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Jump to navigationJump to searchCreated page with "*''Other Names: Sawano Chûan'' Christovão Ferreira was a prominent member of the Portuguese Jesuit mission in Japan, but apostatized (swore off Christianity) in [[1..."
*''Other Names: Sawano Chûan''
Christovão Ferreira was a prominent member of the Portuguese [[Jesuit]] mission in Japan, but apostatized (swore off [[Christianity]]) in [[1635]], under torture from [[Tokugawa shogunate|shogunate]] officials. He then went on to marry a Japanese wife and, seemingly, lead a happy life as a member of Japanese society.
One Portuguese account claims that Ferreira was forced by the local village headman (''[[shoya|shôya]]'') to marry a Japanese woman, and that this woman had previously been married to a Chinese man who was later executed as a criminal. The account ends by saying that Ferreira and his Japanese wife do not get along well. It seems rather unlikely, however, that he would have been forced into marriage; this was by no means standard.
Ferreira did, however, learn [[Japanese language|Japanese]], take on the name Sawano Chûan, and find an official position as a religious inquisitor for the shogunate (''[[shumon aratame|shûmon no metsuke]]''). He married a Japanese woman (whether under the circumstances described in the Portuguese account or not is unclear), and had a son, Chûjirô, who is said to have been a skilled pilot, i.e. of ships.
{{stub}}
==References==
*Gary Leupp, ''Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900'', A&C Black (2003), 54.
[[Category:Foreigners]]
[[Category:Christians]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
Christovão Ferreira was a prominent member of the Portuguese [[Jesuit]] mission in Japan, but apostatized (swore off [[Christianity]]) in [[1635]], under torture from [[Tokugawa shogunate|shogunate]] officials. He then went on to marry a Japanese wife and, seemingly, lead a happy life as a member of Japanese society.
One Portuguese account claims that Ferreira was forced by the local village headman (''[[shoya|shôya]]'') to marry a Japanese woman, and that this woman had previously been married to a Chinese man who was later executed as a criminal. The account ends by saying that Ferreira and his Japanese wife do not get along well. It seems rather unlikely, however, that he would have been forced into marriage; this was by no means standard.
Ferreira did, however, learn [[Japanese language|Japanese]], take on the name Sawano Chûan, and find an official position as a religious inquisitor for the shogunate (''[[shumon aratame|shûmon no metsuke]]''). He married a Japanese woman (whether under the circumstances described in the Portuguese account or not is unclear), and had a son, Chûjirô, who is said to have been a skilled pilot, i.e. of ships.
{{stub}}
==References==
*Gary Leupp, ''Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900'', A&C Black (2003), 54.
[[Category:Foreigners]]
[[Category:Christians]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
