What happened here
The Kuwahime-sha is a small shrine to a Christian woman, standing in the grounds of Fuchi Shrine in . It began with the Shiga family, headmen of Fuchi village, who had come from Bungo. Since Christian graves were forbidden, they set up a small natural-stone mound in a corner of the headman's house. It was moved in the Meiji period and, in 1936, into the grounds of Fuchi Shrine, where it stands as the Kuwahime-sha.The Shiga family records give the woman's date of death in three places: the family genealogy, a "Tennyo-byō" stele of Bunsei 12 (1829), and a stone shrine of Meiji 33 (1900).
Who she was is Disputed.
- Miyamoto Tsugito identifies her as , the eldest daughter of . She died in Nagasaki on Kan'ei 4.8.7 (September 16, 1627), attended by the Shiga family.
- An older view, set out by Kataoka Yakichi in 1937,holds that she was Masencia; Urakawa Wasaburō is said to have followed it in 1943 (Unverified). Kataoka took Kuwahime to be Masencia, Sōrin's granddaughter, a nun who died in 1605 aged 18, an identification Miyamoto calls mistaken.
- Miyamoto had earlier suggested Blessed Magdalena Kiyota and later withdrew it.
What is there today
The Kuwahime-sha stands in the grounds of Fuchi Shrine, Nagasaki.
People connected
- Justa, daughter of Ōtomo Sōrin (Disputed as the woman honored).
- Masencia (Kataoka's identification, Disputed).
- The Shiga family of Fuchi.
What is uncertain
Where the sources disagree
- Disputed: who Kuwahime was: Justa (Miyamoto), Masencia (Kataoka), or Magdalena Kiyota (Miyamoto's earlier, withdrawn proposal).
- Unverified: the history of the stone and the Shiga family records rest on Miyamoto's blog alone.
- Unverified: that Urakawa Wasaburō repeated Kataoka's view in 1943. Neither Kataoka's 1937 work nor Urakawa's 1943 work has been opened.