I had about 2.5 h before I left our hotel in Nagasaki. It was not much time but I decided to visit Oura church and jumped on a street car. It was drizzling and I had hard time finding the place after getting off the street car. By the way, fare for the street car in Nagasaki is only 100yen which is about 80 cents for any destination. It comes quite often like every 5-7 minutes, very useful for wandering around.
The Oura church was up on the hill. Stone paved slope gave me an impression of foreign country as Nagasaki had lots of influence from Dutch and other Western culture. On both sides, there are souvenir shops selling famouse Nagasaki "Castella" (not sure about spelling, but it is a sweet sponge cake. Very eggy and honey....yummy!), glass wares, etc.. Then I looked up towards top of the hill, there it was solemnly on top of the steps, a white beautiful church even in the misty weather. This is the oldest wooden Catholic Church. I just learned it is the only Western building designated Japan's national treasure. It was build in 1864 by French, for foreign people who lives in Nagasaki. Japan ended its national isolation but Christianity was still banned in Japan.
What amazed me is the fact there were Japanese who had been Christian for prohibited 250 years without any priests nor churches nor any statues to pray to! In 1865 still under Christianity was prohibited, a group of peasants came to a priest of this church and whispered they were Christian! Way back the time in 1596 under Shogun Hideyoshi, 26 Christians had executed as a warning to others. This Gothic style church is dedicated to those people facing towards the place in Nagasaki where they were executed. and its official name is "The Church of the 26 Martyrs", People call "Oura Tenshudo" in Japanese.
Finding the hidden Christian was not the end of the story. Those hidden Christians had struggled for a long time until Japanese government finally allowed in 1873. Even after Edo period, under the new government, Christians were tortured and forced to convert to Buddhism. Many died but most of them did not convert. I am not a Christian, but I am moved for those people who have such a strong faith on what they believe. After all, I think what makes people live is a hope for what they believe.
2 comments:
Were they forced to convert to Buddhism? I thought it was Shintoism.
Interesting story though! I agree that a person's faith is very important and no religion should ever force anyone to convert. I am not Christian either, but I respect their conviction. I'm glad you had time to see the church.
At that time, Buddhism is the national religion. Shintoism existed, but Buddhism is the one the government want people to believe. Yes, they were forced but many of them did not convert.
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