Beliefs and practices of lay Christians in early modern Japan

Since the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier (1506-1552) introduced Catholic Christianity to Japan in 1549, it remarkably developed in the country. At its peak in the early seventeenth century, it had more than three hundred seventy thousand baptized Japanese, who belonged to approximately two hundred churches. The Japanese called this new religious movement and its believers Kirishitan, a corruption of the Portuguese Christao. This study explores the beliefs and practices of the lay Kirishitans to explain how such a quick expansion of the Catholic movement was possible in early modern Japan.;This study argues that the religious flexibility on the part of the Japanese made the fast spread of Christianity possible, and Christianity, accepted in the way that responded to people's needs, became a powerful means for them to cope with their difficult realities of life in the early modern period.;Chapter One discusses aspects of Japanese religious culture when the Jesuits arrived. The Japanese had inherited the medieval syncretistic religious beliefs and practices, and new developments of popular religious practice were happening, including the settlement of popular preachers in villages, communal practice of religious rites, and emphasis on salvation in the afterlife. Chapter Two examines the beginning and development of the Jesuit mission in Japan. Due to their language and personnel limitations, Jesuits' approaches became accommodative to the Japanese settings so that the uniqueness of the Christian message and practice were not always clear. Chapter Three explores early Kirishitans. The followers' approach to new religious symbols, including holy water, the cross, and Kirishitan names, demonstrates that they often used them as substitutes of their previous religious symbols.;Chapter Four focuses on the published catechism Dochiriina Kirishitan (1592) and discusses its characteristics as compared with its original Portuguese text. Chapter Five examines the significance of the Kirishitan teachings in Japanese religious context by comparing them with Japanese popular edification found in the pastoral letters of Rennyo (1415-1499) of Pure Land Buddhism. Chapter Six interprets the Kirishitan ritual activities by referring not only to their textual explanation but also to the Japanese religious ethos of purification. Finally, Chapter Seven discusses the Kirishitan faiths and practices under persecution. It argues that more Kirishitans chose underground faith than martyrdom in order to maintain their faith, which was functioning as faith of family and village.