the domain.
In Korea, holding the two forts nearest Pyongyang, he abandoned them in panic in February 1593, leaving the retreating army of Konishi (小西) without troops or supplies.Hideyoshi took away his domain and ordered him to live at the court of Mōri (毛利), with only five servants.The once princely family had to be supported in part by the alms of the Christians of Nagasaki (長崎).Believing that the gods had taken his kingdom because he was baptized, the fallen lord now turned to the temples, making vows and collecting relics.
Last battle, exile and penance
In 1600 Mōri sent him into Bungo to raise his old vassals for the Western cause.He went into battle against Kuroda Josui (黒田如水) with a brocade bag on his breastplate full of idol images, prayers and relics.With about 4,000 men against 8,000, he lost nearly all his troops at the first clash and was captured.He was sentenced to death, but Kuroda's intercession changed the sentence to exile.
At Nakatsu a Jesuit who knew him visited him, and after a catechist had instructed him for seven or eight days he made a general confession.He was then sent into perpetual exile in Dewa (出羽), on the far frontier of Japan, where he long persevered.When the lord of that land was deposed, the exile fell into poverty and lived on the alms of the Jesuits and other Christians.
In his last years he fasted, took the discipline and wore a rough cord and a hair shirt next to his skin.Weakened, he died of a fever in 1605, receiving all the sacraments, and was held up across Japan as a model of royal penance.His fall and return later inspired school plays in Neuburg in 1715, Eichstätt in 1724 and Lucerne in 1728.
What is uncertain
Where the sources disagree
- Where he died. Solier and Charlevoix place his death at Nagasaki, Anesaki's chronology (from Pagès) and Pagès place it in exile at Akita in Dewa, and Roggendorf says Kyoto; Cary says only that he was allowed to live in Kyoto, helped by Organtino, and died in 1605.
- His exile after 1593 and after 1600. Charlevoix has him sent to Mōri's court in 1593, Murdoch has him living in Mōri's domains in 1600, and Solier has him confined at Meaco; Caddell says he was exiled to the court of Satsuma, which other sources do not support; after 1600 Solier and Charlevoix send him to Dewa, while Pagès has Miyako first and then Akita.
- When he was baptized. almost all sources give April 27, 1587, but Pagès says he had been baptized as a child.
- His age. González-Bolado gives 1558 as his birth year, but Bartoli calls him twenty-two when he was hearing Fróis at Usuki.
- When he returned to the faith after 1600. Solier describes a general confession at Nakatsu in 1600, while Anesaki's chronology (from Pagès) dates his return to 1601.
- The death of his brother Sebastian. Caddell speaks of a "too probable suspicion of fratricide", but the charge is not supported by standard accounts; Charlevoix calls him in a way the murderer of his own brother, and Profillet says only that he stripped Sebastian of his goods and reduced him to misery.
- The catechists' deaths. Anesaki lists Joran (Jean) Nakama and Joachim Nimura under 1588; Bouix dates the crucifixion of the old Christian "Joram" to September 27, 1589; Profillet calls the second man Joachim of Nocen, an oratory keeper who baptized more than thirty people, and dates his death to August 1589, a few days after "Joram Makama".
- The uncle who steered him against the Christians is named differently. Charlevoix calls him Cicatondono (Tawara), Bartoli "Gicacata", Murdoch Tawara Tsugitada ("Cicata").
- How sincere he was. Bartoli doubts whether truth or reasons of state led him to baptism and calls his repentance poor; Charlevoix calls him weak-minded rather than corrupt; Caddell says he stayed steady in the Church after 1591.
- Profillet's story of Paul Shiga refusing an oath by the kami, which Yoshimune then dropped, is dated to 1588 and is flagged as containing a date error.
- The 1576 debate and the 1578 refusal of Ōtomo patronage come from a fact marked as uncertain or resting on tradition.