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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 [[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 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.

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 [[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 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.

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 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 in earnest 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 [[1630]].

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 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 in earnest 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]].

The nail in the coffin for missionary presence and activity in Japan was, arguably, a Christian [[Shimabara Rebellion|uprising at Shimabara]] in [[1637]]-[[1638]], in which tens of thousands of Christians rebelled against their lord; roughly 37,000 Christians were killed before the rebellion was over. The event was seen by the shogunate as evidence of the divided loyalties of Japanese Christians, and a spectre of rebellions, divisions, and instability which would continue if Christianity were not violently and powerfully suppressed.

The nail in the coffin for missionary presence and activity in Japan was, arguably, a Christian [[Shimabara Rebellion|uprising at Shimabara]] in [[1637]]-[[1638]], in which tens of thousands of Christians rebelled against their lord; roughly 37,000 Christians were killed before the rebellion was over. The event was seen by the shogunate as evidence of the divided loyalties of Japanese Christians, and a spectre of rebellions, divisions, and instability which would continue if Christianity were not violently and powerfully suppressed.