On The Study Of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Banning Christianity

During the 15 th and 16 th century,the Age of Exploration gradually connected the separated world.Eastern and western civilization began to collide violently.In 1549,Francis Xavier,a Jesuit missionary,introduced Christianity to Japan.After nearly 40 years,Christianity was spread widely in Japan due to reasonable propagate strategies,making missionary work boom into its heyday.Simultaneously,the power of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi rised abruptly,with the period of division and chaos ending.In the process of making Japan unify,Toyotomi Hideyoshi,the real ruler of Japan,also focused on the construction of the centralized ruling order.During the process of the Battle of Kyushu,Toyotomi changed his previous attitude towards Christianity and issued the ‘Edict expelling Jesuit missionaries' to dislodge Jesuit missionaries.There were complex entanglement of political,economic and cultural factors in this incident.It had also been affected by some special factors,thus causing some doubtful points.However,as a kind of historical appearance,what Toyotomi Hideyoshi had done is a historical choice in the face of the challenge of foreign civilization,based on the actual situation of Japanese society by Japan.Considering the historical background,I aim to show how missionary spread Christianity in Japan and the process of banning Christianity;analyze the direct reasons why Toyotomi issued the ‘Edict expelling Jesuit missionaries' and the deep-seated reasons for its decision to ban Christianity.At the same time,my thesis will also explore the comprehensive influence of the two historical factors----both heterogeneous civilizations collide and Unified centralization-----on the historical fact that Japan finally chooses to ban Christianity.