Changes

Concerns were raised that according to Christian doctrine, loyalty to God and to the Pope superseded loyalty to one's lord, to the shogun, or even to the Emperor of Japan, and that further, according to Christian teachings, even figures such as the [[Sage Kings]] of Yao and Shun, revered as the ideal Confucian rulers, would be doomed to hell for their pagan beliefs and actions. The perceived threat was thus not only one to political stability, but a threat to the basic social structure.<ref>Schirokauer, 127.</ref>

Concerns were raised that according to Christian doctrine, loyalty to God and to the Pope superseded loyalty to one's lord, to the shogun, or even to the Emperor of Japan, and that further, according to Christian teachings, even figures such as the [[Sage Kings]] of Yao and Shun, revered as the ideal Confucian rulers, would be doomed to hell for their pagan beliefs and actions. The perceived threat was thus not only one to political stability, but a threat to the basic social structure.<ref>Schirokauer, 127.</ref>

These concerns were encouraged further by [[Dutch East India Company|Dutch]] and [[English East India Company|English]] representatives - Protestants whose home countries were embroiled in passionate religious wars with Catholic Spain & Portugal. Meanwhile, the [[Franciscan Order]] arrived in Japan in [[1594]], 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 had rather different approaches, and held hostile attitudes towards one another, 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. Political/economic competition between the Portuguese and Spanish active in Japan also contributed to Japanese concerns about factionalism and instability. The [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] and [[Augustinian Order]]s then arrived in [[1602]], creating additional competition for the Jesuits. In [[1608]], these various orders succeeded in getting a reversal of the papal bull which granted the Jesuits exclusive rights to proselytize in Japan; from 1608 onward, these other orders were no longer officially forbidden by the Papacy from engaging in missionary activities in Japan.<ref>Haruko Nawata Ward, ''Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century'', Ashgate (2009), 6-7.</ref>

These concerns were encouraged further by [[Dutch East India Company|Dutch]] and [[English East India Company|English]] representatives - Protestants whose home countries were embroiled in passionate religious wars with Catholic Spain & Portugal. Meanwhile, the [[Franciscan Order]] arrived in Japan in [[1594]], 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 had rather different approaches, and held hostile attitudes towards one another, 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. Political/economic competition between the Portuguese and Spanish active in Japan also contributed to Japanese concerns about factionalism and instability. The [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] and [[Augustinian Order]]s then arrived in [[1602]], creating additional competition for the Jesuits. In [[1608]], these various orders succeeded in getting a reversal of the papal bull which granted the Jesuits exclusive rights to proselytize in Japan; from 1608 onward, these other orders were no longer officially forbidden by the Papacy from engaging in missionary activities in Japan. Even so, none of these groups ever commanded nearly as many converts as the Jesuits; by around [[1612]], the Jesuits claimed some 600,000 Kirishitans in their following, while the other orders each claimed only around 13-14,000.<ref>Haruko Nawata Ward, ''Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century'', Ashgate (2009), 6-7.</ref>

Disturbed by these various factional clashes, European arrogance, and the threat of violence or colonization, Hideyoshi, and later Ieyasu, gradually turned against the Christians. By the end of the 1630s, more than 3000 Japanese, and nearly 70 Europeans killed in Japan, would be formally recognized as martyrs by the Vatican, though of course many more killed for their faith were not recognized in this fashion. One particularly well-known and commemorated set of martyrs are the so-called "[[Twenty-Six Martyrs of Nagasaki]]," a combination of European missionaries and Japanese converts, killed at the orders of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in [[1597]]; according to some accounts, the boasting of the Spanish captain of their ship, the ''[[San Felipe]]'', as to the great power of the Spanish king, and/or boasting that the missionaries were a sort of vanguard for an invasion of Japan,<ref>Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 32.</ref> was a key factor in Hideyoshi ordering this done. The Tokugawa outlawed Christianity in [[1606]], and began to expel missionaries from [[tenryo|shogunate territory]] in earnest in [[1612]],<ref>Akamine Mamoru, Lina Terrell (trans.), Robert Huey (ed.), ''The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia'', University of Hawaii Press (2017), 65.</ref> and from the entire realm in 1614. There were perhaps around 150 European missionaries active in Japan at that time, though the number of Japanese faithful was far greater.<ref>Madalena Ribeiro, “The Japanese Diaspora in the Seventeenth Century, According to Jesuit Sources,” ''Bulletin of Portuguese/Japanese Studies'' 3 (2001), 57.</ref> The Spanish were expelled entirely in [[1624]], and Japanese were forbidden from going overseas (or returning from overseas) in [[1633]].

Disturbed by these various factional clashes, European arrogance, and the threat of violence or colonization, Hideyoshi, and later Ieyasu, gradually turned against the Christians. By the end of the 1630s, more than 3000 Japanese, and nearly 70 Europeans killed in Japan, would be formally recognized as martyrs by the Vatican, though of course many more killed for their faith were not recognized in this fashion. One particularly well-known and commemorated set of martyrs are the so-called "[[Twenty-Six Martyrs of Nagasaki]]," a combination of European missionaries and Japanese converts, killed at the orders of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in [[1597]]; according to some accounts, the boasting of the Spanish captain of their ship, the ''[[San Felipe]]'', as to the great power of the Spanish king, and/or boasting that the missionaries were a sort of vanguard for an invasion of Japan,<ref>Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 32.</ref> was a key factor in Hideyoshi ordering this done. The Tokugawa outlawed Christianity in [[1606]], and began to expel missionaries from [[tenryo|shogunate territory]] in earnest in [[1612]],<ref>Akamine Mamoru, Lina Terrell (trans.), Robert Huey (ed.), ''The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia'', University of Hawaii Press (2017), 65.</ref> and from the entire realm in 1614. There were perhaps around 150 European missionaries active in Japan at that time, though the number of Japanese faithful was far greater.<ref>Madalena Ribeiro, “The Japanese Diaspora in the Seventeenth Century, According to Jesuit Sources,” ''Bulletin of Portuguese/Japanese Studies'' 3 (2001), 57.</ref> The Spanish were expelled entirely in [[1624]], and Japanese were forbidden from going overseas (or returning from overseas) in [[1633]].