Paper short abstract:

An introduction to the Keihan Christian incident of 1827-29, its historical significance, the actors involved (both the accused and the prosecutors), the role of Ōshio Heihachirō, and the various categories of sources available.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will give an outline of the so-called Keihan (Kyoto-Osaka) Christian incident of 1827-29 and set the stage for the two other papers in this panel. I will sketch previous research, place the incident in the history of Christianity in the Edo period and discuss its significance as a popular focus of "Christianophobia" at a crucial historical juncture. I will describe some of the actors, both victims and persecutors, and finally introduce the main sources that contain information about this incident and its handling.

The incident involved a truly remarkable set of actors. The arrested "Christians" included not only the three men and three women who were ultimately condemned, but also many from their networks of contacts. These contacts ranged from court retainers, doctors, and licensed diviners to penniless widows and prostitutes. On the prosecuting side, the involvement of Ōshio Heihachirō raises the question of how his perspective may have shaped the course of the investigation.

The sources available to us are equally diverse. We have located and transcribed official documents from both the Osaka magistrate's offices and the central shogunal offices in Edo. These documents contain detailed testimonies given by the accused, allowing us to see what interested the authorities most in their investigation. They also reveal the concerns of the Hyōjōsho and the rōjū in Edo, which were not happy with the reports they received from Osaka. Other sources shed light on popular reactions to this spectacular case. In Osaka, an anonymous doctor wrote a detailed report on the matter as it unfolded, questioning neighbours, temple priests, and even prison wardens. After the verdict and the crucifixions, all kinds of rumours spread around the land; entries in zuihitsu collections give us some idea about what people made of it. Finally, after Ōshio's fall in 1837, his involvement with the Keihan incident inspired wild speculations, expressed in a genre of Ōshio Heihachirō monogatari. Some of the questions raised in this paper will be followed up by the other panelists.