Lope de Vega and The Martyrs of Japan

Abstract

Lope de Vega's Los martires de Japon (The Martyrs of Japan), c. 1621, is the only extant comedia from the Spanish Golden Age that dramatizes the presence of Spanish missionaries during what is known today as the Japanese Century. This chapter introduces the reader to this little-known play, its major themes, and the historical context from which it sprouts. It briefly surveys the state of Japanese-Spanish relations at the turn of the 16th century as well as the circumstances under which Lope was commissioned to write the play. It then provides a critical synopsis of the comedia, focusing on Lope's imaginative merging of two disparate historical events: the martyrdom of the Dominican Friar Alonso Fernandez de Navarrete and the forced exile of Toyotomi Hideyori. The chapter also analyzes the performative aspects of the play, concentrating on the visual and linguistic representations of Japanese identity.Keywords: Christian Century; Japanese identity; Lope de Vega; Spanish missionaries