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Paper short abstract:

The social systems of Japan and Spain during the early modern period were defined by the elimination of the Kirishitan and the expulsion of the Morisco. Despite being simultaneous, they have not yet been systematically viewed from a global point of view. I will reconsider their global significance.

Paper long abstract:

The social and political systems of Japan and Spain during the early modern period were defined by two simultaneous events: the elimination of the Kirishitan from the Japanese archipelago and the expulsion of the Morisco from the Iberian Peninsula. Rulers in Japan and Spain took similar measures that strengthened their states' national common identities before foreign threats.

The explanations given to justify these radical measures were based on rumours and black legends that displayed both Kirishitan and Morisco as rebels or enemies, and therefore subjected to legitimate violence by the state. The differences between both cases are most apparent in the way that each state viewed these minorities following the persecutions. In Japan, propaganda of the potential threat of the Kirishitan continued and escalated until the Meiji period, while in Spain, many protested at first and then tried to forget it as soon as possible. The divergent historical evolution of the states from the seventeenth century onward helps to explain these differences.

Despite the religious persecution of the Kirishitan and Morisco being simultaneous, they have not yet been systematically viewed from a global point of view. Relations between Portugal and Japan and between Spain and Japan, through the Phillippines and Mexico, were quite close at the time, and we cannot rule out that King Philip III of Spain served as a reference for the Tokugawa to implement their anti-Christian measures.

In any case, it is just not a temporal coincidence that religious minorities were wiped out in both Japan and Spain during this concrete period. This must be analysed from a global perspective of the intolerance and religious wars that extended during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this paper, I will reconsider the global significance of these events that happened at both tips of the Eurasian continent with the aim of closing the historical gap that separates the discourse around them.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper responds to lingering questions about Protestant Christianity's ability to influence society in imperial Japan. It investigates the unexamined importance of the urban and built spaces of Tokyo's largest, most popular Japanese Protestant churches in the religious movement's transformation.

Paper long abstract:

Protestant churches in imperial Japan fostered new, transformative forms of social discourse and activism that left an indelible mark on that country. This story has now achieved the status of scholarly consensus among historians. Yet Christianity's ability to impact a Japanese society so ideologically and institutionally opposed to the religion remains unexplained. Through a case study of Meiji- and Taishō-era Tokyo's largest and most popular Japanese Protestant churches, this research investigates the unexamined importance of physical space in the religious movement's metamorphosis. First, this paper applies the insights of scholars such as Augustin Berque, Sally Hastings, Philipp Brown, and Carola Hein to examine the ways in which Japan's first generation of Protestant pastors utilized urban space. They made conscious use of specific types of urban space in Tokyo to realize their conceptions about and ambitions for Christianity in the capital. They planned, built and rebuilt in areas abuzz with Japan's new educated elite, from the wealthy Reinanzaka neighborhood within blocks of the Imperial Diet to the bustling cafés and dormitories around the Imperial University in Hongō Ward. Second, the paper draws on the conclusions of Georg Simmel, Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault and others to investigate the relationship between the shape of Japanese Protestant church buildings and the minds and actions of the people within them. From the 1880s, the Japanese pastors and congregations imagined and realized church buildings that were more than simple American imports. The resulting sites were Japanese in conception, design, funding, construction, and use, but were also Western-style buildings that benefited from Christianity's special political status and from their associability with the West. These hybrid edifices evolved to possess distinct, eye-catching exteriors and attractive, multi-functional, interiors that could bring Japanese religious seekers together in new and meaningful ways. Using maps, photographs, architectural drawings, diaries, autobiographies, church bulletins, Christian periodicals, and other sources, this paper describes the evolution of Protestant urban and built space in Tokyo between 1880 and 1923. In doing so, it aims to bridge the divide between most Japanese historians and more spatially oriented disciplines in both the humanities and social sciences.

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Paper short abstract:

The proposed paper challenges the assumption that Christianity rapidly deteriorated after 1614, and stresses the importance of the Christian brotherhoods arguing that they allowed the Christian devotees to continue with their practices since the expulsion of the missionaries until around 1625.

Paper long abstract:

In 1614 the Japanese authorities put in practice an edict that commanded the exile of all missionaries and their assistants. After the expulsion, the authorities started to execute the missionaries and their companions who began to return to Japan in spite of the edict. In regard of the severity of this persecution, some aspects of the Japanese Christian culture after 1614 have been ignored in the field of Japanese History, such as the circulation of Christian works of art in Japan in that period.

The proposed paper challenges the assumption that the Christian community in Japan began to disintegrate rapidly after the expulsion of the missionaries in 1614. On the contrary, the Christian brotherhoods proved to be very effective in organizing and managing the needs of the Christian community until around 1625. For instance, the Christian brotherhood of the Assumption of Virgin Mary was divided and newly founded in 1622 into the brotherhoods of St. Francis Xavier and St. Ignatius of Loyola to commemorate their canonization.

The leaders of the brotherhoods enjoyed enough political influence to ensure a tolerant attitude from the Japanese authorities towards the members of their community. Therefore, these Christians could continue with their practices and rites as long as they did not perform them in public and they did not support or help any missionary. These leaders even managed to save several Christians right before their execution as several sources from the Jesuit reports assure.

Since the brotherhoods continued the labor initiated by the missionaries effectively, the religious orders competed for the control of these groups. The interests of each order began to overlap increasing the tension specially between Jesuits and Dominicans. This would lead to several conflicts that would eventually attract the attention of the curia in Rome. The situation deteriorated in 1622 when the Dominicans and Jesuits began to compete for the number of martyrs each order had in a series of executions performed during that summer.

The knowledge of the Christian brotherhoods is fundamental in order to understand the history of Christianity in Japan, especially after the expulsion of 1614.