Paper short abstract:

The Jesuit mission in Japan was founded in 1549 and continued until the 1620s when government persecution eradicated the Christian church in the country. Among the priests working on the mission was João Rodrigues who was appointed to collect material for the compilation of a history of the mission.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyzes the work of the Jesuit João Rodrigues Tsûzu from the unusual perspective as a Mission historian's and as a chronicler of the Japan's Christian century (1550-1650). It is a research that primarily attempts to re-establish the Portuguese author as the only creator of his writings, often attributed to its homonymous Rodrigues Giram; secondly, to study in dept some of his written documents not well known until now. The main intention is to shed light on a still unpublished manuscript that was part of the ambitious project of the Portuguese interpreter titled História da Igreja do Japão, a work transcribed and translated only partially. Therefore, it is necessary to rescue the third book or Livro terceiro da História of Rodrigues Tsûzu História's, as a document that provides new information and a different perspective on the first attempt to Christianize Japan by the Spanish saint Francis Xavier between years 1549 and 1552.