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IKITSUKI JOURNAL Once Banned, Christianity Withers in an Old Stronghold By JAMES BROOKE Published: December 25, 2003 Masafumi Yamamoto for The New York Times A paper scroll once hidden, now on display in Ikitsuki's museum Masafumi Yamamoto for The New York Times Three "hidden Christians" taking a walk in the Ichibu area. The community survived three centuries of bannings, burnings and beheadings. IKITSUKI, Japan — In 1865 a group of 15 Japanese peasants cautiously approached Bernard Petitjean, the first Christian missionary to work in Nagasaki since 1614. Speaking in the sanctuary of the new church, the peasant leader confessed, "Our...

Researchers unearth ancient Japanese bible translation OSAKA -- A 400-year-old Japanese translation of biblical literature has been found at a university in the old Polish city of Krakow, a researcher has told the Mainichi. Courtesy of Jagiellorian University. The Japanese translation is written below the Latin text. One of the oldest known translations of the bible in Japanese, several paragraphs were translated by a Japanese mission of boys that left the country in 1582 and arrived in Rome three years later to receive an audience by Pope Gregory XIII. "European countries that received the mission showed great interest and numerous...