Paper short abstract:

The Keihan Christian incident as a window into Tokugawa investigative and judicial procedures, the government's stance toward heterodox religious groups, and the operation of the temple registry system in late Edo urban centers.

Paper long abstract:

Accounts of the Keihan Christian incident convey a vivid picture of the varying backgrounds and motivations of a group of people involved in religious activities deemed subversive. But the accounts offer more as well. Because we know of these people and their activities from the record of their testimony while under investigation, the accounts also provide a window into the government's investigative and judicial procedures. The investigation of the Keihan Christian group extended beyond the jurisdictional authority of the Osaka Town Magistrate, which brought the group to light, and because the case involved capital crimes, it was referred to and deliberated by the highest shogunal councils. Nevertheless, it did not come under the direct investigative purview of the office most immediately involved with religious matters, the Temple and Shrine Magistrate. Perhaps in part for this reason, the investigating officials concerned themselves primarily with objective issues: the group's network of contacts; the nature of the activities, including magical practices, in which its members engaged; and how they obtained and transmitted forbidden objects and books. The officials showed little interest in more intangible questions, such as the group's beliefs or doctrines, a circumstance that contrasts with records of religious investigations elsewhere, including those conducted by the Inquisition in Europe, or other Edo-period inquiries into the activities of unrecognized religious groups.

The incident also shines light on the functioning or not of the various controls that the shogunate relied upon to thwart the emergence and spread of heterodox beliefs and practices. Among other things, the testimony suggests that the temple registry system could be quite formalistic and porous as a means of keeping the large urban floating population of the late Edo period under surveillance. On the other hand, in the incident's aftermath, the temples with which the members of the group were individually affiliated were held accountable for failing to keep proper track of their parishioners. In these ways the incident, while a dramatic outlier in many regards, also illuminates fundamental features of Tokugawa religious administration.