ANTI-CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Jashumon raicho yurai denki ("A Tale of the Arrival of Heretical Faith"). An early 19th-century manuscript copy of Kirishitan shumon raicho jikki, a popular treatise on the attempted introduction of Christianity. After the religion was outlawed in the mid-17th century this story began to be secretly distributed among the populace, portraying priests as flying sorcerers intent on invading Japan and taking it for their own.The story opens in the land of Nanban (Portugal), where the king is discussing how they could invade Japan and take its resources. His advisors suggest that he send sorcerers to gather followers among the populace. One of the priests meets the warlord Oda Nobunaga and tricks him into building a temple, Nanbanji, where they begin to heal the sick and distribute money to the poor. They also show the Japanese their future lives reincarnated as animals, scaring them into abandoning Buddhism and believing in the Christian afterlife. However, they are defeated in a debate with a Buddhist monk in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's court and soon exiled.The earliest example of this manuscript has been dated to 1743 and the first printed version was released in 1868. This example was made by Shinsho Anrei in 1822. As per the colophon, he copied another example, dated 1776, which was itself copied from one held in the possession of Iizuka Shoben, dated 1773.

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