Naughty, Bold, and Blessed: Sixteenth-century Japanese Children's Voices Mediated in the Writings of Luís Fróis

Abstract

This article examines the emotional value of sixteenth-century Japanese children's voices in some of the writings of Jesuit missionary Luís Fróis. First, I discuss class and gender issues when poor Japanese boys are described as mocking the Jesuits during the first years of their mission in Japan. Next, I draw attention to Fróis's descriptions of the impact convert children had on their communities, including the reversal of generational power relations. I then explain the emotional value of Japanese boys' voices in Fróis's report about the twenty-six Christian martyrs who were executed in Nagasaki on February 5, 1597. I argue that Fróis used Japanese children's words, especially boys', to highlight to his European readership the impact Jesuit missionaries had at the levels of local households and communities. I moreover suggest that Fróis likened Japanese children to holy martyr children of the early Roman Catholic Church so that his European readership would empathize with Japanese Christian children. More than earlier Christian writers, however, Fróis added vivid details of Japanese boys' emotional expressions in an effort to move European readers towards more support for the Jesuit missionary enterprise overseas.