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The Christian martyrs of the 1622 Great Genna Martyrdom. 16th/17th-century Japanese painting. Persecution flared episodically and over a period of 15 years, between 1617 and 1632, 205 missionaries and native Christians are known to have been killed for their faith, 55 of them during the Great Genna Martyrdom, a further 50 during the Great ...
In 2022, there were 1.26 million Christians [1] in Japan, down from 1.9 million [2] Christians in Japan in 2019. [3] In the early years of the 21st century, between less than 1 percent [ 4 ] [ 5 ] and 1.5% [ 2 ] of the population claimed Christian belief or affiliation.
Illustration of ana-tsurushi. Martyrdom of Paul Miki and Companions in Nagasaki with hole hanging. Ana-tsurushi (穴吊るし, lit. "hole hanging"), also known simply as tsurushi (吊るし, lit. "hanging"), was a Japanese torture technique used in the 17th century to coerce Christians ("Kirishitan") to recant their faith. [1]
The number of active Christians is estimated to have been around 200,000 in 1582. [35] Christians attach a great theological importance to martyrdom, and in Japan, there were around 1,000 known martyrs during the missionary period. Countless others were dispossessed of their land and property, leading to their subsequent death in poverty.
Many Catholics went underground, becoming hidden Christians (隠れキリシタン, kakure kirishitan), while others lost their lives. Only after the Meiji Restoration, was Christianity re-established in Japan. The first group of martyrs, known as the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan (1597), were canonized by the Church in 1862 by Pope Pius IX.
St. Francisco Blanco. In the aftermath of the San Felipe incident of 1596, [4] 26 Catholics – four Spaniards, one Mexican, one Portuguese from India (all of whom were Franciscan missionaries), three Japanese Jesuits, and 17 Japanese members of the Third Order of St. Francis, including three young boys who served as altar boys for the missionary priests – were arrested, on the orders of ...
Kakure Kirishitan (Japanese: 隠れキリシタン, lit. 'hidden Christians') is a modern term for a member of the Catholic Church in Japan who went underground at the start of the Edo period in the early 17th century (lifted in 1873) due to Christianity's repression by the Tokugawa shogunate (April 1638). [1] [2] [3]
In September 2009, then chairman Martin Lessenthin, [123] issued a report estimating that 80% of acts of religious persecution around the world were aimed at Christians at that time. [124] [125] According to the World Evangelical Alliance, over 200 million Christians are denied fundamental human rights solely because of their faith. [126]