Secrecy and the transmission of tradition: Issues in the study of the “underground” Christians

Abstract

D uring the seventeenth century as many as 150,000 for the most part poorly catechized and ill-prepared Japanese Christians went “underground” in response to persecution by the Tokugawa state.1 The story of these people and their successors— the so-called kakure Kirishitan (hidden Christians)—forms a colorful and oft-told part of the early history of Christianity in Japan.2 Perhaps as much as two per­ cent of the Japanese population had embraced the Christian faith by 1614，the year the religion was proscribed by the Tokugawa govern­ ment. Thousands of believers were martyred in the various persecu­ tions that preceded and followed this order, from the time that twentysix clergy and laypeople were crucified in Nagasaki in 1597 until the final closing of Japan in 1639.3 During the waning years of the Tokugawa period，“after seven generations and more than two-and-a* The author wishes to thank Professor Miyazaki Ken taro for his extremely helpful com­ ments on an earlier draft of this article.