In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians by John Dougill

Author:John Dougill [John Dougill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Post-Apocalypse

(Amakusa Islands)

Local hero

It’s a short ferry ride to the Amakusa Islands from the port of Kuchinotsu on the Shimabara Peninsula. If it wasn’t for the ferry, you’d hardly notice the port town, yet it played a key role in the early encounters of East and West, as Portuguese ships moored here. It was here too that Alessandro Valignano first landed in Japan, on his visit in 1570. There’s a giant caricature of a Southern Barbarian opposite the ferry port: big, tall-nosed and ungainly, it exemplifies the mix of awe and bemusement that Japanese must have felt towards Westerners. The exotic clothing with its clashing colors and blooming pantaloons accentuates the strangeness. I posed next to the statue for a photo, seeing in the caricature one of my predecessors, but in a small maritime museum nearby I learned that I wasn’t a Southern Barbarian at all. I was a komoujin (red-haired person), which is how the Dutch and English were dubbed to distinguish them from the Iberians. Being a redhead myself, I could hardly take exception.

On the other side of the strait, at the ominous Oniike (Devil’s Pond), a statue of Shiro welcomes visitors to the Amakusa Islands. It’s indicative of his status as local hero, and the islands boast an Amakusa Shiro Memorial Hall, to which I headed with eager anticipation. It turned out to be a disappointment, designed primarily to deprive day-trippers of their money. It started out grandly enough with a room given over to the Renaissance, not so much, one felt, out of historical background but a desire to display cheap reproductions of Raphael and Michelangelo. In the next section, Oda Nobunaga stood in solidarity with Francis Xavier, a curious combination given that they never met. “These two men helped sway the torch of Christianity in Japan,” says the explanation unhelpfully. On the third floor, inexplicably, was a large meditation room with New Age music and uncomfortable beanbag chairs. But the biggest surprise was reserved for the end, where a statement proclaimed in large letters, “The Shima bara Uprising was the first time Japanese fought for equality and freedom,” before expansively including it in a roll call of honor alongside the French Revolution and the American Civil War. Visionary stuff, indeed.

For all the high-tech 3D displays there was virtually nothing about the leader of the uprising. Given the name of the exhibition, this was puzzling, to say the least: “Yes, a lot of people say that,” said the receptionist with a smile. Since she could offer little more, and since there was no expert on hand, I headed for the island capital of Hondo, where I’d arranged for a personal tour by Mr. Sato of the Association of Guides. Within minutes, I’d learned more than I had at the Memorial Hall. There were three different theories about Shiro’s birthplace, for instance, but the probability was that his father was a vassal of Konishi Yuki-naga, the Christian daimyo whose domain embraced the islands. When he died at the Battle of Sekigahara, many of his followers had become ronin (masterless samurai).

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