Society of Jesus

The Church of St. Francis Xavier in New York City

• Founded: 1540
• Japanese: イエズス会 (Iezusu kai)

The Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuit order, was one of the chief arms of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in Europe, and one of the earliest and most prominent groups of Christian missionaries to be active in Japan.

Arrival and Early Successes

The first Jesuits to arrive in Japan included Francis Xavier, and arrived in Japan in 1549, a mere nine years after the founding of the order. They founded the first Jesuit mission in Japan in that year, in Satsuma province, before moving on to Hirado in 1550, and then to Nagato province (Chôshû), often proselytizing in the streets.

Though appalled by Japanese practices of sodomy and pederasty, and of course wholly disapproving of Buddhism and Shinto as "pagan" religions, the Jesuits for the most part, at least initially, held rather positive views of the Japanese. Jesuit Visitor (i.e. supervisor) Alessandro Valignano wrote of the Japanese as "white, courteous, and highly civilized," and wrote of their dignity, cleanliness, rationality, and a host of other positive traits.

The Jesuits took great pains to adapt to Japanese culture, including learning to sit in a Japanese style, to speak Japanese, and even to properly formally entertain guests with tea ceremony. They struggled to some extent with the Japanese custom of daily baths, due not only to European beliefs at the time associating bathing with the danger of illness, but also because of religious or cultural associations drawn between dirt and lice and the monastic vow of poverty.

The Jesuits gained allies relatively quickly among the daimyô and other prominent figures in Kyushu, including winning a number of converts among the Kyushu elite. They had difficulties, however, explaining the differences which separated their religion from Buddhism, with many potential converts confusing or conflating the Christian God and/or Jesus with Dainichi (Vairocana, the cosmic Buddha), and the Christian Heaven with the Buddhist Pure Land. Some Jesuit missionaries even wrote that the Devil himself "had deliberately fashioned Buddhism to resemble the true faith so as to confound and confuse the people."

Their first successful daimyô convert was Ômura Sumitada, in 1563; in 1580, he ceded the Society the port of Nagasaki, including the power of judicial authority within that space. Ôtomo Sôrin welcomed the Jesuits into his domain (Bungo province) as guests, and allowed them to establish a mission there in 1551 (along with a hospital in 1557), though he did not himself choose to be baptized until 1578.

A seminario, or Jesuit school for Japanese youths, was established at some point, and from the 1580s until 1614 a painting workshop operated on the grounds, training Japanese in European painting techniques, and producing artworks for the Christian churches and missions in Japan. In addition, a chapel was built in Kyoto in 1561, and came to be called by the Japanese Nanban-ji (lit. "Southern Barbarians Temple"). Missionaries continued their efforts even while suffering persecution, and with the protection of Oda Nobunaga, the number of their followers grew. In 1576, several hundred followers, with the support of the Kyoto shoshidai Murai Sadakatsu, had the old worship hall rebuilt, and on 7/16 held a mass to celebrate the completion of the new chapel. Nanban-ji was then renamed to also be known as St. Mary's Temple (珊太満利亜上人). However, in 1587/6, after completing his Invasion of Kyushu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued the first of his Christian Expulsion Edicts, and the oppression of Christians saw a big turn. Nanban-ji was destroyed, and never rebuilt.

Shifts, Decline, and Expulsion

Despite early successes, or perhaps because of them, from the 1580s on, the Jesuits began to face increasing suspicion and difficulties. Prominent figures such as Hideyoshi, and, later, Tokugawa Ieyasu, aware of Spain's colonization of the Philippines, and of the incredible numbers of Christian converts within Japan, and having only very recently united the warring provinces of Japan into a semblance of peace and order, became concerned that the missionaries' activities could lead to a return to serious instability, or even conquest and colonization. These concerns were encouraged further by Dutch and English representatives - Protestants whose home countries were embroiled in passionate religious wars with Catholic Spain & Portugal; meanwhile, the Franciscan Order arrived in Japan in 1592, and began proselytizing not to the elites, but to the common people, drawing concern from Hideyoshi, Ieyasu and the like that this might disrupt the social order.

The Jesuits and Franciscans clashed with one another, too, over their very different approaches, with the Franciscans considering the Jesuits pretentious for their associations with the elites, and the Jesuits ridiculing the Franciscans for their lack of education, poverty, and association with the lowest rungs of society.

Though the missionaries were expelled in the 1630s, and Christianity banned, many Japanese converts remained as so-called "hidden Christians" (kakure Kirishitan). At least one Jesuit is known to have snuck into Japan during this period of maritime restrictions: Giovanni Battista Sidotti entered Japan in 1708, was interrogated by Confucian scholar & chief shogunal advisor Arai Hakuseki, and was imprisoned, dying in his cell in 1714.

Once the ban on Christianity was lifted, in the Bakumatsu Period, the Jesuit order re-entered Japan, and retains a degree of presence today; Sophia University in Tokyo, founded in 1913 at the request of the Pope as the first Jesuit university in Japan, is generally regarded as among the top three private universities in the city.

Jesuits active in Japan

• Francis Xavier (1549-1551)
• Juan Fernández (1549-1567)
• Cosme de Torres (1549-1570)
• Luis Almeida (1550s-1560s)
• Gaspar Vilela (1557-1570)
• Luis Frois (1563-1597)
• Gnecchi-Soldo Organtino (1570-1609)
• Alessandro Valignano (1579-?)
• Gaspar Coelho (c. 1580s)
• Giovanni Niccolo (1583-?)
• Giovanni Battista Sidotti (1708-1714)

Jesuits active in China

• Matteo Ricci (1582-1610)
• Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1619-1666)
• Giuseppe Castiglione (1715-1766)

Notable Converts

• Kuroda Yoshitaka
• Naitô Joan
• Ômura Sumitada - became the first Christian daimyô in 1563
• Ôtomo Sôrin
• Takayama Ukon
• Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan (included three Japanese Jesuits, and 23 people of other denominations)

Documents and Sources

• Frois's History of Japan - written by missionary Luis Frois, and covering the period from 1549 until his death in 1597
• Jesuit Reports - a translation into Japanese of a number of Jesuit writings, including Cartas
• They Came to Japan - a variety of Jesuit writings on Japan, compiled and annotated by Michael Cooper