Japanese Kirishitan ban system

Timeline

1. 1587–1614Nishizaka hill, Nagasaki (martyrdom site) · KyushuIn 1587 Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued the Expulsion Edict of the Padre, first listing missionaries as targets of expulsion, though enforcement was lax. In 1597, 26 missionaries of the Jesuit and Franciscan orders and Japanese believers were crucified at Nishizaka in Nagasaki—the martyrdom of the 26 saints, the first large-scale martyrdom in Japanese Catholic history. Tokugawa Ieyasu issued a ban edict in shogunal domains in 1612; in 1614 Tokugawa Hidetada extended it nationwide, expelling about a hundred missionaries, formally bringing Christian propagation under state suppression.
2. 1622–1629Nishizaka, Nagasaki · KyushuOn September 10, 1622, 55 Christians were executed in a single day at Nishizaka in Nagasaki (25 burned, 30 beheaded)—the Genna Great Martyrdom (Genna no Daijunkyō), the largest single martyrdom event in Japanese history. In 1623 large-scale executions also occurred in Edo, and the intensity of nationwide repression rose sharply. All Spanish missionaries were expelled in 1624; in 1629 the shogunate began torturing detainees at Unzen by immersing them in boiling sulfur hot springs to force apostasy, a method that later became a systematic interrogation technique known as the 'Hell Boiling of Unzen.'
3. 1633–1638Shimabara Peninsula (Hara Castle ruins) · KyushuBetween 1633 and 1639 the shogunate issued five sakoku edicts, banning Japanese from going abroad and prohibiting Spanish and Portuguese ships from docking, shutting Catholicism out. The Shimabara Rebellion broke out in 1637–1638: some 37,000 peasants under harsh rule in the Shimabara domain of Hizen and surviving Christians rose up and held Hara Castle. The shogunate deployed over 100,000 troops to crush it, annihilating the rebels. Thereafter Christians effectively disappeared from public life in Japan, and the hidden 'Kakure Kirishitan' culture emerged.
4. 1640–1800Throughout Japan · JapanIn the shogunate's mature period the ban system became routinized and institutionalized. Each New Year residents everywhere had to trample an image of Christ or the Virgin Mary (fumie) to confirm non-Christian identity; anyone who refused was treated as a potential believer and pursued. The terauke system required all residents to register household records with their local Buddhist temple, with the abbot certifying they were not Christians; the goinin collective system forced neighbors to monitor and inform on each other. The ban system thus penetrated the grass roots of Japanese society and, together with sakoku, formed a key pillar of Tokugawa rule.
5. 1865–1873Ōura Church, Nagasaki · KyushuIn 1865, soon after the completion of the Ōura Church in Nagasaki, a group of descendants of Kakure Kirishitan openly professed their faith to French missionaries, astonishing the Western world in what is known as the 'Discovery' incident. The early Meiji government still repressed vigorously, forcibly exiling some 3,000 Christians from Urakami village to various places. Under diplomatic pressure from Western powers, the Meiji government removed the ban edict notice in 1873, formally ending the 260-year Kirishitan ban system and legalizing Catholic and Protestant missionary activity in Japan.