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*''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.
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 [[shudo|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.<ref>Conrad Schirokauer, David Lurie, and Suzanne Gay, ''A Brief History of Japanese Civilization'', Wadsworth Cengage (2013), 123.</ref>
The Jesuits took great pains to adapt to Japanese culture, including learning to sit in a Japanese style, to speak [[Japanese language|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 [[Jodo-shu|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."<ref>Schirokauer, et al., 122.</ref>
Their first successful ''daimyô'' convert was [[Omura Sumitada|Ômura Sumitada]], in [[1563]]; in [[1580]], he ceded the Society the port of [[Nagasaki]], including the power of judicial authority within that space. [[Otomo Sorin|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.<ref>Plaques on-site at the former site of Nanban-ji, in Kyoto.</ref>
Though the missionaries were expelled in the 1630s, and Christianity banned, many Japanese converts remained as so-called "[[hidden Christians]]" (''kakure Kirishitan''). In addition, a very small number of Jesuit priests did manage to enter Japan; [[Giovanni Battista Sidotti]], for example, met with shogunate advisor & Confucian scholar [[Arai Hakuseki]] in [[1708]].
Once the ban on Christianity was lifted, in the [[Bakumatsu Period]], the Jesuit order re-entered Japan, and retains a significant presence today; [[Sophia University]] in Tokyo, a Jesuit institution founded in 1913, is generally regarded as among the top three private universities in the city.
{{stub}}
==Jesuits active in Japan==
*[[Luis Almeida]]
*[[Gaspar Coelho]]
*[[Cosme de Torres]]
*[[Juan Fernandez|Juan Fernández]]
*[[Luis Frois]]
*[[Giovanni Niccolo]]
*[[Gnecchi-Soldo Organtino]]
*[[Giovanni Battista Sidotti]]
*[[Alessandro Valignano]]
*[[Gaspar Vilela]]
*[[Francis Xavier]]
===Jesuits active in China===
*[[Giuseppe Castiglione]]
*[[Matteo Ricci]]
*[[Johann Adam Schall von Bell]]
==Notable Converts==
*[[Kuroda Yoshitaka]]
*[[Naito Joan|Naitô Joan]]
*[[Omura Sumitada|Ômura Sumitada]] - became the first Christian ''daimyô'' in [[1563]]
*[[Otomo Sorin|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]]
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Christians]]
[[Category:Foreigners]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Sengoku Period]]
[[Category:Groups]]
*''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.
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 [[shudo|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.<ref>Conrad Schirokauer, David Lurie, and Suzanne Gay, ''A Brief History of Japanese Civilization'', Wadsworth Cengage (2013), 123.</ref>
The Jesuits took great pains to adapt to Japanese culture, including learning to sit in a Japanese style, to speak [[Japanese language|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 [[Jodo-shu|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."<ref>Schirokauer, et al., 122.</ref>
Their first successful ''daimyô'' convert was [[Omura Sumitada|Ômura Sumitada]], in [[1563]]; in [[1580]], he ceded the Society the port of [[Nagasaki]], including the power of judicial authority within that space. [[Otomo Sorin|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.<ref>Plaques on-site at the former site of Nanban-ji, in Kyoto.</ref>
Though the missionaries were expelled in the 1630s, and Christianity banned, many Japanese converts remained as so-called "[[hidden Christians]]" (''kakure Kirishitan''). In addition, a very small number of Jesuit priests did manage to enter Japan; [[Giovanni Battista Sidotti]], for example, met with shogunate advisor & Confucian scholar [[Arai Hakuseki]] in [[1708]].
Once the ban on Christianity was lifted, in the [[Bakumatsu Period]], the Jesuit order re-entered Japan, and retains a significant presence today; [[Sophia University]] in Tokyo, a Jesuit institution founded in 1913, is generally regarded as among the top three private universities in the city.
{{stub}}
==Jesuits active in Japan==
*[[Luis Almeida]]
*[[Gaspar Coelho]]
*[[Cosme de Torres]]
*[[Juan Fernandez|Juan Fernández]]
*[[Luis Frois]]
*[[Giovanni Niccolo]]
*[[Gnecchi-Soldo Organtino]]
*[[Giovanni Battista Sidotti]]
*[[Alessandro Valignano]]
*[[Gaspar Vilela]]
*[[Francis Xavier]]
===Jesuits active in China===
*[[Giuseppe Castiglione]]
*[[Matteo Ricci]]
*[[Johann Adam Schall von Bell]]
==Notable Converts==
*[[Kuroda Yoshitaka]]
*[[Naito Joan|Naitô Joan]]
*[[Omura Sumitada|Ômura Sumitada]] - became the first Christian ''daimyô'' in [[1563]]
*[[Otomo Sorin|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]]
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Christians]]
[[Category:Foreigners]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Sengoku Period]]
[[Category:Groups]]
