Posted on 01/23/2016 4:15:49 PM PST by marshmallow
Vatican City, Jan 23, 2016 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The martyrdom of a 16th-century Samurai who died for his Catholic faith was approved this week by Pope Francis, making the Japanese warrior one among nine other causes that advanced toward sainthood.
Takayama Ukon was born in 1552 in Japan during the time when Jesuit missionaries were becoming introduced within the country. By the time Takayama was 12, his father had converted to Catholicism and had his son baptized as "Justo" by the Jesuit Fr. Gaspare di Lella.
Takayama's position in Japanese society as daimyo allowed him many benefits, such as owning grand estates and raising vast armies. As a Catholic, Takayama used his power to support and protect the short-lived missionary expansion within Japan, influencing the conversion of thousands of Japanese.
When a time of persecution set in within the country under the reign of Japan's chancellor Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1587, many newly-converted Catholics abandoned their beliefs.
Instead of denying their faith, Takayama and his father left their prestigious position in society and chose a life of poverty and exile. Although many of his friends tried to persuade Takayama to deny Catholicism, he remained strong in his beliefs.
Takayama "did not want to fight against other Christians, and this led him to live a poor life, because when a samurai does not obey his 'chief,' he loses everything he has," Fr. Anton Witwer, a general postulator of the Society of Jesus, told CNA in 2014.
Ten years passed, and the chancellor became more fierce in his persecution against Christians. He eventually crucified 26 Catholics, and by 1614, Christianity in Japan was completely banned.
The new boycott on Christianity forced Takayama to leave Japan in exile with 300 other Catholics. They fled to the Philippines, but not long after his......
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
Very striking, very noble.
Strange fact: The % of Christians in Japan is now less than it was during the Tokugawa Era..!
Other: In 1945 one of the highest concentrations of Christians in Japan was NAGASAKI, of all places..!
If he wasn’t a saint at death, like every Christian who has entrusted themselves to the Gospel of Grace, he won’t become one now.
***
When the first missionaries landed in Japan in 1549, Tintoretto was 31, living in Venice, and finishing a collection of paintings concerning St. Mark. In Kyoto, the Imperial capital of Japan, there was a 27-year-old man who was learning tea ceremony. He was destined to be known as Sen Rikyu, and is considered the originator of tea ceremony in its modern form. He became the tea master for the two rulers of his time, first Oda Nobunaga, and later Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He also taught tea ceremony to many people, seven of whom became known as his disciples. Of those seven, four were Buddhist, but three--Oda Yuraku (nephew of the ruler Oda Nobunaga), Gamo Ujisato, and Takayama Ukon--were Christian. (Also, one of the Buddhists, Hosokawa Tadaoki, had a Christian wife named Gracia, who was the basis for "Mariko" in the novel Shogun, who, like "Mariko" didn't engage in adultery, but who like "Mariko," died in Osaka Castle rather than be taken hostage by a rival clan.) As a result, when one experiences a tea ceremony, one can notice aspects that seem like they came from the eucharist, or communion service.
In 1587, however, the first of a series of persecutions of Christians occurred. Takayama Ukon had been baptized in 1564 at the age of 12, and wherever he had gone in his life--and he had ruled over four different places throughout western and southern Japan--he had evangelized the area and converted many people to Christianity. Even though he had also been loyal to his superiors, in 1587 they removed him from his fiefdom as part of the first persecution, and he was forced to go way up Japan's western coast to Kanazawa, where he was given sanctuary in 1588 by the Maeda rulers there. For the next 26 years, he practiced tea ceremony, and was instrumental in establishing Kanazawa as a wealthy and protected town of culture--because it was the one place in Japan where gold could be mined.
Finally, in 1614, the new shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, decided to choose one unifying religion for the country, and he chose Buddhism. All the European missionaries were exiled, tens of thousands of peasants who refused to deny Christ were slaughtered, and the remaining Christian samurai, including Takayama Ukon, were given a choice: deny Christ, leave Japan for the Philippines, or die. The man of tea, who had accepted the death of Christ for his sake, refused to allow others to die for him, though the Maeda clan was ready to start a civil war to protect him.
Takayama left Kanazawa, along with 300 other Christians, and travelled to Manila. The Spanish Christians in the Philippines wanted to organize an armed invasion of Japan to re-institute Christianity, but again Takayama refused: he understood, more than many Christians, that accepting Christ doesn't happen at the point of a samurai sword, but at the point of the two-edged sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. In any case, he died only 40 days after arriving in Manila.
