Photos: Japan’s ‘Hidden Christians’ fear for religion’s fate
Updated On Nov 18, 2019 04:23 PM IST
In Japan, the Hidden Christians have garnered fresh attention ahead of Pope Francis's visit on Nov. 23-26, with domestic media and a French broadcaster heading to Nagasaki to report on them. Last year, 12 Hidden Christian-related locations were designated UNESCO World Heritage sites. When Japan's ban on Christianity was lifted in 1873, some Hidden Christians joined the Catholic Church; others opted to maintain what they saw as the true faith of their ancestors.
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Masaichi Kawasaki, 69, a descendent of ‘Hidden Christians’, crosses himself as he chants ‘orasho’ in front of an altar adorned with a statue of the Virgin Mary during a ceremony to mark the eve of the birth of the Virgin Mary at his home on Ikitsuki Island, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. He is one of a dwindling number of Japan’s “Kakure Kirishitan,” or “Hidden Christians,” descendants of those who preserved their faith in secret during centuries of persecution. (Issei Kato / REUTERS)
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The Hidden Christians have garnered fresh attention ahead of Pope Francis’s visit to Japan on Nov. 23-26, with domestic media and a French broadcaster heading to Nagasaki to report on them. Last year, 12 Hidden Christian-related locations were designated UNESCO World Heritage sites. But their religion may be on the verge of extinction as youth leave rural areas, where the faith has persisted. (Issei Kato / REUTERS)
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Kawasaki eats breakfast with his fellow fishermen at a port on Ikitsuki Island. “I worry that what my ancestors worked hard to preserve will disappear, but that is the trend of the times,” said Kawasaki, who prays each evening at home before the altar, flanked by others devoted to Buddhist and Shinto gods. “I have a son but I don’t expect him to carry on,” he added. “To think this will disappear is sad, without a doubt.” (Issei Kato / REUTERS)
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Jesuits brought Christianity to Japan in 1549, but it was banned in 1614. Missionaries were expelled and the faithful were forced to choose between martyrdom or hiding their religion. Many joined Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines to disguise their beliefs, and some rites such as confession and communion, which require a priest, disappeared. Other rituals blended with Buddhist practices such as ancestor worship or indigenous Shinto ceremonies. (Issei Kato / REUTERS)
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Participants offer prayers at Karematsu Shrine during an ecumenical service. When Japan’s ban on Christianity was lifted in 1873, some Hidden Christians joined the Catholic Church; others opted to maintain what they saw as the true faith of their ancestors. “They didn’t want to destroy the faith they had preserved all along despite suppression,” said Shigenori Murakami, the seventh-generation head of a group of Hidden Christians. (Issei Kato / REUTERS)
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Murakami, 69, took over as “chokata,” or leader, of his local believers group after his father died 14 years ago. He spent three years learning the orasho from books based on crumbling 18th century scrolls that he still owns. Pope Francis is expected to speak of Hidden Christians when he visits a martyrs’ monument on Nishizaka Hill in Nagasaki, southwest Japan, where 26 Christians were executed in 1597. (Issei Kato / REUTERS)
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A cross on a peak where Gaspar Nishi, a local official and Japanese Catholic, was executed with his wife and son in 1609. “I think there is a high likelihood that pope will send a message about the Hidden Christians,” whom he has mentioned in the past, Kagefumi Ueno said. (Issei Kato / REUTERS)
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On Ikitsuki Island in southwest Japan, where Kawasaki lives, the chants are traditionally spoken and sung. But in Sotome, believers prayed silently for fear of being exposed. Murakami’s father began chanting aloud about 40 years ago at the request of fellow Hidden Christians. “In my grandfather’s day, there were several hundred,” Murakami said. “But young people are not interested. They are turning away from religion generally.” (Issei Kato / REUTERS)
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A statue of Virgin Mary is seen on a gravestone. Exact numbers of Hidden Christians are hard to come by, but no one disputes their ranks are shrinking. Only around 1% of Japan’s population is Christian. Shigeo Nakazono, curator at a museum on Ikitsuki Island, said there were probably about 300 believers in four groups there, down from 2,000 in 20 groups three decades ago. (Issei Kato / REUTERS)
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“The future is tough,” said Nakazono, noting that youth were leaving the island, where the mainstay fishing industry is in decline. A lack of formal leadership to help adapt to changing society is another obstacle to the Hidden Christians’ survival, Nakazono said.”The old ways are preserved and there is no mechanism to change them in line with social change,” he said. (Issei Kato / REUTERS)
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