For the next 250 years, the few Christians left in Japan who survived the shogun's policies went underground, so much so that they became known as kakure (hidden) Christians. When Japan finally opened up to the world in the mid 1800s, Catholic missionaries coming to Japan were greeted with open arms by these Christians, and were astounded to discover that, despite horrific persecution, these people had transmitted their faith through 13 generations.
I have been to Kanazawa twice, both times in 2005. The first time was in July, when my son was in a summer study program at Kanazawa Institute of Technology, where he was the representative from Rose-Hulman; it was hot and humid the whole time. The second time was in late November of the same year, when on a tea ceremony trip I was able to take a few days to go back. It was cold and rainy, and the week after I left it began to snow--but for one day it was dry, and the red maples were beautiful. The area is still known for its gold and for its tea ceremony--and while it is famous for a "ninja" Buddhist temple and a Shinto shrine that looks like a German train station, there are more churches in Kanazawa than there are in most Japanese cities. (cf. here)
And one other place I went to. In Kyoto, at the massive Daitoku-ji complex of Buddhist temples is one dedicated to a Christian, a man who had befriended Francis Xavier during his year in Japan, 1550. The temple is the Zuiho-in, and the Christian was Otomo Sorin, known as the "seven-province daimyo" because of the size of his fiefdom at its height. Otomo died in 1587, just missing the government's persecution, but in his temple there are two rock gardens. One has the rocks shaped as a cross, and the other has rocks shaped like Christ preaching his Sermon on the Mount, with the disciples around him and the people following. (cfd. here)
Everywhere, even in the worst of persecution, even at the other end of the world, God is always spreading His gospel of salvation, and the message is always there to those who will listen. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
P.S. When I get to heaven, I want to see Jesus and lay my crowns, such as they may be, at His feet. Then I want to see my parents again. After Jesus and my parents, I want to meet Takayama Ukon. Perhaps, if there is matcha, the powdered green tea of the tea ceremony, or some equivalent in heaven, we can share that tea, in a teabowl of gold purer than the gold of Kanazawa, as clear as glass. It says in Scripture that there are no more tears in heaven, but I think I would break down into sobbing--tears of joy. Just knowing it will be, my eyes well up as I type this.
***
To all who have read this, thank you. Here is another statue of Takayama Ukon, which has been my Facebook avatar for quite some time.
Fascinating.
Yup. And due to bad fortune, Nagasaki was an alternate site bombed because the primary site had bad weather. And, the target aim was off, and the bomb went off in a valley primarily inhabited by most Christians in Japan (as well as a prisoner of war camp with westerners in it). Wiped out many of the Christians in Japan. Mistakes happen.
What a lovely article. Thank you for posting your personal experiences. BTW, I have seen depictions in Japanese historical films of Japanese Christians in samurai times suffering persecutions, with the martyrs being treated with respect by the film makers.
You are correct, I don’t understand how people don’t see it. It’s in the bible in plain english.
I’m a saint. Praise be to God.
I do find stories of the samurai pretty interesting though, as I do like a lot of history.
Partly due to the limited operations the Dutch were allowed to have a presence with the ships trading only in that prefecture for a number of years. The Jesuits came back and operated there as well which led to the region having a higher % of christians then other prefectures.
There is an excellent book called “Silence” by a Japanese author, Shusaku Endo. The translation is a fairly easy/quick read. It tells of the persecutions of the time fairly accurately.
Too bad he died for a different faith than Bergoglio’s.
You keep repeating this, as though you think you're teaching us poor stupid Papists something we don't already know.
The truth is, every Catholic already knows this, so your post is simply repeating an obvious truth.
What is under discussion here is the formal recognition, by the church, of this fact in this particular person's case, and the prospect of setting him up as an example of heroic discipleship. That's the topic. Try to stay on it.
“What is under discussion here is the formal recognition, by the church, of this fact in this particular person’s case, and the prospect of setting him up as an example of heroic discipleship. That’s the topic. Try to stay on it. “
Sorry Campion. Many, many Catholics believe the Church mints saints - a separate class of believers.
It is false. Yet this process promotes that view. So no, “every Catholic already knows this” is false.
Nor is it Biblically valid that a single miracle is required. It is false.
Every single believer in Christ is a saint.
They are saints, not because they did a single miracle. None required. Not because they went to extraordinary lengths in service or self-immolation.
On open threads, I will post the truth.
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